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edited by Gim ffisivogfu with Qav>it A. soadi 



the iegenps agree 

An jwesome project! A collection of facls. Figuies. 
and trivia From Hie Golden and Silver Ages of superhero 
comics, A must fin iomk Historians and fans of ill 
stripes!" 

—Dick Giordano, lenowned inker and illustrator, 
and Former DC Comics Editorial director 

"his is a book IVe been siting tat— an easy to use 

Hid entertaining reference hoot filled with comic boob' 
greatest characters," 

— J#ny DrjWy, ndaimni comicbmk prnrilrr. 
inker, *rid writer 

"Tfrr Sapnttf/a fk»i will be fan !o brows* ilirpmjh, 
theclrir^ out entries St random— It* ttujt reader-Fririid 
iy. But I rhlnV ii will haw a ™™ wrioin use m * villi- 
M* rrlcnMicf •voir for srfullrs ond anyinw rise grti. 
ulnely interfiled in pneulvH niitmr." 

-Onnli ffnVIL awWrntd com it- book 
writer and «lii™ 

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UttnrducH. lln- huni|rti|i ol swnb-tMKjk hnrOrt, tltM ItM 
fKiOplpd the myUiLilOgy crl'ihr twnliMh tentuly. An 
im|iart.iiil .liiihtknn lu jny llJflTSiy,* 

—Will Etanei, creator of the Spkril 

"A wonderful book with the BANt PCUe 1 enthusiasm 
Wat ultimately helps to explain the Lasting appeal of 
lilt world of superheroes. This book will be treasured by 
anyone who digs a good supeineto comic hook as much 
as 1 ■'.•!. 

—Michael Allied, creator of Haaman, Tin Atomks, 
Red Socket 7, and X-Ststa 

Finally, a quick reference for a Jtepwify game show or 
a smart remark at a comit-book lonventiop — Who 
would not want to know wbir.ii superberoine had an 
invisible airplane? Or if Wolverine can pass security on 
U.S. airlines? Seriously. Fne Auperf**™ Bock is interest- 
ing for comparing ancient mythology with tlie new at\i 
a liandy reference For artists and writers in aeating new 
characters and using tie old,' 

—Marie Sewrin, Fifty-year veteran of the 
comic-boot industry 




c/lfooficm 1/i&i6fo <Jnk pie&s 



Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places 

The UFO Book: 

Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial 

The Vampire Book: 

The Encyclopedia of the Undead, 2nd edition 

The Werewolf Book: 

The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings 

VideoHound's Cult Flicks and Trash Pics, 2nd edition 

VideoHound's Dragon: 
Asian Action & Cult Flicks 

VideoHound's Groovy Movies: 
Far-out Films of the Psychedelic Era 

VideoHound's Horror Show: 

999 Hair-Raising, Hellish, and Humorous Movies 

VideoHound's Sci-Fi Experience: 

Your Quantum Guide to the Video Universe 



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the 



Gtwenhent 



The Ultimate Encyclopedia of 
Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes 



Edited by Gina Misiroglu 



with David A. Roach 




Detroit 



The Ultimate Encyclopedia of 
Comic-Book Icons and 
Hollywood Heroes 



Copyright 2004 by Visible Ink Press® 

All illustrations are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders (according to the original copy- 
right or publication date as printed in the comics) and are reproduced strictly for historical purposes. 
Any omission or incorrect information should be submitted to the publisher, so that it can be correct- 
ed in any future edition of this book. 

All DC Comics characters, logos, and related indicia are trademarks of DC Comics, Inc. 

All Marvel comic book characters and Marvel comic book material featured herein: TM & © 2004 Mar- 
vel Characters, Inc. SUPER HERO is a co-owned trademark. All such material is used with permission. 

Comic-book cover credits, clockwise from upper left: Aquaman #36 © 1967 DC Comics; X-Men #104 
© 1977 Marvel Comics; Hellboy#l ™ & © 1994 Michael Mignola, published by Dark Horse Comics, 
Inc.; Captain America #106 © 1968 Marvel Comics; Elektra #3 © 2001 Marvel Comics; The Savage 
Dragon #4 © 1993 Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics; Wolverine #27 © 1990 Marvel Comics; 
Wonder Woman #22 © 1988 DC Comics; Astro Boy#l © 2002 Tezuka Productions, published by 
Dark Horse Comics, Inc.; Spawn #126 © 2003 Todd McFarlane, published by Image Comics; Silver 
Surfer #124 © 1997 Marvel Comics; The Adventures of Superman #441 © 1988 DC Comics; Adven- 
ture Comics #432 © 1974 DC Comics; The Avengers #51 © 1968 Marvel Comics. 

Additional image credits: The Hulk: Universal/Marvel Entertainment/The Kobal Collection; Batman: 
Warner Bros./DC Comics/The Kobal Collection; Spider-Man (front cover): from Amazing Spider-Man 
vol. 2, #46 © 2002 Marvel Comics; Spider-Man (spine): Columbia/Marvel/The Kobal Collection; 
Wolverine (back cover): 20th Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment Group/The Kobal Collection/ Attila 
Dory. 

Additional illustration credits appear on the Photo and Illustration Credits page. 

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propriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applicable laws. 

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Contend 



Introduction xi Acknowledgments xviii Contributors x/x 




AC Comics Heroes 1 

/ Action Girl 2 

| _£ Adam Strange 3 

African-American Heroes 4 

Alpha Flight 9 

Alternative Futures 11 

America's Best Comics Heroes 15 

Anime and Manga IS 

Ant-Man 23 

Anti-drug Series 24 

Anti-heroes 26 

Aquaman 30 

Aquatic Heroes 31 

Archie Heroes 34 

Astro Boy 36 

Astro City 38 

The Atom 40 

Atomic Heroes 41 

The Authority 43 

The Avengers 45 

Azrael 48 

Bad Girl Art 51 

The Badger 51 

Bartman 53 

Batgirl 54 

Batman 56 

Batman in the Media 61 

Batman Villains 68 

Batman's Weapons and Gadgets 70 

Battle of the Planets 72 




Big Bang Heroes 74 

Bird Heroes 75 

Birds of Prey 78 

Black Canary 79 

The Black Cat I 80 

The Black Cat II 82 

Black Condor 83 

Black Panther 84 

Black Widow 86 

Blackhawk 87 

Blonde Phantom 90 

Blue Beetle 92 

Bronze Age of Superheroes 

(1970-1979) 93 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 96 

Bulletman 99 

•<r-' Mar Camp and Comedy 

7 L C Heroes 101 

■^Vv/vV^ Camp Heroes in the 

^^ Media 107 

Captain Action 110 

Captain America Ill 

Captain America in the Media 114 

Captain Atom 116 

Captain Britain 119 

Captain Canuck 121 

Captain Marvel 122 

Captain Marvel Jr. 124 

Captain Marvel/Shazam! 125 



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Contents 




Captain Marvel/Shazam! in the Media ...128 

Captain Midnight 131 

Card Captor Sakura 132 

Casshan: Robot Hunter 134 

The Cat 135 

Cat Heroes 137 

Cat-Man 139 

Catwoman 140 

Challengers of the Unknown 142 

Charlton Heroes 143 

Civilian Heroes 145 

Cobra 147 

Comics Code 151 

The Creeper 152 

Cutey Bunny 154 

Cutey Honey 155 

Cyberforce 157 

Daredevil I 159 

'_£ Daredevil II 161 

Daredevil in the Media 165 

Dark Horse Heroes 167 

Dazzler 170 

DC Comics 171 

Deadman 176 

The Defenders 177 

"Dial 'H' for Hero" 179 

Doc Savage 180 

Doctor Strange 182 

Do-It- Yourself Heroes 184 

Doll Man 185 

Doom Patrol 187 

Dr. Fate 188 

Dragon Ball 189 

/ Eclipse Heroes 193 

— ' ElectraWoman and 

^"V\^~ DynaGirl 194 

X Elektra 195 

Elementals 197 

Elongated Man 198 

E-Man 199 

Everyday Heroes 200 

Extreme Studios Heroes 202 

Fa ntastic Fou r 205 

/ S \ Fantastic Four in the Media. .208 
*^T^^ Femforce 210 





Feminism 212 

Fighting American 215 

Fi restorm 216 

The Flash 218 

Funny Animal Heroes 221 

Gen 13 225 

f» / Ghost Rider 227 

Golden Age of Superheroes 

(1938-1954) 228 

Good Girl Art 233 

The Greatest American Hero .234 

Green Arrow 236 

Green Hornet 237 

Green Lantern 239 

Guardians of the Galaxy 241 

Hanna-Barbera Heroes 245 

9 Harvey Heroes 247 

The Hawk and the Dove 250 

Hawkeye 251 

Hawkman 252 

Hellboy 254 

Heroes for Hire 256 

The Hulk 257 

The Hulk in the Media 263 

The Human Torch 267 

The Huntress 270 

Hurricane Poly mar 271 

Image Comics Heroes 273 

The Inferior Five 276 

The Inhumans 277 

Insect Heroes 278 

International Heroes 281 

The Invaders 284 

Iron Fist 286 

Iron Man 288 

Isis 290 

Justice League of 

America 293 

' \ Justice League of America 

in the Media 295 

Justice Society of America ...298 





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Krypton ite 303 




Lane, Lois 305 

/ Legion of Super-Heroes 307 

^ Lobo 310 

Love I nterests 313 

Madara 321 

Madman 322 

| ^ Mai, the Psychic Girl 324 

The Man from Atlantis 326 

Manhunter 326 

Manimal 328 

Martian Manhunter 328 

Marvel Boy 330 

Marvel Comics 331 

Mary Marvel 336 

The Mask 337 

Master of Kung Fu 338 

Metal Men 340 

Metamorpho 341 

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 343 

Milestone Heroes 344 

Miracleman 346 

Miss Fury 348 

Modern Age of Superheroes 

(1980-Present) 349 

Moon Knight 353 

Ms. Marvel 354 

Multicultural ism 355 

f^W-r The New Gods 361 

V , ,/T Nick Fury 363 

2-A A The Night Man 365 

T^ Nightwing 365 

* Northstar 367 

Nova 369 

Olsen, Jimmy 371 

One-Hit Wonders 372 

The Outsiders 374 




The Phantom 377 

* The Phantom in 

^ the Media 379 

Phantom Lady 380 

Phantom Stranger 382 

Plastic Man 383 

Power Man 386 

Power Pack 389 

The Powerpuff Girls 390 

Project A-ko 391 

Promethea 394 

The Punisher 395 

^S-*^-p Rising Stars 399 

> r j > Robin 400 

A-iyvA Robotman 403 

"^^ Rock Superheroes 404 

The Rocketeer 406 

Ronin Warriors 408 

Sailor Moon 411 

2_^ S. Sandman 413 

^^Y^^ The Savage Dragon 415 

^ The Scarlet Witch 

and Quicksilver 416 

The Secret Identity 418 

The Sentry 419 

The Shadow 420 

ShadowHawk 423 

The She-Hulk 424 

Shi 425 

Sidekicks and Proteges 427 

Silver Age of Superheroes 

(1956-1969) 430 

The Silver Surfer 435 

Space Ghost 437 

Space Heroes 439 

Spacehawk 442 

Spawn 443 

The Spectre 446 

Speed Racer 447 

Spider-Man 449 

Spider-Man in the Media 455 

Spider-Man Villains 460 

Spider-Woman 464 

The Spirit 466 

Starman 469 

Static Shock 471 

Steel 472 



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Contents 



Stripperella 473 

Sub-Mariner 474 

Super Friends 477 

Super-archers 479 

Superboy 481 

Superboy in the Media 483 

Supercities 485 

Supergirl 488 

Superhero Cartoon Shows 490 

Superhero Confidants 494 

Superhero Creators 497 

Superhero Headquarters 505 

Superhero Movie Serials 508 

Superhero Nicknames 509 

Superhero Radio Series 511 

Superhero Role-Playing Games 512 

Superhero Slogans 515 

Superhero Vulnerabilities 516 

Superheroes and Celebrities 519 

Superheroes and the Popular Culture 520 

Superheroes in Prose 525 

Superheroes with Disabilities 528 

Superheroines 531 

Superman 538 

Superman in the Media 543 

Superman Villains 549 

Superman's Weapons and Gadgets 552 

Supermedia 553 

Supernatural Heroes 554 

Su perpatri ots 558 

Superpets 561 

Superpowers 562 

Superteams 566 

Supervehicles 571 

Supervillains 573 

Superweapons 580 

Tank Girl 583 

> Team-ups and Crossovers ....584 

Teen Titans 590 

Teenage Mutant Ninja 

Turtles 593 




Tekkaman 595 

Thor 597 

TH.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 600 

The Tick 602 

Ultraman 605 

Ultraverse Heroes 608 




—T^^y Valiant Heroes 611 

) 7> Vertigo Heroes 613 

^V. A The Vigilante 615 

The Wasp 617 

Watchmen 618 

'_£ Watson, Mary Jane 620 

WildC.A.T.S 622 

WildStorm Heroes 623 

Wolverine 624 

Wonder Warthog 626 

Wonder Woman 627 

Wonder Woman in the Media 632 

World War II and the Superhero 636 

A. X-Men 641 

■^^^7 X-Men: Excalibur 645 

y j^ > X-Men: Generation X 647 

^Vvlp X-Men: New Mutants 650 

X X-Men: X-Force/X-Statix 652 

X-Men in the Media 654 

X-Men Villains 657 



Resources 661 Photo and Illustration Credits 665 



Index 667 




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9HttcductJCH' 



"LEAPING OVER SKYSCRAPERS, RUNNING FASTER THAN AN 
EXPRESS TRAIN, SPRINGING GREAT PISTANCES ANP HEIGHTS, 
LIFTING ANP SMASHING TREMENPOUS WEIGHTS, POSSESSING 
AN IMPENETRABLE SKIN—THESE ARE THE AMAZING ATTRIBUTES 
WHICH SUPERMAN, SAVIOR OF THE HELPLESS ANP OPPRESSEP, 
AVAILS HIMSELF OF AS HE BATTLES THE FORCES OP EVIL ANP 
INJUSTICE." 

—SUPERMAN, ACTION COMICS, 1939 



Superhuman strength. Virtual invulnerability. Motivated to defend the 
world from evildoers. A secret identity. And a penchant for looking 
good in long underwear. These are the traits that define the quintessen- 
tial superhero: those characters whose impossible feats graced the 
pages of comic books during comics' Golden and Silver Ages. They are 
Batman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Superman, Won- 
der Woman, and dozens of others — with names like Ant-Man, Daredevil, 
Hawkman, the Human Torch, the Spectre, the Spirit, and Sub-Mariner — 
whose death-defying acts and altruistic motives have come to character- 
ize heroism for generations of fans. 

Though these characters repeatedly saved planet Earth from the 
well-laid plans of supervillains, larger-than-life aliens, and Nazi infiltrators, 
by the mid-twentieth century, heroes had evolved from the Ail-American 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*r 



Introduction 



boy fantasy to multidimensional characters that clearly reflected the 
dreams and fears of modern society. By the end of the twentieth century, 
the real world had become a darker place, necessitating a new kind of 
hero. Popular heroes of yesteryear were reinvented to meet the demands 
of a new age. The popular culture witnessed the rise of the anti-hero, a 
fresh breed of brazen, gritty adventurer that includes the likes of Elektra, 
the Punisher, and Wolverine. Heroes that aren't typically defined as 
super — Buffy, Hellboy, Sandman, and Spawn — became associated with 
the word because they possessed superhuman qualities and identified 
with their audience in unique ways. 

At this time, too, the superhero's presence in mass media became 
stronger than ever, with the Batman and Superman live-action film fran- 
chises of the 1980s preparing audiences for the entree of superhero 
films like Spider-Man 1 and 2 and two X-Men adventures, which consis- 
tently made worldwide top-grossing films lists. Mega-merchandising 
machines like the Ninja Turtles and the Powerpuff Girls enjoyed previously 
unheard-of success, helping to round out a burgeoning market filled with 
independents like the spunky neo-feminist Action Girl, anime favorite 
Sailor Moon, and even Cutey Bunny, the world's first African-American rab- 
bit superheroine. Characters continued to show up on consumer products 
as varied as hair barrettes and lunchboxes, and they began to make new 
inroads into the videogame, trading-card, and book markets. One well- 
known hero even starred in his own "got milk?" ad campaign. 

But who exactly are these mask-wearing, cape-donning men and 
women? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Secret identities? 
Who are their arch-enemies? When and where did the characters first 
appear and how have they changed through the years? The Superhero 
Book — the ultimate A-Z compendium of everyone's favorite superheroes 
and their mythology, sidekicks, villains, love interests, superpowers, vul- 
nerabilities, and modus operandi — attempts to answer these questions 
and more as it explores many of pop culture's favorite icons. Within its 
pages lie almost 300 entries on superheroes mainstream and counter- 
culture, famous and forgotten, best and worst — including classics like 
Green Lantern and Plastic Man, cult favorites like the Rocketeer and Mad- 
man, and timeless entities like the X-Men. You'll be reminded why you 
love them (who wouldn't want to fly like Superman for just one day?), why 
they were chosen to save the world ("We shall call you Captain America, 
son! Because like you — America shall gain the strength and will to safe- 
guard our shores"), what they do for their day jobs (world traveler Oliver 
Queen ... Hollywood star and America's sweetheart Linda Turner ... bil- 



& 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Introduction 



lionaire playboy Bruce Wayne ... college student and freelance photogra- 
pher Peter Parker), and their very human faux pas (as the Flash, he could 
outrun the wind, but as alter ego Barry Allen he was hard-pressed to show 
up for a date on time!). 

Because this encyclopedia is as much a reference on modern 
mythology as it is a chronicling of the superhero genre in America, the 
book discusses the cultural phenomenon of each character and its vari- 
ous incarnations in the popular culture. "In the Media" entries supple- 
ment many of the more commercial heroes' write-ups. Themed topics for 
discussion include African-American heroes, alternative futures, anime 
and manga, atomic heroes, camp and comedy heroes, civilian heroes, 
feminism, funny animal heroes, multiculturalism, one-hit wonders, side- 
kicks and proteges, superheroes with disabilities, superheroines, super- 
natural heroes, superpatriots, team-ups and crossovers, and World War II 
and the superhero in America. Each significant era of the superhero is 
explored — the Golden Age (1938-1954), the Silver Age (1956-1969), 
the Bronze Age (1970-1979), and the Modern Age (1980-present) — pro- 
viding the reader with a perspective of the hero over the twentieth century 
and beyond. And creators, comic-book companies, and merchandising 
efforts all take their rightful place in the history of hero-making. 

Why do all this? The bottom line is, we need our heroes. Psycholo- 
gist Carl Jung (Man and His Symbols, 1964) and myth-maker Joseph 
Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949) both explored society's 
need for heroes, though many prefer the edited version. Upon gazing at 
Batman and Robin approaching Gotham City in their Batcopter in Batman: 
The Movie (1966), Ordinary Joe said it best when he declared, "It gives a 
fella a good feeling to know they're up there doing their job." In a world 
not quite right, heroes provide a solution. Though scholars have long 
noted that superheroes fulfill our longing to honor the heroes of legend 
and myth, it really goes beyond that. They satisfy our "inner hero." Super- 
heroes embody "the ancient longing of mankind for a mighty protector, a 
helper, guide or guardian angel who offers miraculous deliverance to mor- 
tals," observed Reinhold Reitberger and Wolfgang Fuchs in their Comics: 
Anatomy of a Mass Medium (1972). Frank Miller, artist extraordinaire of 
Daredevil, put it a bit differently when he said, "It's very comforting to 
know that there's a god-like figure going around making things right. 
That's a lot of what superheroes are about." 

That's not all the outspoken Miller has had to say. Regarding the 
prospects for the superhero genre's health into the new millennium, 



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*ty 



Introduction 



Miller told the Village Voice in 2002, "The president talks incessantly 
about evil. I don't think melodrama is dead." Indeed, in the era of action- 
movie heroes winning governorships and military missions against oppo- 
nents with designations like "Dr. Germ," comics have struck a chord 
again — even if nowadays they deal with gray skepticism about govern- 
ment motives as often as they deal in black-and-white portrayals of heroic 
firepower. Comics have emerged from an industrywide sales slump since 
September 11, 2001. Even though they were generating notice in presti- 
gious quarters before then — with a Pulitzer Prize for Michael Chabon's 
novel about the comic-book medium's pioneers, The Amazing Adventures 
of Kavaller & Clay (2000), for example — the current cultural currency of 
blockbuster superhero films and widely covered events like Miller's Dark 
Knight Strikes Again series show that the costumed variety of comic book 
still has a lot to tell America about the state of its soul. 

Noted cartoonist Jules Feiffer once said that if superheroes joined 
the more numerous supervillains, they would fill the skies like locusts. 
This truism prompts a note about selecting the superheroes, particularly 
those created in the first half of the twentieth century: Out of the tens of 
thousands of comic books that make up the Golden and Silver Ages, hun- 
dreds of them contain costumed heroes. Even following the strictest cri- 
teria of a superhero or superheroine — he or she wears a costume/mask 
and has special powers and/or a secret identity — a complete listing of 
every hero would be prohibitive. Therefore, the table of contents reflects 
the most diverse listing of American superheroes (or those from other 
countries that have had a U.S. presence) possible — those that are 
among the best loved, historically significant, or most representative of a 
type of hero. 

Generally speaking, most heroes follow what Robert C. Harvey in his 
Art of the Comic Book (1996) calls "the superhero formula" as estab- 
lished by Superman in his Action Comics debut in 1938. He or she has an 
altruistic mission, possesses superpowers or advanced mental or physi- 
cal skills, wears an iconic costume, and functions within a dual identity, 
the "civilian" one of which is concealed. Following these criteria, The 
Superhero Book naturally eliminates entries for one-off or obscure charac- 
ters, as well as those that would more precisely be defined as cowboys, 
magicians, detectives, spacemen, or jungle men, though some thematic 
entries do touch on these character types. In addition, the characters of 
Japanese manga and anime don't follow the rigid conventions of the early 
American superheroes, though readers may be surprised to find more 
similarities than are typically acknowledged. 



18* 



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Introduction 



The ground gets muddier for the later heroes, those of the Bronze 
and Modern Ages, since they break away from the "strict criteria" that 
can easily be applied to the earlier heroes. Here, some artistic license 
has been applied to their selection. May of these later protagonists pos- 
sess qualities customarily considered nonheroic, or "anti-heroic," their 
motivations for superheroic acts being not always selfless or clear. To fur- 
ther broaden the definition, they may not always wear a costume, pos- 
sess superpowers, or function in the real world with a civilian identity, yet 
the popular culture considers them heroes primarily because there is a 
strong heroic identity associated with the character. Rather than argue 
whether certain borderline characters fit the mold, the book chooses to 
include them and lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions. 

These qualifiers aside, the goal of The Superhero Book is straight- 
forward: to pay homage to the heroes who have, in whatever minor or 
major way, influenced our lives. 

— Gina Misiroglu, Los Angeles, 2004 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



«, 



jfcJmcwfodgttimti 



The list of people who made this book possible is too long to reproduce 
here. Regardless, I am indebted to every person who contributed 
words of wisdom, research time, comic books, and sheer encouragement 
at various points in this endeavor. A thank-you of superheroic proportions 
is due to Peter Coogan, Jon Cooke, Robert Graff, Michael Gross, Robert 
Huffman, George Khoury, Denis Kitchen, John Morrow, and Randall W. 
Scott. Contributing writers Michael Eury, Andy Mangels, Mike Martin, Adam 
McGovern, Marc McKenzie, Frank Plowright, and David A. Roach tirelessly 
and cheerfully penned entries into the wee hours of the night. Many of 
these kind souls provided images as well, or directed me to art sources 
that otherwise would have remained untouchable. And Adam McGovern 
did double-duty as the book's copyeditor, playing an invaluable production 
role and certainly helping the book's readability. Jeff Mayse dipped into his 
coveted comics collections for me, and ComicSmash!, my friendly neigh- 
borhood comic-book store (www.comicsmash.com), helped put the finish- 
ing touches on the book's image requirements. Comic-book companies, 
including AC Comics, Dark Horse, and Image, were models of professional- 
ism and patience. An extra-special thanks goes to my team at Visible Ink 
Press, without whom this encyclopedic volume simply would not have 
been: dream-of-a-publisher Martin Connors, super-managing editor Christa 
Gainor, preproduction guru Bob Huffman, art director Mary Claire Krzewin- 
ski, salesman extraordinaire Roger Janecke, typesetter Jake Di Vita, index- 
er Brad Morgan (and his superteam, Jim Craddock, T. J. Craddock, and 
Dee Morgan), and proofreaders Dawn DesJardins, Jennifer Moore, and 
Terri Schell. I cannot say enough kind words about this publishing house 
and its creative team. 



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Xty 



CcnVUfait&tt 



Editor 

Gina Misiroglu (GM) is a fourteen-year veteran of the West Coast publish- 
ing industry, specializing in the development and editing of popular culture, 
biography, and film-related titles. Misiroglu is the author of The Handy Poli- 
tics Answer Book (2002); Girls Like Us: 40 Extraordinary Women Celebrate 
Girlhood in Story, Poetry, and Song (1999), winner of the New York Public 
Library's "Best Book for Teens" Award; and Imagine: The Spirit of Twentieth- 
Century American Heroes (1999). Misiroglu has worked on a number of 
film and TV tie-in titles, and she is the co-author of Space Jammin': Bugs 
and Michael Hit the Big Screen (1997). Misiroglu resides in Los Angeles, 
where superheroes can be spied on almost every street corner. 



Co-Editor 

David Roach (DAR) is a comic-book illustrator and writer based in Wales, 
United Kingdom. In addition to his post as associate editor of the U.S.- 
based magazine Comic Book Artist, which is dedicated to the historic rep- 
resentation of comic-book characters, Roach actively illustrates for sever- 
al UK companies, including 2000 AD, Panini, and Marvel. In the United 
States, he has drawn and inked heroes for DC Comics, Dark Horse 
Comics, Topps, and the gaming company Wizards of the Coast. Roach is 
co-editor of The Warren Companion: The Definitive Compendium to the 
Great Comics of Warren Publishing (2001) and the revised edition of the 
Slings and Arrows Comic Guide (2003). He is a regular contributor to 
Comic Book Artist and Comics International. 



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** 



Contributors 



Contributing Writers 

Guided into a life of superhero fandom by his heroic idol Adam "Batman" 
West, Michael Eury (ME) has co-created and/or written comics and car- 
toon properties for Nike, Toys R Us, Warner Bros. Worldwide Publishing, 
the Microsoft Network, the "First Flight" Centennial, DC Comics, Marvel 
Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Archie Comics, and Cracked magazine. A for- 
mer editor for DC and Dark Horse, Eury edited the ambitious, award-win- 
ning loose-leaf encyclopedia Who's Who in the DC Universe, and he is cur- 
rently editing and co-writing the bimonthly comic-book magazine Back 
Issue. Eury has authored two published books, Captain Action: The Origi- 
nal Super-Hero Action Figure (2002) and Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, 
One Day at a Time (2003), and writes hero histories for the packages of 
Bowen Designs' Marvel Comics mini-busts. 

Andy Mangels (AM) is a best-selling author and co-author of more 
than a dozen books, including Star Trek and Roswell novels, and the 
books Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Guide (2003) and Star Wars: The 
Essential Guide to Characters (1995). He is an award-winning comic-book 
anthology editor and has written comics for almost two decades. He has 
also written thousands of articles for entertainment and lifestyle maga- 
zines and newspapers in the United States, England, and Italy, mostly 
about film and television. A national award-winning activist in the gay 
community, Mangels lives in Portland, Oregon, with his partner, Don, and 
their dog, Bela. His favorite superheroes are Wonder Woman, Aquaman, 
Green Arrow, Hawkman, and the Teen Titans. 

Michael A. Martin (MAM)'s obsession with comics began more than 
three decades ago at a spinner-rack in Santa Claus Lane, California. Years 
after this origin tale, Martin schlepped the funnies to the direct-sales mar- 
ket, first for Marvel Comics and later for Dark Horse Comics. In 1996, he 
began collaborating with Andy Mangels on scripts for Marvel's Star Trek: 
Deep Space 9 comics. That same year, Martin's solo original short fiction 
began appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has co- 
authored (also with Mangels) several Star Trek novels and shorter pieces 
of Star Trek fiction for Pocket Books, as well as a trio of novels based on 
the late, lamented Roswell television series. He has written for Star Trek 
Monthly, Atlas Editions, Dreamwatch, Grolier Books, WildStorm, Platinum 
Studios, Gobshite Quarterly, and Gareth Stevens, Inc., for whom he has 
penned six World Almanac Library of the States nonfiction books. 

Writing about action heroes wasn't Adam McGovern (AMC)'s 

choice; being named after one himself (Detective Adam Flint from the 



1* 



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Contributors 



classic police drama Naked City), it was his destiny. Since then he's ful- 
filled it by writing about comic books, cartoons, and other popular culture 
for such outlets as the Village Voice, Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, TotalTV 
Online, Comic Book Artist, and The Jack Kirby Collector, among many oth- 
ers. He also edited MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide for 
Visible Ink Press in 2000. Corporate copywriting and nonprofit arts con- 
sulting help support his comic-book habit and prolong what was already a 
somewhat enduring adolescence. 

A longtime comic-book fan, Marc McKenzie (MM) became interest- 
ed in Japanese animation after watching Robotech in the late 1980s. At 
the same time, the first English translations of Japanese manga were 
starting to appear in America, and McKenzie quickly took an interest in 
such titles as Masaomi Kanzaki's Heavy Metal Warrior Xenon, Kazuya 
Kudo and Ryoichi Ikegami's Mai, the Psychic Girl, Kaoru Shintani's Area 
88, Yoshihisa Tagami's Grey, and Masamune Shirow's Appleseed. After 
earning a degree in biology from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, New 
Jersey, he went on to study computer animation at the Art Institute of 
Philadelphia. Now a freelance artist, McKenzie resides in Hillsborough, 
New Jersey. Related to anime and manga, he has written for the websites 
the Slush Factory and Silver Bullet Comic Books, and he has created art- 
work for the 2003 Otakon anime convention. 

Frank Plowright (FP) is best known to the comics community as co- 
organizer of the United Kingdom's longest-running comic convention, 
UKCAC. An established freelance writer, Plowright is editor of the revised 
edition of the Slings and Arrows Comic Guide (2003), which reviews more 
than 5,000 comic-book series from the 1930s to the present. 



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AC Comics Heroes 

Along with Pacific, First, and Eclipse Comics, AC 
Comics was a pioneer of the independent direct 
market for color comics in the early 1980s, distrib- 
uting comics directly to a new network of specialty 
shops. While the other three companies are long 
gone and many indie publishers are now known for 
steering clear of superheroes, preferring not to com- 
pete with industry giants Marvel and DC Comics' 
specialty, AC Comics publisher Bill Black built his 
company on costumed characters and it prospers 
to this day. Having already created an interwoven 
universe of supertypes in his black-and-white 
Paragon Publications line of the 1970s, Black 
began bringing them to comic-shop shelves in full 
color, starting with the very first official AC Comics 
publication (or "Americomics" as the company was 
called until 1984), Fun Comics #4. 

Superstrong, invulnerable, and puzzled as to 
where he came from, Captain Paragon (who would 
eventually drop the military modifier from his name) 
burst forth from that issue in red, white, and blue 
glory, as did the sensuous sorceress Nightfall 
(almost immediately changed to Nightveil), the 
dimension-hopping yellow-and-green adventurer 
Commando D, and the stellar-powered alien super- 



heroine Stardust. These heroes would continue for 
dozens of epic adventures. 

Throughout 1983 and 1984, a plethora of cos- 
tumed crime fighters were sent into the spotlight in 
a superhero tryout title called Americomics. The 
dark and ghostly avenger known as the Shade 
appeared in the pages of Americomics #1, along 
with the unique cloned multi-hero Captain Freedom, 
quickly followed by the indomitable street fighter 
known as the Scarlet Scorpion. Others appeared in 
additional titles, including galaxy-roamer Bolt (Bolt & 
Starforce Six #1), who demonstrates the power of 
flight, near-invulnerability (including the ability to 
exist in airless space), and the skill of firing tremen- 
dously powerful bolts of pure energy, and Astron 
and Astra (Astron Venture Comics #1), members of 
a group of para-dimensional police officers. In addi- 
tion to Black's original characters, selected creators 
were encouraged to showcase their own concepts, 
including Jerry Ordway, John Beatty, and Jim 
Sanders II. These outside contributions met with 
varying degrees of success, although Rik Levins' 
Dragonfly and Don Secrease's Colt enjoyed long 
and popular runs at AC. 

Changing market conditions toward the end of 
1984 led to using a short-term strategy that turned 
into AC's biggest success, when the sudden popu- 



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Action Girl 



larity of black-and-white books prompted Black to 
edit together some existing stories to create a new 
superhero book, Femforce. Composed of beautiful, 
strong, and competent heroines inspired by Good 
Girl art characters from long-defunct companies in 
comics' Golden Age (1938-1954), the team of 
Miss (soon to become Ms.) Victory, the Blue Bul- 
leteer, Rio Rita, and She-Cat crashed the scene in 
their own fifty-two-page special with a World War 
II— era adventure in which they battled Nazi super- 
criminals Lady Luger and Fritz Voltzman. It was a 
smashing success, and plans were immediately 
made for an ongoing color series, which appeared 
by spring of 1985. The girls of Femforce proved 
popular and enduring, the title becoming one of the 
longest-running comics of any kind ever spawned by 
the independent comics market. 

After striking gold with Femforce, the company 
began to reprint long-forgotten comic-book material in 
near-perfect full-story black-and-white editions. Start- 
ing with the squarebound, trade paperback Golden 
Age Greats series, and continuing through the ongo- 
ing Men of Mystery comic, dozens of classic super- 
heroes have been brought before a new comic-read- 
ing audience. Golden Age heroes like the Black Ter- 
ror, Commando Yank, Golden Lad, the Flame, Captain 
Flash, Cat-Man, the Green Lama, Pyroman, Miss 
Masque, the Owl, Black Venus, Captain Wings, the 
Eagle, Yankee Girl, the Fighting Yank, Black Cobra, 
Rocketman, Dynamic Man, the Grim Reaper, and 
countless others round out the AC hero universe. All 
told, superheroes from more than a dozen former 
publishers have been showcased in AC's comics, and 
the company has intriguingly woven those characters 
into a number of brand-new stories. 

As the comic-book medium hit some of its 
hardest economic times ever in the mid-1990s, AC 
continued to thrive, with a booming online and mail- 
order business that rivals and in some cases sur- 
passes its comic-shop presence. With its impres- 
sive output, longevity, and creative marketing (not to 
mention its role as an early showcase for some of 
today's most popular comics artists, including Ord- 



way and Erik Larsen), AC Comics stands as a lead- 
ing haven for the superhero in an often-harsh pub- 
lishing world. — GM 

Action Girl 

Erica Smith is a student at Hayley High, located in a 
small town on the West Coast, some time in the 
near future. A bit bored and frustrated with the 
usual issues surrounding adolescence and trying to 
make her way in life, Smith discovers the costume 
and personal effects of a forgotten crime-fighting 
female aviator of the 1940s, Action Girl. Inspired by 
the Amelia Earhart-like story of Action Girl's life and 
bravery, Smith decides to assume the hero's name 
and identity herself. Clad in the original Action Girl's 
vintage jacket with an "AG" logo on the chest, to- 
the-knee wrestling boots, and flared skirt, Smith 
becomes the costumed crime fighter's successor, 
leaving the confines of her bedroom hideout to fight 
against typical teenage angst. Her signature quote: 
"Action is everything!" 

Action Girl was created by writer/artist Sarah 
Dyer, who started various Action Girl projects in 1992 
"as a desire to see self-published work by women 
profiled." Although Smith first appeared as a non- 
superhero alter ego of Dyer herself in various 
fanzines and Dyer's own Action Girl Newsletter during 
the early 1990s, it was not until 1995 that Action Girl 
appeared as a superhero, in Dyer's self-published 
Action Girl Comics #2. Dyer quickly introduced Action 
Girl's support team, friends Jenna, Lilia, and Marina, 
who collectively make up "Team Action," as well as a 
cool "signal ring" that Jenna created so that Action 
Girl could call upon her comrades in times of need. 
With no superpowers except for superheroic determi- 
nation, the group has battled the Go-Go Gang, the 
Catgirls from Mars, and Neutrina (who eventually 
reformed and joined Team Action as Ultra Girl). 

Action Girl is often aided by her ally, fellow high- 
school student Flying Girl, created by Elizabeth 




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Adam Strange 




Action Girl #7 © & ™ 1996 Sarah Dyer. 

COVER ART BY SARAH DYER. 



Watasin. Flying Girl is Ginnie Exupery, Action Girl's 
best friend and one true confidante. Watasin has 
taken time to flesh out their friendship — devoting 
an entire story to the girls discussing their motiva- 
tions as heroes — Action Girl having chosen her pro- 
fession, Flying Girl reluctantly pursuing it. As a birth- 
day present, Flying Girl introduces Action Girl to the 
power of flight by taking her to a vertical wind tunnel 
(as depicted on the cover of Action Girl #7 [1996]). 

Action Girl Comics, a comic anthology created 
to showcase the work of women comic-book writers 
and artists, drew a surprisingly mixed fan base. 
Fans of both genders responded to the display of 



"practical, small-scale action" (as one reviewer 
termed it), the girl-friendly heroes being a refreshing 
departure from the very adult-themed mainstream 
superheroine fare of the day. "Girls naturally 
responded to the empowerment undertones of the 
comic, but guys seemed to really embrace it as 
something that was not didactic, anti-male, or exclu- 
sivist," observed Dyer. Every issue of the comic fea- 
tures paper-doll cutouts, with hip wardrobe addi- 
tions such as thrift-store-bought Doc Martens. 
While the comic has showcased the work of some 
forty writers and artists, the creators other than 
Dyer who have contributed to Action Girl stories are 
Watasin and artist Elim Mak. — GM 

Adam Strange 

Among the many things gripping the imaginations of 
children in the late 1950s were the emerging super- 
heroes of the Silver Age of comics (1956-1969) 
and the beginnings of the space race. DC Comics 
decided to combine those two interests by launch- 
ing a pair of space heroes in its tryout comic book 
Showcase. The first to appear was the futuristic 
spaceman, Space Ranger, while the second (who 
premiered in Showcase #17 in late 1958) was 
Adam Strange, overseen by longtime science fiction 
fan and editor Julius Schwartz. His first choice as 
artist was Carmine Infantino, but, as Infantino was 
currently entertaining the troops in Korea, Mike 
Sekowsky was drafted in for the three Showcase 
issues. When these proved popular, Strange moved 
over to the Mystery in Space comic, where he 
enjoyed a run of fifty issues, most of them drawn by 
Infantino and written by the prolific Gardner Fox. 

Strange is first seen deep in the Andes, 
searching for lost cities, when some sort of beam 
suddenly transports him light years across the uni- 
verse to the planet Rann, where he is confronted by 
those science-fiction staples, the pretty girl and the 
raging monster. Having dispatched the beast, 
Strange and his maiden-in-distress (rejoicing in the 



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African-American Heroes 



suitably off-worldly name Alanna) travel to the near- 
est city with her father, a scientist called Sardath. It 
turns out that the transporter ray — a zeta-beam — 
was only intended to contact far-off planets and 
that Strange's precipitous arrival on Rann was acci- 
dental. Unfortunately, the effect of the beam wears 
off after a while, and Strange is zapped back to 
Earth, but he has by then developed a taste for sav- 
ing far-off worlds (and far-off girls called Alanna). So 
each story for the next six years begins with 
Strange whizzing around the world to catch the next 
zeta-beam and zoom off back to Rann. 

Probably no comic series better typifies the 
hope and optimism of the postwar "new frontier" 
than Adam Strange under Fox and Infantine Even 
his costume — a sleek red suit with aerodynamic jet 
pack and a shark-fin on his cowl (rather resembling 
the tail fins popular on cars of the late 1950s and 
early 1960s) — seemed to be emblematic of the 
era. Infantino's art was dynamic, slick, and very styl- 
ish, and the strip was littered with the sort of stark, 
elegant, and futuristic cities that architect Frank 
Lloyd Wright would have been proud of. Strange 
himself was the thinking man's superhero, prefer- 
ring to use his intellect rather than his fists to 
defeat the menace of the week (although having his 
own ray gun also came in handy). 

And menaces there certainly were. Seemingly 
every time that Strange beamed down he was con- 
fronted by a panicking Alanna, describing yet another 
world-shattering horror, be it Jakarta the Dust Devil (a 
sort of sentient dust storm); a living, tentacled world; 
or Ulthoon the living tornado. A particularly entertain- 
ing alien race were the cube-headed Vantorians, who 
struck terror into their enemies with their deadly vac- 
uum cleaners. For much of his run, Strange seemed 
to exist in a fictional world of his own, though he did 
share a villain — the insect-eyed Konjar Ro — with DCs 
superhero team the Justice League, resulting in a 
memorable meeting with those adventurers. 

Although the strip had a devoted following, it 
was never a massive seller, and when Fox and 



Infantino were moved over to revive the failing 
Detective Comics the strip nose-dived in popularity. 
It struggled on for a further ten issues before being 
replaced by the ludicrous Ultra the Multi-Alien, and 
Strange was banished to a life of occasional guest 
spots and the odd backup series. In a touching 
1970s issue of The Justice League, Strange and 
Alanna finally got married, and many years later the 
pair appeared in a few issues of Alan Moore's revo- 
lutionary Swamp Thing comic. That brief revival 
prompted an ill-conceived, darker 1990 miniseries 
that was not well received by fans, and perhaps 
showed that the feature was very much a product of 
a more innocent time, with no place in a more cyni- 
cal real world. — DAR 

African-American 
Heroes 

In 1990, DC Comics editorial director Dick Giordano 
was asked by one of his young staff editors why vir- 
tually all of the DC superheroes were white: 
"Because they were created in the 1940s by Jews 
and Italians who wrote and drew what they knew," 
he replied. 

FJ20M INVISIBILITY 
TO COMIC BELIEF 

Superhero comic books have mirrored societal 
trends since their inception, and when the medium 
originated in the late 1930s, African Americans 
cast no reflection: Segregation made blacks invis- 
ible to most whites. 

When African Americans did appear in the early 
comics, they were abhorrently stereotyped with wide 
eyes and exaggerated pink lips, portrayed as easily 
frightened to elicit a chuckle from the white reader, 
and characterized as utterly dependent upon their 
Caucasian benefactors. The cover of The Spirit #1 




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African-American Heroes 



(1944) promised "action, thrills, and laughs," the lat- 
ter provided by black sidekick Ebony White, nervously 
tiptoeing through a graveyard while sticking close to 
his protective mentor, the white Spirit. Timely (later 
Marvel) Comics' kid team the Young Allies included 
an African-American teen named Whitewash Jones — 
the "comic relief" equivalent of Buckwheat from the 
Our Gang (a. k.a. "The Little Rascals") theatrical 
shorts — who was frequently rescued by white heroes 
Bucky and Toro. No black sidekick was more offen- 
sive than Spirit-clone Midnight's aide Gabby, the talk- 
ing monkey, drawn in some stories to resemble a 
chimp-sized black person with a tail. 

Other portrayals of people of color depicted 
them in subservience. A black butler answering the 
door in the Vision story in Marvel Mystery Comics 
#13 (1940) announced to white visitors, "Ise sorry, 
gennilmun, de doctor is pow'ful busy, experuh- 
mintin!" Lothar, the aide to comic-strip hero Man- 
drake the Magician, "served for many years as the 
dumb, faithful factotum of the intelligent white 
man," wrote Reinhold Reitberger and Wolfgang 
Fuchs in their book Comics: Anatomy of a Mass 
Medium (1972). "This black man, dressed in a lion 
skin and wearing a fez, could be trusted at first to 
perform only the simplest of tasks for the intellectu- 
al Mandrake." 

Sidekicks and servants aside, the integration 
of white and black Americans was mostly avoided 
during comics' Golden Age (1938-1954). DC 
Comics, however, published at least two stories in 
the later Golden Age that included early attempts at 
enlightenment. World's Finest Comics #17 (1945) 
shows African-American World War II servicemen on 
leave being denied service in a "white-only" restau- 
rant, and in Batman #57 (1950), the hero stops a 
fight between a white man and a black man. But 
instances such as these were rare. African Ameri- 
cans remained in the background, if seen at all, in 
comic books of the late 1940s and 1950s, 
although a handful of titles specifically targeted a 
black audience: All-Negro Comics (1947), Negro 
Heroes (1947-1948), and Negro Romance (1950). 



WB FTBST BLACK SUPeZHZZO 

During the early Silver Age (1956-1969), 
African Americans were nonexistent in the pages of 
DC Comics' superhero series like Superman, The 
Flash, or Green Lantern. Remarked historian Brad- 
ford W. Wright in his tome Comic Book Nation 
(2001), "Handsome superheroes resided in clean, 
green suburbs and modern, even futuristic cities 
with shimmering glass skyscrapers, no slums, and 
populations of well-dressed white people." The bur- 
geoning Marvel universe, commencing from the 
release of Fantastic Four#l (1961), occasionally 
depicted a token person of color amid Manhattan 
crowd scenes, or in an urban school class with 
Peter (Spider-Man) Parker. By 1965, war— "the 
great leveler," according to Reitberger and Fuchs — 
afforded African Americans equality in the fictional 
realm of war comics, with black soldiers like Jackie 
Johnson (from the Sgt. Rock series in DCs Our 
Army at War) and Gabriel Jones (from Marvel's Sgt. 
Fury and His Howling Commandos) valiantly fighting 
alongside whites in stories set during World War II. 

Marvel made history by introducing the Black 
Panther in Fantastic Four #52 (1966). Whether the 
comic's writer, Stan Lee, intentionally named the hero 
after the militant civil rights group, the Black Panthers, 
is uncertain. The Panther — actually Prince T'Challa of 
the affluent, industrialized African nation of Wakan- 
da — was highly educated, extremely noble, and amaz- 
ingly lithe, becoming a colleague of the Fantastic 
Four's resident brain, Reed Richards (a. k.a. the 
immodestly nicknamed Mr. Fantastic). The Black Pan- 
ther broke the color barrier for African Americans in 
the world of superheroes and was portrayed as an 
admirable role model for readers of any race. The 
impact of his introduction, however, was not apparent 
from an examination of the cover: The Black Panther's 
full facemask provided no hint as to his ethnicity. 

Though the 1966 premiere of the Black Pan- 
ther is regarded as acutely influential from a long- 
term historical perspective, the hero appeared spo- 
radically at first, and no other African-American 



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African-American Heroes 




Jungle Action #10 © 1974 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY GIL KANE AND FRANK GIACOIA. 



superheroes followed his lead. The comics industry 
was experiencing a superhero boom during the mid- 
1960s and regarded black superheroes as a finan- 
cially risky venture given the social unrest playing 
out on college campuses and in American streets 
of the day. Yet through the actions of real-life 
activists, most notably the Reverend Dr. Martin 
Luther King Jr. — the greatest African-American hero 
of the decade — a blending of cultures was transpir- 
ing across America, warmly welcomed by the pro- 
gressive, vehemently resisted by the ignorant, and 
violently opposed by the bigoted. 

Avengers #52 (1968) took the next giant step 
for African-American heroes in comics by admitting 



the Black Panther into the roster of Marvel's 
mighty superteam — and this time, the color of 
T'Challa's skin was clearly evident on the cover 
(and in the interiors), as his facemask was modi- 
fied to reveal his nose, mouth, and chin. Scribe 
Roy Thomas dropped the "Black" from the hero's 
name to distance Marvel's Panther from the mili- 
tant group, and showed no fear in chronicling 
white America's distrust of people of color. When 
T'Challa arrived at Avengers headquarters to 
report for duty, he discovered three of his new 
teammates apparently dead, and he was suspect- 
ed of and arrested for the crime by Caucasian 
operatives of the covert organization S.H.I.E.L.D. 
The Panther was soon cleared, and his fellow 
Avengers, unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., were colorblind, 
accepting T'Challa with no hesitation. 

Then came the Falcon, a black hero flying into 
Captain America #117 (1969). Behind his feathered 
fighting togs was Harlem social worker Sam Wilson, 
who guest-starred with Marvel's "Star-Spangled Sen- 
tinel" before actually becoming his teammate, shar- 
ing cover co-billing. Noteworthy is the fact that Cap- 
tain America, the superheroic embodiment of Ameri- 
can ideals, was the first white superhero to partner 
with a black superhero; he also endorsed the Black 
Panther's membership in the Avengers. Cap's 
actions tacitly endorsed racial equality, imprinting 
the mores of many of Marvel's readers. 

"Alienated superheroes like the Hulk and the 
Silver Surfer especially empathized with African 
Americans," historian Wright observed. "The green 
Hulk befriends an impoverished black teenager 
and explains to him, 'World hates us ... both of 
us! ... Because we're different!'" African Ameri- 
cans were now a part of the Marvel universe. Out- 
side of the occasional in-house public-service 
announcement extolling racial harmony, however, 
DCs world — its superheroes, its supporting cast, 
and its incidental background characters — was 
almost exclusively white. 

But DC was about to receive a wake-up call. 




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African-American Heroes 



THE ZeLBVANCe MOVSMSNT 

Writer Denny O'Neil grabbed DC Comics and its 
readers by their collective collar and forced them to 
address racism in the landmark Green Lantern/ 
Green Arrow #76 (1970). A haggard old African- 
American man asked the following of Green Lantern, 
the power-ring-wielding, conservative cosmic cop: 

I been readin' about you ... how you work for 
the blue skins ... and how on a planet some- 
place you helped out the orange skins ... and 
you done considerable for the purple skins\ 
Only there's skins you never bothered with — ! 
... The black skins! I want to know ... how 
come?! Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern! 

On the 2003 History Channel documentary, 
Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked, O'Neil 
revealed his rationale behind that speech: "It was 
too late for my generation, but if you get a real 
smart twelve-year-old, and get him thinking about 
racism," then change can be effected. 

A "relevance" movement swept DCs comics, 
and people of color at last gained visibility. "It's 
important that I live the next 24 hours as a black 
womanl" asserted Metropolis' star reporter to the 
Man of Steel as Lois Lane — now with brown skin 
and an Afro hairdo — exited a pigmentation-altering 
"body mold." This scene played out on the cover of 
Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #106 (1970), in a 
tale titled "I Am Curious (Black)," described by 
writer Les Daniels in his book, Superman: The Com- 
plete History (1998), as a "well-intentioned but 
unsuccessful story, inexplicably named after a sexu- 
ally explicit film." DC had better results with the 
introduction of John Stewart, the African-American 
"substitute" Green Lantern, first seen in Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (1972). Stewart so 
extolled "Black Power" that GL/GA #87's cover 
blurb touted, "Introducing an unforgettable new 
character who really means it when he warns ... 
'Beware My Power.'" Even DCs romance titles, long 
the home for fairy tales starring spoiled white debu- 



tantes, printed love stories featuring black women 
(often social workers) and men. 

One "relevant" moment in a DC comic ignited a 
firestorm of controversy. In Teen Titans #26 (1970), 
Mai Duncan, a black member of the Titans, was 
given an innocent farewell kiss by his teammate 
Lilith — who was white. "This was a superhero group, 
and Mai and Lilith were friendly — why wouldn't she 
kiss him good-bye?" thought Giordano, the editor of 
that issue, in his recollections in his biography, Dick 
Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time 
(2003). When others at DC objected to the scene 
prior to its publication, Giordano instructed the col- 
orist to color the scene monochromatically, to call 
less attention to it. "Regardless of its hue, it made 
some readers see red," observed Giordano biogra- 
pher Michael Eury. Some readers wrote hate mail to 
the editor — including a death threat! — but a flood of 
supportive letters validated Giordano's gutsy inter- 
racial encounter. 

Outside of comics, doors were opening for 
African Americans in popular culture. Primetime tele- 
vision introduced series featuring black leads, includ- 
ing Julia (1968-1971) and Sanford and Son 
(1972-1977). The interracial friendship of real-life 
Chicago Bears football stars was chronicled in the 
tearjerker telefilm Brian's Song (1971), starring Billy 
Dee Williams as Gayle Sayers and James Caan as 
Brian Piccolo. "Blaxploitation" — a trend of low-budget 
movies starring black action heroes — became popu- 
lar through vehicles like Shaft (1971) and Superfly 
(1972). 

T'M BLACK ANP I'M PZOUP 

Marvel Comics once again took a momentous 
stride forward by producing the first comic-book 
series starring an African-American superhero: Luke 
Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972). "Lucas" was a street- 
wise black man unjustly incarcerated and given 
superpowers — superstrength and ultra-dense skin — 
in a scientific "experiment" intended to destroy him. 
He punched his way through the stone walls of jail 



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African-American Heroes 



and, as a free man, sold his augmented talents as a 
mercenary. With his Afro, open-shirted funky disco 
outfit, and bad-ass attitude, Cage was Shaft as a 
superhero — the cover to his first issue, in fact, was 
blatantly inspired by the montage motif so common 
among blaxploitation movie posters. He eventually 
called himself "Power Man," beginning in issue #17 
of his magazine. (Nicolas Coppola, a young fan of 
Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, was so enamored of the 
character that he took his name, and is better known 
as Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage.) 

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire trailblazed a trend: 
Marvel broadened its universe with new black 
superheroes. Tomb ofDracula #10 premiered the 
vampire slayer Blade, a human/vampire crossbreed 
with a mission to destroy Deacon Frost, the vampire 
that killed his mother as she was giving birth to 
him. Blade rode the wave of 1970s superhero blax- 
ploitation, then retreated into the void until several 
1990s revivals and a successful 2000s franchise 
of live-action movies. Brother Voodoo, first seen in 
Strange Tales #169 (1973), mixed the supernatural 
with superheroics. He was Jericho Drumm, a U.S.- 
schooled physician who returned to his native Haiti to 
avenge his brother's death by using occult powers. 
The Black Panther leapt into his own series beginning 
with Jungle Action #5 (1974), in an acclaimed collab- 
oration by writer Don McGregor and African-American 
artist Billy Graham. This duo handled provocative 
subject matter, including T'Challa's war with the Ku 
Klux Klan (issues #19-#23 [1975-1976]). Despite 
its innovation, Jungle Action was canceled in 1976 
and replaced with the hero's own title, produced by 
the legendary Jack Kirby, who, unfortunately, made 
Black Panther (1977-1979) a routine superhero 
comic. 

Storm, the African weather-controlling goddess, 
moved to the U.S. to join Marvel's menagerie of 
mutants in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), and black 
scientist Bill Foster became a ten-foot superhero in 
the short-lived series Black Goliath (1975-1976). 
Discounting Storm's inclusion in the popular X-Men 
series, these titles failed to attract their target audi- 



ence — black readers — and carried marginal appeal 
to whites of the era. Only Cage's comic survived 
past the 1970s, and did so by incorporating a white 
co-star, Iron Fist. Penned commentator Aylze Jama- 
Everett in the irreverent magazine BadAzz MoFo vol. 
2 #3 (1998), "There are just more white geeks in 
America than black. And sadly, little cracker geeks 
ain't down with brothers and sisters kicking honky 
ass on a monthly basis." 

Just when the 1970s black-hero boom was 
dying, DC joined in with its own African-American 
headliner. Black Lightning #1 (1977) starred Jeffer- 
son Pierce, an inner-city high-school teacher in the 
"Suicide Slum" district of Superman's berg, Metrop- 
olis. To help clean up the community's drug traffic — 
and to give teens in the 'hood an empowering role 
model — Pierce donned a voltage-generating belt, a 
blue bodysuit with stylized yellow lightning bolts, 
and a white mask (with an Afro attached!) and took 
to the streets as Black Lightning. His title was dis- 
connected after eleven issues, falling prey to the 
1978 "DC Implosion," a collapse brought on by an 
overaggressive expansion the year prior. 

THE CKLWZAl. &LZNP 

The shackles had been broken, and beginning 
in the 1980s African Americans were regularly 
depicted as superheroes. Cyborg, a black teen 
whose nearly destroyed body had been outfitted with 
cybernetics, premiered in The New Teen Titans #1 
(1980). New Orleans Police Captain Monica Ram- 
beau acquired the ability to become living energy as 
Captain Marvel in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 
#16 (1982), but later changed her heroic name to 
Photon. In a storyline running from 1979 to 1985 in 
the pages of Marvel's Iron Man, white industrialist 
Tony Stark, secretly Iron Man, succumbed so deeply 
to alcoholism that his best friend, African American 
Jim Rhodes, temporarily replaced him in the super- 
charged armor. Black Lightning returned, not as a solo 
character, but as a team member, in DCs Batman and 
the Outsiders/ The Outsiders (1983-1988). Other 




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Alpha Fight 



people of color came and went through myriad 
series, some as heroes, some as supporting cast 
members or villains. 

Since the 1980s, black superheroes have 
occasionally received their own comics. Notable 
examples include the four-issue Black Panther 
miniseries (1988) that addresses apartheid; Green 
Lantern: Mosaic (1992-1993), starring John Stew- 
art; DCs Steel (1994-1998), a Superman spinoff; 
a monthly Black Panther series (1998-2003) exam- 
ining Wakanda's role in a volatile and vastly chang- 
ing global landscape; and several attempts to 
revive Power Man, including the hard-hitting, graphi- 
cally shocking Marvel "MAX" interpretation Cage 
(2002). The mainstream media took note when 
Marvel published a provocative miniseries, Truth 
(2003), which revealed that the "super-soldier 
serum" that created Captain America had actually 
been tested on black GIs, one of whom had a 
secret career predating the Captain's. This was fol- 
lowed by a series (telling the story of the secret 
Captain America's son) that did not cause a stir 
with the general public but was more anticipated in 
fan circles: The Crew (2003), by popular Black Pan- 
ffterwriter Christopher Priest, is unusual both for 
starring a black and Latino superteam and for its 
unflinchingly realistic look at modern race and class 
relations. 

In the early 1990s, a group of African-American 
comic-book writers and artists banded together to 
produce superhero comics starring multicultural 
(largely black) characters, presenting "a range of 
characters within each ethnic group, which means 
that we couldn't do just one book," explained 
Dwayne McDuffie, one of the partners involved, in 
DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite 
Comic Book Heroes. "We had to do a series of 
books and we had to present a view of the world 
that's wider than the world we've seen before." 
Under the DC Comics-published imprint Milestone 
Media, a handful of series were released, spanning 
several years of publication. Milestone titles includ- 
ed Icon (1993-1997), Hardware (1993-1997), The 



Blood Syndicate (1993-1996), and Static 
(1993-1997). Arguably the most famous African- 
American superhero is Spawn. Published by Image 
Comics, Spawn #1 (1992) sold 1.7 million copies 
and made its creator, Todd McFarlane, a wealthy 
superstar. 

African-American heroes have been visible in 
films and on television since the 1970s. Black Vul- 
can, inspired by DCs Black Lightning, appeared in 
TV's animated All New Super Friends Hour (1977), 
and Cyborg was among the cast of Super Powers 
Team: Galactic Guardians (1985). Meteor Man 
(1994), starring Robert Townsend as an African- 
American caped superman, and Blankman (1994), 
a superhero satire featuring comedian Damon 
Wayans, failed to attract large box-office receipts. A 
similar sad fate was met by the Fox network's one- 
season show M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994-1995), starring 
Carl Lumly as an exoskeletoned super-scientist in 
moody adventures. A live-action theatrical version of 
Spawn (1997) was followed by made-for-video 
sequels and an HBO animated series. Basketball 
star Shaquille "Shaq" O'Neal portrayed DCs iron 
man in the poorly reviewed theatrical Steel (1997). 
Townsend returned to tights as the "Bronze Eagle" 
in the Disney Channel telemovie Up, Up, and Away! 
(2000), featuring a family of black superheroes. 
Wesley Snipes sizzled on the big screen as Marvel's 
martial artist/vampire slayer in Blade (1998), Blade 
11(2002), and Blade: Trinity (2004). And Green 
Lantern John Stewart is among the most popular 
heroes on the Cartoon Network's Justice League 
(2001-present). —ME 

Alpha flight 

"One side, super heroes ... This is a job only we can 
handle!" So says the team of Canadian heroes on the 
front cover of Alpha Flight #1 (August 1983). A spin- 
off from the ultra-popular X-Men series where the 
characters had first appeared, the members of Alpha 
Flight were the creation of writer/artist John Byrne. 



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Alpha Fight 



They were also the first non-American superteam to 
garner their own title at Marvel Comics. 

The first member of Alpha Flight to appear was 
Weapon Alpha in X-Men #109 (February 1978). In 
that story, a man named James MacDonald Hud- 
son, garbed in a costume based on the Canadian 
flag, attempts to retrieve Wolverine (whom he calls 
"Weapon X") and return him to Canada. Defeated, 
Hudson returns in X-Men #120-#121 (April-May 
1979) with a team of heroes called Alpha Flight, 
and they face off against the X-Men. This time, Hud- 
son calls himself "Vindicator," and he is accompa- 
nied by Sasquatch, Snowbird, Aurora, Northstar, and 
Shaman. The X-Men learn that, prior to joining 
them, Wolverine had been involved with Alpha Flight 
in Canada. The mutant heroes would later meet 
their Canadian counterparts again to stop the mys- 
tical beast Wendigo in X-Men #139-#140 (Novem- 
ber-December 1980). 

It would be another few years until the full 
story of Alpha Flight began to unspool in their own 
series. There, it was revealed that Hudson was a 
brilliant engineer who had developed a superpow- 
ered armored suit and helmet that allowed him to 
channel Earth's magnetic fields to fly and project 
force fields and concussive blasts. Stealing the 
suit from his employers who wanted to use the 
suit for evil goals, Hudson sought refuge with the 
Canadian government. The Canadian Ministry of 
Defense soon put Hudson in charge of Depart- 
ment H, a top-secret project. Inspired by the for- 
mation of the Fantastic Four, Hudson began to 
assemble superpowered individuals to protect the 
Great White North. After his first recruit — Wolver- 
ine — left Canada, Hudson decided to lead the 
team as Vindicator, though he later chose the 
name Guardian. 

Hudson's wife, Heather McNeil Hudson, had 
been his research assistant prior to their marriage, 
and she assisted him with Alpha Flight duties. 
When Hudson was apparently killed, she took on 
the battle-suit and powers of Guardian, renaming 



herself Vindicator. She remained the team leader 
on and off throughout its many adventures, until the 
resurrection of James Hudson. 

Northstar and Aurora were orphaned twin 
brother and sister Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie 
Beaubier. Raised separately, they were unaware of 
the fact that they were superpowered mutants until 
they were teenagers. Jeanne-Marie had a difficult 
childhood and developed a split personality, with 
one side of her very uninhibited, and the other side 
deeply religious. Jean-Paul had fared better, becom- 
ing an Olympic skiing champion (perhaps through 
the use of his mutant powers), but he too held a 
secret: He was homosexual. The Beaubiers were 
reunited by Hudson as members of Alpha Flight, 
where they discovered that their similar powers — 
flight and superspeed — were accented when they 
touched hands; then they could create brilliant 
bursts of light. 

Sasquatch was Walter Langkowski, an ex-foot- 
ball player who became a doctor specializing in 
gamma radiation transformations, such as that 
experienced by Bruce Banner into the Hulk. Bom- 
barding himself with radiation from his own experi- 
ments, Langkowski became able to transform him- 
self at will to a ten-feet-tall orange-furred creature 
who had superstrength and stamina. 

Snowbird was Narya, a demigod born to the 
Eskimo goddess Nelvanna. Raised on Earth by 
Shaman, Narya had the ability to transform into any 
white-colored animal from the arctic north of Cana- 
da. Narya eventually assumed the identity of Anne 
McKenzie, who worked for the Royal Canadian 
Mounted Police as a records officer. Shaman was 
Michael Twoyoungmen, a Native North American who 
had rejected the magical ways of his lineage to 
become a medical doctor. After the death of his wife 
and grandfather — and an estrangement from his 
daughter — Twoyoungmen began to study the mysti- 
cal arts of the Saracee (nee Sarcee) Indian tribes- 
people. He eventually became a powerful magician. 



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Alternative Futures 



Hudson's Department H supported not only 
Alpha Flight, but subsidiary groups as well; training 
in the lower ranks were other newer heroes as part 
of Beta Flight, and completely new recruits as 
Gamma Flight. Two Beta members graduated to 
Alpha Flight in the first issue of their comic. Puck 
was Eugene Milton Judd, a gymnastic strongman 
and ex-soldier-of-fortune who had been cursed with 
both long life and the shrinking of his body to dwarf- 
size. Marrina was Marrina Smallwood, a yellow- 
skinned amphibious girl who could breathe under- 
water and swim at great speeds. 

Over the years, the Alpha Flight team — head- 
quartered in British Columbia — went through an 
astonishing number of permutations. Beta and 
Gamma members joined, including the robotic Box, 
Shaman's magical daughter Talisman, insane mutant 
Wild Child/Wildheart, hard-skinned Diamond Lil, 
armored blaster Windshear, mind-controllers Purple 
Girl and Murmur, brothers Radius and Flex who 
could control force fields and metals, and many oth- 
ers. Characters were killed (Guardian, Marrina, 
Snowbird, Sasquatch, Box), were resurrected 
(Guardian, Marrina, Snowbird, Sasquatch), went 
insane and were cured (Aurora, Wild Child), lost 
their children (Snowbird), experienced debilitating 
sicknesses (Northstar, Diamond Lil), were cloned 
(Guardian), and even changed sexes (Sasquatch)! 
Additionally, the Canadian government disbanded 
and reinstated Alpha Flight several times, and 
Department H itself became corrupted. Villains they 
fought included the Master of the World, Omega 
Flight, Wendigo, Ranaq the Great Devourer, the 
Dream Queen, Gilded Lily, and others. 

As a comic book series, Alpha Flight was at its 
best under creator Byrne, but he left the series with 
issue #28 (November 1985), telling readers in a 
text piece, "I've finally told all the Alpha Flight sto- 
ries I have to tell." A succession of writers and 
artists have guided the book through the years, with 
the most famous being newcomer Jim Lee, who 
made his Marvel art debut on Alpha Flight #51 
(November 1987). Alpha Flight was canceled in 



March 1994 with issue #130, but it was revived 
again for a second series in August 1997 by writer 
Steve Seagle. This incarnation didn't last quite as 
long, and it was canceled with issue #20 (March 
1999), a victim of Marvel's bankruptcy cutbacks as 
much as the book's own depressed sales. 

Although the series is best remembered for 
featuring Marvel's first gay superhero, Northstar, 
and for being Canadian, Alpha Flight has continued 
to appear in today's Marvel universe. A trio of two- 
pack Alpha Flight action figures were released in 
1999 by Toy Biz, and the characters made their first 
animated appearance in a second-season episode 
of Fox's animated X-Men series in November 1993. 
In 2002, Northstar joined the cast of Uncanny X- 
Men with issue #414 (December 2002), while Auro- 
ra and Wild Child became cast members of Weapon 
Xwith issue #1 (November 2002). Given Alpha 
Flight's popularity among fans, it was no surprise 
when the announcement came that Canada's pre- 
miere superhero team would once again push aside 
other heroes to regain its own ongoing series in 
2004. — AM 

Alternative 
Futures 

Hailing from the hinterlands of science fiction, the 
superhero genre has a history of asking speculative 
questions about the future. During the 1960s, a 
time when the promise of the burgeoning space age 
contrasted sharply with cold war nuclear fears, DC 
Comics pioneered the exploration of possible 
futures. Some of these "imaginary stories" — an 
awkward term that DC used to describe stories set 
outside of canonical continuity — offer tantalizing 
glimpses into worlds that might, or might not, one 
day come to pass. 

One of the more memorable of these appeared 
in Superman vol. 1 #181 (1965). Set in 2965, the 



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Alternative Futures 



story introduced Clar Ken, a direct descendant of 
the original Man of Steel. Ken, who bears an aston- 
ishing resemblance to his famous forebear, wears 
his ancestor's indestructible costume, and has 
even inherited some of his powers, such as X-ray 
vision. The latest in a long line of interplanetary 
policemen descended from the first Superman, Ken 
swears to use his super powers "to uphold the prin- 
ciples of democracy and the enforcement of the law 
... never for selfish or evil ends!" 

DCs Silver Age (1956-1969) was replete with 
such upbeat forecasts, a fact perhaps best exempli- 
fied by the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team of thirti- 
eth-century superpowered teenagers that first saw 
action in Adventure Comics #247 (1958). The mag- 
netic-powered Cosmic Boy, the electrically gifted 
Lightning Lad, and the telepathic Saturn Girl travel 
backward in time to offer a teenage Superman 
(Superboy) membership in their group. This 
encounter inaugurated nearly half a century of 
Legion stories, which depicted the peaceful, 
advanced civilization of Earth — and of the United 
Planets, to which it belongs — that holds sway a mil- 
lennium hence (though this thirtieth century 
appears to be lateral to and separate from the one 
inhabited by the aforementioned Clar Ken). As 
Utopian as this world appeared, however, it still pro- 
duced more than enough supervillains and would-be 
world-beaters to keep the Legionnaires (not to men- 
tion generations of comics writers) extremely busy. 

DCs thirtieth century yielded a wealth of alter- 
native-future stories. Adventure Comics #355 
(1967) introduced adult versions of the Legion- 
naires, setting up prophetic expectations about the 
destinies of the teenage teammates. In a 1970s 
version of Legion continuity — the group's history is 
occasionally subject to retroactive revision (known 
as "retconning")— in Superboy vol. 1 #217 (1976), 
Laurel Kent, another remote descendant of Super- 
man, tried unsuccessfully to join the team; her sole 
power, invulnerability, was considered redundant. In 
an earlier Legion timeline, a set of teenage twins 
descended from the Flash (a.k.a. Barry Allen) were 



* 



offered slots on the Legion roster, but they had to 
decline membership when their superspeed powers 
turned out not to be permanent (Adventure Comics 
#373, 1968). Much later, DC published an interstel- 
lar Arthurian epic set in a decidedly non-Legion- 
oriented thirtieth century: Camelot 3000, a twelve- 
issue miniseries (1982-1985) by writer Mike W. 
Barr and illustrator Brian Bolland. 

The inconsistencies between DCs proliferating 
alternative futures became most apparent with the 
advent of Jack Kirby's Kamandi (1972-1978); 
inspired by the Planet of the Apes films, this series 
depicts a nuclear war-ravaged Earth of several cen- 
turies hence, where mute, bestial humans are ruled 
by sentient tigers, gorillas, and other nonhuman ani- 
mals. Here, Superman's indestructible costume is a 
relic of an extinguished and all-but-forgotten heroic 
age (Kamandi #29, 1975), rather than a revered 
Kent family heirloom handed down from father to son 
for a millennium. In a similar super-dream gone sour, 
DCs twenty-fifth century was home to a time-traveling 
malefactor known as Professor Zoom; this self-styled 
"Reverse-Flash" (who debuted in The Flash #139, 
1963) wore a yellow-and-red Flash costume (the neg- 
ative image of the original) during his many battles 
against the Scarlet Speedster. The mutually exclusive 
futures inhabited by Clar Ken, the Legion of Super- 
Heroes, the Reverse-Flash, and Kamandi serve to 
underscore the time-honored science-fictional notion 
that the future is fluid, and not fixed. In DCs far-flung 
future(s), anything is possible; for example, in the 
year 85,271 A.D., J'onn J'onzz the Martian Man- 
hunter still protects the Red Planet from cosmic men- 
aces (Martian Manhunter\io\. 2 #1,000,000, 1998). 

DC introduced yet another strand in its com- 
plex alternative-future tapestry in World's Finest 
Comics #215 (1973), in which the teenage sons of 
Superman and Batman debuted as a recurring fea- 
ture. Although DC never specifically mentioned the 
time frame of these stories, the "Super-Sons" were 
clearly the product of a possible future, since nei- 
ther Superman nor Batman were then portrayed as 
old enough (or married enough!) to have nearly 



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Alternative Futures 



adult offspring. This wasn't the first time comics 
audiences read about possible future offspring of 
the Caped Crusader or his supporting cast. In Bat- 
man #145 ("The Son of the Joker," 1962), a future 
Bruce Wayne passed the cape and cowl down to an 
adult Dick Grayson, whose sidekick was the 
teenage son of the selfsame Bruce Wayne. Each 
member of this "Dynastic Duo" wore a large yellow 
Roman-numeral "II" on his chest as they chased a 
second-generation Joker. DC attempted to resolve 
its many incompatible might-be worlds with Crisis 
on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), a twelve-issue 
miniseries that hit the "reset button" on vast 
swaths of DCs past, present, and future; the Legion 
of Super-Heroes was among the alternative futures 
to make the cut (with the retroactively eliminated 
Superboy shunted into an alternate "pocket uni- 
verse"), while Kamandi's dystopia did not. 

Though rival publisher Marvel Comics took 
great pains to maintain a coherent, companywide 
continuity, it too presented several competing alter- 
native futures. All of these were justified by the con- 
ceit of an infinitely branching multiverse capable of 
holding any number of possible worlds. But this tidy 
temporal resolution did not prevent the time-travel- 
ing Kang the Conqueror (a.k.a. Rama-Tut, who first 
appeared in 1963's Fantastic Four #19) from imper- 
iling the entire skein of history. Like DCs Legion- 
naires, Kang originated in a possible thirtieth centu- 
ry, from which he traveled backward in time to con- 
quer ancient Egypt (as Rama-Tut), and later subjugat- 
ed Earth of 4,000 A.D. before attempting an assault 
on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Marvel's 
Guardians of the Galaxy, a superteam that fought to 
free humanity from the tyrannical yoke of the reptile- 
like alien Badoon, came from an alternate thirty-first 
century (Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 1 #18, 1969, and 
later series in the 1970s and 1990s). 

Marvel's notion of an infinitely branching multi- 
verse may have reached its apotheosis with the 
advent of the first What If? series (1977), which 
showed what might have happened had contingency 
caused certain pivotal superhero adventures to turn 



out differently. What If? asked and answered such 
questions as, "What if the Avengers had never 
assembled?" [What If? #3, 1977), "What if Conan 
the Barbarian came to the twentieth century?" 
(What If? #13, 1979), "What if Spider-Man's clone 
had survived?" (What If? #30, 1981), and "What if 
Daredevil's girlfriend Elektra hadn't died?" (What If? 
#35, 1982). What If? was renowned for stories 
depicting how small changes in past and present 
events might snowball into future catastrophes, 
sometimes leading to the destruction of Earth or 
even the annihilation of the universe itself. The 
series concluded in 1984 after a 47-issue run, and 
a second What If? series replaced it in 1989, gener- 
ating 114 issues until its cancellation in 1998. 

During the 1980s and 1990s, the alternative 
futures that appeared in superhero comics became 
progressively darker and more sophisticated. In 
Marvel's Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142 (1981), 
writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne treated 
audiences (as well as the X-Men themselves) to a 
glimpse of a future in which the Earth's superpow- 
ered mutants (hero and villain alike) have been 
hunted to near-extinction by hysterical politicians 
and a relentless army of giant androids called Sen- 
tinels, a cautionary scenario (titled "Days of Future 
Past") that has been referenced many times since 
both in the comics and in the X-Men feature film 
series that that began in 2000. 

In DCs Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 
(1986) and its sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Back 
(2001-2002), writer-artist Frank Miller presents a 
future Gotham City so crime-infested that it draws a 
retired Caped Crusader back into action, with a 
vengeance; Miller's speculative dystopia not only 
transforms Batman and Superman from the ami- 
able partners seen in decades of World's Finest 
Comics stories into adversaries and ideological 
opposites, it also lets slip the dogs of nuclear war. 
In Marvel's The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect 
miniseries (two issues, 1993), writer Peter David 
and artist George Perez bring the Hulk into an alter- 



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Alternative Futures 



native future in which an older, meaner Hulk (known 
as the Maestro) rules the world as a brutal dictator. 

DCs Elseworlds publishing program, intro- 
duced in 1989 with a Victorian-era Batman tale 
titled Gotham by Gaslight, places familiar DC super- 
heroes in unfamiliar times and places, both past 
and future. Writer-artist John Byrne tipped his hat to 
the speculative Batman dynasty first posited in Bat- 
man #145 (1962) in an Elseworlds miniseries titled 
Superman and Batman: Generations (1999). This 
story traces the crime-fighting careers and personal 
lives of both of DCs marquee superheroes, from 
1929 until nearly a millennium later. By that time, 
Superman, Batman, and Lana Lang are all still 
alive, and dozens of generations of hypothetical 
future Kent and Wayne offspring have come and 
gone. Many of these super-descendants spend 
years wearing the costumes and performing the 
duties established by their legendary ancestors. (In 
the grand DC tradition of clashing continuities, 
Byrne presented yet another future Superman in 
Byrne's short-lived non-Elseworlds series Lab Rats 
[2002]. The eponymous team of unwanted teens 
sent on government suicide missions tests a time 
machine that brings them to a destroyed Earth 
dominated by a despotic, amnesiac Superman — 
who regains his memory in time to prevent the 
apocalyptic event that had created his timeline: the 
very launch of the Lab Rats' experimental vehicle.) 
Perhaps the most significant Elseworlds alternative 
future is the Kingdom Come miniseries (four 
issues, 1996), in which writer Mark Waid and 
painter Alex Ross serve up an apocalyptic battle 
royale between two factions of an aging Justice 
League of America; though the climactic confronta- 
tion nearly destroys the world, the series ends on a 
decidedly hopeful, forward-looking note. 

A number of new alternative superheroic 
futures have been advanced over the past several 
years, most of them taking the tone of Kingdom 
Come's grimmer sequences. Marvel's 2099 line 
(1992-1998) covered successors to several of the 
company's most popular characters in a corrupt and 



* 



dangerous future. The occasional series The End 
(2002-present) fast-forwards to tell the sad final 
stories of various Marvel favorites. A more upbeat 
Marvel future is seen in the "MC-2" series of 
comics, which are rooted in a storyline about the 
daughter of Mary Jane Watson and Peter (Spider- 
Man) Parker (born in 1997's The Amazing Spider- 
Man vol. 1 #418, then relegated to an alternate 
reality by Marvel's 1998 "continuity reboot"), who 
inherits her father's arachnid abilities (What If? vol. 
2 #105, 1998). In a subsequent series of her own, 
the girl — named May Parker in honor of her father's 
beloved Aunt May — grows up and enters the family 
business of costumed crime fighting (Spider-Girl, 
1998-present). Like DCs revisionist Crisis on Infi- 
nite Earths more than a decade earlier, Marvel's 
1998 "reboot" of its superhero continuity set up yet 
another new alternative future — one that is even 
now slowly mapping itself out, month by month and 
issue by issue. 

For both Marvel and DC, the concept of alterna- 
tive realities is something that goes both ways — 
and even sideways. Concurrent timelines have been 
prominent in comics ever since DC introduced 
"Earth-2" in the 1960s (with Flash vol. 1 #123, 
1961) as a home for its heroes from the Golden 
Age of comics (1938-1954). This was followed by 
several other "Earths" to house the heroes from 
companies that DC acquired over the years (includ- 
ing the original Captain Marvel and other Fawcett 
Comics characters). This profusion of worlds was 
another reason DC decided to clean things up with 
the Crisis storyline. Marvel has had its share of 
such worlds too, including the alternate Earth on 
which the Squadron Supreme (a clever pastiche of 
DCs Justice League) operate, and "Counter-Earth," 
a replica planet on the opposite side of the sun 
where the mystical hero Adam Warlock had an odd 
series of Christ-like struggles in the early 1970s. 
For the mid-1990s "Heroes Reborn" event, a num- 
ber of Marvel's characters spent twelve months in 
an alternate dimension not unlike the established 
Marvel universe, yet different enough to set up the 



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America's Best Comics Heroes 



year-long experiment of handing over several of the 
company's most famous features (including Captain 
America and Iron Man) to the star creators who had 
defected to form Image Comics a few years earlier. 

These worlds overlap with Marvel's main conti- 
nuity as did DCs many Earths, though Marvel also 
has had several stand-alone cosmos. These include 
the late 1980s New Universe line of comics about 
ordinary (and costume-less) people gaining strange 
powers (and, it must have been hoped, attracting 
audiences beyond the usual comics fan); and the 
Ultimate Marvel line (2000-present) of familiar 
heroes reinvented for the twenty-first century with a 
hip, Sma//W//e-style spin. In 2001 and 2002 DC even 
broke its own taboo against such parallel presents 
with the Just Imagine line of DC stars overhauled by 
Marvel founder Stan Lee. The two companies have 
combined for an occasional imprint, the "Amalgam" 
line, featuring one-shot appearances of characters 
spliced together from each stable's stars (Superboy 
plus Spider-Man equaling Spider-Boy, etc.), set in a 
mix-and-match parallel dimension and done in affec- 
tionate 1960s/1970s-pastiche styles. In 2003 Mar- 
vel even introduced a parallel past, in the Renais- 
sance-era series 1602, featuring centuries-old ver- 
sions of the Marvel cast with mysterious ties to the 
best-known incarnations. 

As the twenty-first century loomed, Marvel 
advanced what is arguably its most ambitious alter- 
nate-future scenario: Earth X (thirteen issues, 1999 
and 2000), followed by Universe X (twelve issues 
and several one-shots, 2000-2001), and Paradise 
X (another lengthy miniseries with its own specials 
and offshoots [2002-2003]). Earth X shows read- 
ers the world in the aftermath of a mutant plague, 
which gave everyone on the planet superheroic abil- 
ities as a side effect. But instead of ushering in a 
new "golden age," the phenomenon precipitates 
global famine, economic decline, and political 
upheavals that confound U.S. president Norman 
Osborn (Spider-Man's nemesis the Green Goblin 
back in the "real" world); a widowed, overweight, 
unmasked Spider-Man; a good-guy version of 



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Venom (who is actually Spider-Man's daughter May, 
bonded with her dad's old enemy the Venom sym- 
biote); and a Captain Britain who now rules the 
British Isles as King Britain. These series chart a 
course into a fascinating-yet-frightening future that 
remains, for better or worse, merely one among 
many possible worlds. — MAM 

America's Pest 
Comics Heroes 

The Internet-era axiom that "in the future, everyone 
will be famous to fifteen people" rings especially 
true — and can sting especially sharply — for fans and 
creators of the comic-book artform. By the mid- 
1990s, the man acknowledged by many as the medi- 
um's all-time finest scripter, Alan Moore, found that 
such acclaim brought no career security. Having 
authored the 1986 miniseries Watchmen (with artist 
Dave Gibbons), one of the few superhero sagas to 
register as legitimate literature and also an enduring 
favorite of hardcore fans, by 1996 Moore's position 
in pop-culture history was secure but his footing in 
the present was by no means certain. At that time, 
comics entrepreneur Rob Liefeld had hired Moore to 
reimagine a group of heroes Liefeld originally 
launched for Image Comics and later relocated to 
his own companies (first Maximum and then Awe- 
some). These characters — including the Superman- 
ish hero Supreme and the Wonder Woman wannabe 
Glory — were in the affectionate/ironic archetype 
mode that Moore had pioneered, and his handling of 
the characters for the three companies brought the 
approach to further heights. 

But the heights quickly proved Icarus-like; Awe- 
some landed in the same historical dustbin as 
many Liefeld ventures, casting Moore adrift, leaving 
a number of his scripts never illustrated, and turn- 
ing those that were into instant collectors' rarities. 
But like the transformative traumas of superhero 



ft 



America's Best Comics Heroes 



lore (nuclear accidents, planetary explosions, bad 
business plans), the experience ultimately put 
Moore — and his fans — in enhanced circumstances. 
By mid-1999 Moore had launched an imprint of his 
own, America's Best Comics (ABC), under success- 
ful indie upstart WildStorm (with a "firewall" 
promised between Moore and the editorial edicts of 
DC Comics, which acquired WildStorm from Image 
soon after Moore joined but had alienated him 
some time before). With characteristic ambition, 
Moore imagined not just isolated adventure comics 
but a whole alternate universe across several titles; 
with sadder-but-wiser pragmatism, he and his artist 
collaborators ceded ownership of almost all their 
new characters at the start in exchange for a more 
immediately lucrative work-for-hire deal. 

Nonetheless, Moore's publishers understood 
the prestige his presence conferred, and the rela- 
tively free artistic hand he was given benefited pub- 
lisher, author, collaborators, and readers alike 
throughout his time on the titles. The line debuted 
with the unlikely runaway hit The League of Extraor- 
dinary Gentleman (with artist Kevin O'Neill), known 
by the general public for the 2003 live-action movie 
version which, remarkably, was optioned for film 
before an issue of the comic ever came out. A kind 
of Wild Wild West by way of Masterpiece Theatre, 
the book is a dark farce in which a gamut of literary 
characters — from Dracula's Mina Harker to the 
Invisible Man — interact with each other and with 
real-life events in a satirical swirl of the history 
readers think they know and the classics they don't 
really remember. The book spawned a surprising 
subgenre of Victorian-era action strips (from 
Cliffhanger's Steampunkto Vertigo's Barnum!) and 
a second series of its own in addition to the movie. 

Though ostensibly unconnected to ABC's other 
books, Moore and O'Neill's 1890s terminators set 
the tone for the rest of the line: Moore went back to 
the very DNA of the American action hero for his 
models, basing the new characters on pulp adven- 
tures and even earlier popular lore, or on equally 
uncharted (or at least long-neglected) precincts of 



popular entertainment. The main single-character 
series were Tom Strong (with artist Chris Sprouse) 
and Promethea (with artist J. H. Williams III). Tom 
Strong is a benevolent warrior-wiseman in the Doc 
Savage mold from which Superman himself was 
cast; Promethea, a kind of self-made muse, is a 
spirit of creativity with roots in personified patron 
saints from pagan myth (Athena) to pre-World War II 
patriotic mascots (Britannia, Columbia). 

Also in the first batch of ABC titles was Top Ten 
(with artists Zander Cannon and Gene Ha), a super- 
hero-team book with the twist of being a self- 
described Hill Street Blues in spandex; and Tomor- 
row Stories, an anthology of short stories concern- 
ing several characters: Greyshirt (with artist Rick 
Veitch), a mysterious detective whose trickily 
designed stories paid homage to Will Eisner's Spir- 
it; Cobweb (with artist Melinda Gebbie), an aristo- 
cratic femme fatale drifting through homoerotic 
fables more reminiscent of a surrealist journal than 
a comic; Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor (with artist 
Kevin Nowland), an unlikely theoretical-physics sit- 
com centered around a hellish rural Harry Potter; 
The First American (with artist Jim Baikie), a patriotic- 
hero spoof recalling the halcyon days of early MAD 
magazine; and Splash Brannigan (with artist Hilary 
Barta), an outlandish burlesque of both the "ele- 
mental" strain of superheroes (Human Torch, Ice- 
man, etc.) and the shape-shifting school (Plastic 
Man, Metamorpho, etc.), in the person of a sentient 
splotch of ink. 

As time went on, Top Ten and Tomorrow Stories 
were retired for a variety of miniseries and one- 
shots, and another book featuring the line's most 
popular hero, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales 
(2002-2004). That book included ABC's one clunk- 
er, Jonni Future (written by Steve Moore — no rela- 
tion — with artist Arthur Adams), a beautifully drawn 
but narratively tiresome softcore-porn space-opera. 
The specials included a one-shot for Tom Strong's 
daughter Tesla, The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong 
(written by Peter Hogan, 2003); several-issue stints 
for Greyshirt (written by Veitch, 2001-2002) and 




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America's Best Comics Heroes 



Top Ten's character Smax (2003-2004); and Terra 
Obscura (written by Moore and Hogan with art by 
Yanick Paquette, 2003), an intriguing B-movie 
superhero saga featuring the cult-favorite charac- 
ters of the widely forgotten 1940s Nedor line 
(public-domain properties also still published by — 
pardon the confusion — AC Comics). 

Lovingly executed in a multitude of pastiche 
styles from across the history of pop culture, the 
books brim with imagination and charm both nostal- 
gic and fresh. Moore's fascination with historical 
permutations of heroic archetypes reaches full 
flower here. Tom Strong is the product of wonky 
genetic and social engineering a la Philip Wylie's 
Gladiator; raised by a tyrannical Victorian father in a 
gravity-enhanced chamber to develop unnatural 
strength in normal settings (while being schooled 
with equal boot-camp intensity), Strong emerges as 
a brawny boy science genius when Dad's scheme is 
wiped out by a volcanic eruption in the secluded 
Caribbean setting he's chosen for it. Adopted by a 
wise but unstereotypical tropical tribe, Strong devel- 
ops a heart to match his mind, traveling to his 
ancestral America to become the benefactor of the 
Utopian Millennium City. The tribe's mythical "goloka 
root" that slows his age is a handy device for centu- 
ry-spanning adventures that dispense elegantly with 
the contrived immortality of most action heroes, 
while allowing Moore and his artists to picture their 
star in a plethora of period homages and send-ups. 

Similarly, Promethea portrays a recurring arche- 
type who stretches back to eighteenth-century pot- 
boilers and forward through later pulps and comics. 
Researching the character for a pop-literature class, 
young college student Sophie Bangs discovers that 
there is actually a lineage of women who have 
invoked and then channeled Promethea through 
their own creative activities as writers or artists (and 
that Bangs herself will be the next one to do so). 
The character lives in the Immateria, a kind of heav- 
en for all creatures of the imagination, and is a 
benevolent creative force sometimes manifesting in 
the real world. This background allowed for more 




The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong #1 © 2003 America's 
Best Comics/DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY BRUCE TIMM. 



dazzling stylistic variety and historic sweep, and for 
spiritual storylines far from the common fisticuffs of 
standard superheroics. A kind of vernacular holy 
book, the series ranks among Moore's masterworks. 

In its first five years, the ABC line earned just 
about every award available in the medium (includ- 
ing multiple Eisners from 2000-2003), attracting 
acclaim and generating controversy (a Cobweb story 
reportedly ridiculing the Church of Scientology was 
spiked by DC; an entire issue of the League was 
pulped for its reproduction of a Victorian ad for a 
feminine-hygiene product with "Marvel" in its name, 



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Anime and Manga 



no doubt to the bafflement even of DCs main com- 
petitor). Along the way, many of comics' most presti- 
gious artists (from Jerry Ordway to Kyle Baker) had 
made cameo contributions, whole worlds had been 
created (Moore is a major practitioner of setting-as- 
character, from Greyshirt's natural-gas-powered mod- 
ern metropolis to Top Ten's citywide retirement com- 
munity for surplus superheroes), and plentiful new 
possibilities for the medium had been glimpsed. 

In 2003, Moore made the bombshell 
announcement that he would be entering semi- 
retirement and shutting down the line, making 
comics history one last time by actually writing an 
apocalypse for the entire ABC world (the medium's 
first voluntary closure of a company). Weary of an 
underappreciated artform's economic grind, but 
with financial security ironically enhanced by its 
merchandizing to other media — the royalties from 
two film adaptations he refused to ever watch (The 
League and From Hell) — Moore intends to concen- 
trate on novels, his ongoing ritualistic recording and 
performance-art work, and occasional comics at 
greater leisure. Timing this transition for his fiftieth 
birthday, it was what he needed to top the notorious 
announcement of his debut as a professional magi- 
cian for his fortieth. Having dwelt in comics' future 
for so long, it's only fair that he should get a rest — 
and give the industry a chance to catch up — before 
he's ready for his next trick. — AMC 

Anime and Manga 

For American fans, the year 1963 marks an important 
date in the history of anime (Japanese animation) and 
manga (Japanese comics). It was in that year that 
Astro Boy— the English-language version of the anime 
Tetsuwan Atom — first premiered on American televi- 
sion. In the forty-plus years since Astra's arrival, 
anime and manga have grown from an underground 
murmur to a major cultural phenomenon. Even though 
both are still regarded as a "niche" market, it is an 
indisputable fact that they are here to stay. 



* 



Many American fans (or otaku) of the two medi- 
ums are drawn to the diversity of genres present in 
both — science fiction, fantasy, horror, action-adven- 
ture, and comedy — but the best anime and manga 
showcase strong artwork and complex storylines 
and character studies that often stand head and 
shoulders above most contemporary American ani- 
mation and comic books. 

Superheroes are present in both anime and 
manga, but while many creators were influenced by 
American comics and animation at first (especially 
during the occupation of Japan following World War II), 
during the 1960s and into the 1970s they sought to 
break away from traditional renditions and give their 
characters more depth and complexity — a trend that 
has continued to today. During the mid-twentieth cen- 
tury there was also a move to create storylines of 
equal complexity, with plots that went beyond the typi- 
cal "good versus evil." There was a greater effort to 
explore the characters and their motivations. A promi- 
nent example is the five-member Gatchaman team 
from the anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. 
While the team sported costumes that would not look 
out of place in an American comic, they were also 
complex characters, with strengths and weaknesses 
that were fully brought out, not downplayed. There 
were major story arcs that Gatchaman followed, and 
not every episode had an "all is well again" ending. 
This was a sharp contrast to the animated superhero 
adventures shown on American television during the 
1970s, and it explains why Gatchaman was heavily 
edited when it arrived in the United States under the 
title Battle of the Planets. 

ANIMB BEGINNINGS 

Anime first arrived in the United States in 
1961 with the release of three films: Magic Boy 
(originally titled Sasuke), Panda and the Magic Ser- 
pent (originally titled White Snake Enchantress), 
and Alakazam the Great. It was not until Fred Ladd 
produced an English-language version of Osamu 
Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom — renamed Astro Boy— in 



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Anime and Manga 



1963 that anime was first broadcast on American 
television. Astro Boy was the first full-length animat- 
ed series made for Japanese television, and many 
consider it Tezuka's most important work. Tezuka 
engaged the growing fandom in the United States 
and continued his prolific career until his death in 
1989. Tezuka himself had been influenced by Amer- 
ican films and animation (especially the works of 
the Fleischer Brothers and Walt Disney), and he sin- 
gle-handedly began the modern era of animation 
and manga in Japan. 

If Astro Boy marked the starting point for 
anime in the United States, then Speed Racer 
(1967) was the next key development. Originally 
Mach Go Go Go in Japan, the series focused on the 
adventures of a young racecar driver named Speed 
Racer. From the start, the series — the first animat- 
ed series in Japan to be produced in color — gar- 
nered fans with its blend of action, adventure, fast 
cars, and offbeat characters. Peter Fernandez, who 
had previously worked on Astro Boy with Fred Ladd, 
took on the duties of transforming Mach Go Go Go 
into Speed Racer. That Speed himself had no super- 
powers did not matter to fans; it was his youth and 
humanity that set him apart from popular costumed 
heroes of the time. He did not need to hide his 
identity behind a mask. Unlike other animated pro- 
grams at the time, Speed's adventures are still 
fondly remembered, and in the ensuing years inter- 
est in the character has not waned. 

Another hero reached American shores in the 
late 1960s, but he was in full-color live-action — and 
larger than life. Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman 
would set the standard for live-action "superhero 
versus monster of the week" action in Japan, and 
he would also gain popularity in America among 
fans of Toho Studios' Godzilla films (and the subse- 
quent live-action monster films spawned byToho's 
most popular character, such as Mothra and the 
Gamera series of films, which were not produced by 
Toho). Ultraman became the first of a popular fran- 
chise that included movies, television shows, 
comics, and merchandise — in both Japan and Amer- 



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ica. The live-action hero spawned a new genre — the 
sentai genre. No less than three attempts have 
been made to create an Ultraman series in Ameri- 
ca — one animated, the latter two live-action. Though 
that particular Ultraman series never came about, 
one popular example of the sentai genre, Kyoryu 
Sentai Zyuranger, was adapted into English with an 
American cast and achieved major success as 
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. 

ANIMB'S SSCONP WAVB 

American and Japanese superheroes are simi- 
lar in some respects — some operate solo, some in 
teams; the majority wear costumes. And many 
choose to have civilian identities, changing into their 
superhero identities in times of need. In Japan, the 
phenomenon of henshin ("change" or "transforma- 
tion") was a popular theme in the works of the late 
Shotaro Ishinomori during the late 1960s and early 
1970s; his major works at that time, Cyborg 009 
and Jinzo Ningen Kikaider (Artificial Human Kikaider) 
featured cybernetic or fully robotic heroes that would 
change from civilian guise into "superpower" mode 
at the push of a button (sometimes together with a 
particular word or phrase). A key difference is that 
many of his characters felt ostracized from society 
because of their powers and sought ways to regain 
their lost humanity. 

Tatsunoko Productions' Science Ninja Team 
Gatchaman (1972) shook anime to its core by 
focusing on the concept of the team. While Cyborg 
009 did feature a team of superheroes, Gatchaman 
introduced elements that would remain a staple of 
anime for years. The series itself was the first of 
the popular "Tatsunoko Heroes" shows that would 
bring a new take on anime superheroes in the 
1970s. The four series of the "Tatsunoko 
heroes" — Gatchaman, Casshan, Hurricane Polymar, 
and Space Knight Tekkaman — featured more action 
and darker themes than superhero adventures in 
the United States. The storylines were more sophis- 
ticated, the characters were more fully fleshed out, 



t 9 



Anime and Manga 



and the villains spared no expense in finding new 
and more destructive ways to end the lives of the 
heroes. Gatchaman proved to be one of the most 
influential anime of the 1970s, together with Space 
Cruiser Yamato (1974) and Mobile Suit Gundam 
(1979). While the latter two were not superhero dra- 
mas — both were science fiction — like Gatchaman, 
there was a greater focus on the characters. 

Americans got their first taste of this new wave 
of anime superheroes when Gatchaman was 
released in the United States in October 1978. 
Retitled (and re-edited) as Battle of the Planets, the 
series attracted many fans despite editing that 
removed excessive violence and the insertion of the 
new character 7-Zark-7, a robotic character resem- 
bling Star Wars' R2-D2. More than twenty years 
later, Battle of the Planets still has a place in the 
hearts of many. 

The first stirrings of organized anime fandom in 
the United States began to grow in the 1970s with 
the establishment of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organiza- 
tion, and in 1980 Fred Patten's article "TV Anima- 
tion in Japan" was published in the third issue of 
the now-defunct magazine Fanfare. The article was, 
at that time, the most thorough overview of the his- 
tory of television animation in Japan. Patten not 
only gave a historical overview of anime, but also 
offered comparisons and contrasts to animation 
produced in the United States. 

Anime continued to be imported and adapted 
for American audiences throughout the 1980s, but 
the editing and dubbing left much to be desired. 
One notable exception was 1985's Robotech, a 
combination of three unrelated science-fiction 
anime from Japan. Both lauded and condemned, 
Robotech gained a fan following that praised the 
show for its strong storytelling, characters, and 
uncompromising look at war, love, and the human 
condition. Since Robotech's premiere, the following 
anime superheroes have dominated the American 
marketplace: Dragon Ball (and its major characters 
like Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo), Ronin Warriors, and 



^0 



Sailor Moon. Others have appeared, such as Card- 
captors (the English-language version of Card Cap- 
tor Sakura), but the changes that accompanied its 
export to the States caused much controversy. 
Anime superhero programs have steadily made 
their way to American television, most notably Saint 
Seiya (retitled Knights of the Zodiac) and Android 
Kikaider (the English-language version of the 
2000-2001 anime Jinzo Ningen Kikaider). 

Titles such as Go Nagai's Devilman and Yoshiki 
Takaya's Bio-Booster Armor Guyver were released 
uncut on home video in the United States, since their 
darker themes and violence would have prevented 
them from being shown on syndicated television. 

MANGA BOOTS 

With anime firmly in place in the hearts of an 
American audience, the 1980s saw the arrival of 
translated Japanese manga in the United States. 
The independent comic-book companies First Pub- 
lishing, Viz, Eclipse, and Lead Publishing began 
releasing translated versions of such titles as Lone 
Wolf and Cub, Mai the Psychic Girl, Dagger of 
Kamui, and Golgo 13. Marvel Comics produced a 
translated (and computer-colored) version of Kat- 
suhiro Otomo's groundbreaking manga Akira; the 
1988 animated film based on the manga captured 
the attention of American film critics and received 
rave reviews. In addition, the publication of Frederik 
L. Schodt's Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese 
Comics in 1983 was a seminal event; the book was 
the first to take Western readers into the world of 
manga. Well received by critics in the United States 
and around the world, the book placed Schodt in 
the position of becoming the leading American 
expert on Japanese pop culture. Manga! Manga! did 
not focus on any superheroes per se, but it was a 
powerful showcase of manga's diversity. Osamu 
Tezuka penned the foreword to the book. 

Since the 1980s, the following manga super- 
hero properties have landed on the American land- 
scape, some with major merchandising programs 



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Anime and Manga 



that helped propel these heroes to star status: Mai, 
the Psychic Girl, a series whose title character deals 
with teen angst and a sinister organization; Cobra, 
an action-packed science-fiction adventure with a 
hero who is a former space pirate; and Bio-Booster 
Armor Guyver, a science-fiction story featuring a teen 
who gains the power of a unique alien battle armor. 
Both Guyver and Masaomi Kanzaki's Heavy Metal 
Warrior Xenon leaned more in the direction of sci- 
ence fiction, and they took different approaches with 
similar themes. Fist of the North Star (created by 
Buronson and Tetsuo Hara) is primarily a post-apoca- 
lyptic story, and its protagonist Kenshiro is master of 
a literally explosive martial art technique. Likewise, 
Yoshihisa Tagami's Grey is a science-fiction tale set 
in a dystopian future, but the title character is a 
tough soldier who ends the series as a cyborg — and 
a reluctant savior of humanity. The original manga 
for Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon debuted in the Unit- 
ed States in the 1990s, greeting an audience 
already familiar with the characters. 



FUZTHZZ PeVZLOPMZNTS 

The 1990s saw a virtual explosion of anime 
and manga in the United States. Anime conventions 
became popular, drawing increasing numbers of 
attendees. The popularity of videogames and 
assorted merchandise — for example, games such 
as the Final Fantasy series and Chrono Trigger, the 
Playstation and Dreamcast videogame consoles, 
and videogame consoles from Nintendo and 
Microsoft — helped increase awareness of the medi- 
um. More titles were released than ever before, 
with a greater effort on behalf of publishing compa- 
nies to import more popular titles from Japan. The 
home-video market proved to be extremely success- 
ful for anime because titles could be released 
unedited, with the choice between a subtitled or 
English-dubbed version. For the first time, Ameri- 
cans also saw the remaining Tatsunoko heroes — 
albeit in the remakes of the venerable heroes creat- 
ed by Tatsunoko Productions. 



During this decade, the phenomenally popular 
Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon were broadcast on 
television in the United States, with controversial 
editing done to both programs. Such editing, howev- 
er, was unavoidable; broadcast standards in Japan 
allowed anime to explore darker, more mature 
themes — but the perception of animation as a 
"kids' medium" still existed in America. By the end 
of the 1990s, more companies were releasing 
anime and manga in the United States than at any 
time before. These included A.D. Vision, Central 
Park Media, Animeigo, TOKYOPOR Urban Vision, and 
Viz; Pioneer and Bandai created their own distribu- 
tion companies in the United States as well. Manga 
also moved from the comic-book shop into major 
bookstores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. 

The rising popularity of anime and manga in 
the United States led to an interesting cross-cultur- 
al exchange. American comic-book artists were 
influenced by the artwork and storytelling of both 
mediums and began to create their own manga- 
flavored works. Ben Dunn (Ninja High School), Adam 
Warren (Dirty Pair), Fred Perry (Gold Digger), Tim 
Eldred (Broict), Lea Hernandez (Clockwork Angels), 
Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil), and Richard and 
Wendy Pini (Elfquest) were part of the first wave 
that began in the 1980s. Frank Miller (The Dark 
Knight Returns) created the miniseries Ronin (which 
ran from 1983 to 1984) and championed the Eng- 
lish-language version of Kazuya Koike and Goseki 
Kojima's classic manga Lone Wolf and Cub. In the 
following decade, these artists — along with Joe 
Madureira (Battle Chasers), Humberto Ramos (Out 
There), Pat Lee's (Darkminds), Dreamwave Studios, 
and others — worked on major American superhero 
titles, among them X-Men, Gen 13, Spider-Man, and 
Fantastic Four. In 2002, Marvel Comics introduced 
the "Marvel Mangaverse," a limited series that 
reimagined the major characters of the Marvel uni- 
verse — among them Spider-Man, the Avengers, and 
the X-Men — through a manga-influenced lens. 

In the same year, Top Cow began a twelve-issue 
Battle of the Planets comic. With art direction by 



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Anime and Manga 



Alex Ross {Kingdom Come), writing by Munier Sharri- 
eff (Battle Chasers), and art by Wilson Tortosa, this 
new comic introduced the series to a fresh genera- 
tion of fans while receiving praise from older ones. 
And while not a superhero in the traditional sense, 
Neil Gaiman's Sandman became the basis of the 
best-selling book Sandman: The Dream Hunters 
(1999), a joint project between Gaiman and artist 
Yoshitaka Amano. Amano also illustrated the mini- 
series Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer (2001). 

In Japan, artists influenced by American super- 
heroes and comic-book artists began their own suc- 
cessful careers. Ryoichi Ikegami (Mai, the Psychic 
Girl) counted Neil Adams as a major influence, and 
even drew a manga version of Spider-Man in the 
early 1970s; Akira Toriyama used elements of 
Superman in the wildly popular series Dragon Ball 
(1985-1995). Yukito Kishiro (Battle Angel Alita) 
was heavily influenced by Frank Miller in his series 
Ashen Victor (1999). Juzo Tokoro created the 
manga Shadows of Spawn (1998) under the super- 
vision of Todd McFarlane (Spawn). 

The late 1990s saw Japanese artists working 
on popular American superhero comics. Katsuhiro 
Otomo created the short comic "The Third Mask" 
for the fourth issue of the Batman: Black and White 
anthology series (1996). Koichi Ohata co-wrote and 
penciled the 1995 comic-book adaptation of his 
popular OVA (Original Video Animation, direct-to- 
video series) M.D. Geist for Central Park Media 
Comics. Tsutome Nihei (Blame!) wrote and illustrat- 
ed a five-issue miniseries for Marvel titled Wolver- 
ine: Snikt! (2003). Yet no manga artist has gone 
further than Kia Asamiya (Silent Mobius). Asamiya, 
a fan of the work of Mike Mignola (Hellboy), became 
the first manga artist to illustrate a major ongoing 
title when he became the artist on The Uncanny X- 
Men with writer Chuck Austen in late 2002. While 
his run on the series was only a few issues, 
Asamiya had already made inroads; he created the 
cover art for Fantastic Four #59 (2002) and wrote 
and illustrated Batman: Child of Dreams for Kodan- 
sha (under the supervision of DC Comics) in 2000. 



1& 



Asamiya's rendition of the Dark Knight was brought 
to the United States in 2002 and received critical 
acclaim. Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition) 
adapted the graphic novel into English — but Collins 
himself was influenced by Lone Wolf and Cub when 
he wrote Road to Perdition (1998). And, after nearly 
fifty years, Tezuka's original Tetsuwan Atom manga 
saw release in America, albeit under the title more 
familiar to Americans: Astro Boy. 

The ultimate expression of American interest in 
anime and manga was the 1999 science-fiction 
blockbuster motion picture The Matrix. Writer/direc- 
tors Larry and Andy Wachowski combined elements 
of manga, anime, American comic books, super- 
heroes, science fiction, and Hong Kong cinema and 
philosophy into a film that stunned audiences with 
never-before-seen visual effects and storytelling. 
The film led to two sequels that were released in 
2003; the sequels had a much more prominent 
anime and manga influence, drawing inspiration 
from works such as Ghost in the Shell and Akira. 
There was even The Animatrix, a joint American- 
Japanese project that showcased a collection of 
nine animated stories set in the universe of the 
film. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gun- 
dam) commented of the original Matrix film in the 
March 2000 issue of Animerica, "It was a movie, 
but it used anime techniques and methodology. I 
was pleased to see someone breaking new ground 
in this respect." 

TO&SCONTTNUeP... 

What will the future bring? Will interest in the 
superheroes of anime and manga (or the mediums 
themselves, for that matter) fade away? Will the 
cross-cultural exchange of ideas and techniques 
continue between Japan and the United States? 
New superhero titles continue to arrive on American 
shores; in 2003, they included Sadamitsu the 
Destroyer, Idol Fighter Su-Chi-Pai, Project Arms, and 
B'Tx. Two classic titles also arrived: the Saint Seiya 
anime (retitled Knights of the Zodiac) and Ishi- 



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Ant-Man 



nomori's manga Cyborg 009 — as well as the 2001 
Cyborg 009 anime series. It will take time to see 
how fans and the general public receive these 
titles. One fact is clear, however: Anime and manga 
from Japan have introduced Americans to super- 
heroes and storytelling that are different from, and 
yet strikingly similar to, the pantheon of super- 
heroes created in the United States. — MM 

Ant-Man 

Marvel's superhero revolution has been so success- 
ful that it is hard to imagine a time when the com- 
pany was unsure about how to handle them, but in 
its early years there were a few strips that never 
quite caught on. One of these was Ant-Man, 
although, over the years, he has remained in the 
public eye through a succession of name — and 
size — changes. Dr. Henry ("Hank") Pym was first 
introduced in a short Stan Lee/Jack Kirby story 
called "The Man in the Ant Hill!" (in Tales to Aston- 
ish #27) in early 1962, barely two months after Fan- 
tastic Four#l; this makes him Marvel's second 
superhero. The tale recounts how intrepid (not to 
say reckless) scientist Hank Pym discovers a serum 
that can shrink him to the size of an ant; essential- 
ly, this plot device was little different from those 
used in the many mystery stories that the company 
was churning out at the time. However, later that 
year (in Tales to Astonish #33) Pym returns, this 
time with a stylish red costume and a "cybernetic" 
helmet that allows him to communicate with and 
control ants, as well as amplify his voice when he is 
shrunken so that humans can hear him. With a sup- 
ply of shrinking fluids (later capsules) in his belt, he 
is ready to tackle crime as Ant-Man. 

This faintly ludicrous premise inspired a num- 
ber of enjoyably wacky stories — as long as Lee and 
Kirby were aboard. However, issues by lesser hands 
were a pale shadow of the company's top features, 
such as Fantastic Four or Spider-Man. From a con- 
temporary perspective, nevertheless, there is much 



to enjoy in the series' parade of outrageous villains, 
including Egghead (whose head was, indeed, ovoid), 
the Porcupine, El Toro, the Scarlet Beetle, the 
Human Top, and the infamously stupid Living Eras- 
er. Tales to Astonish #44 introduced the partner, 
love interest, and part-time damsel-in-distress Janet 
Van Dyne, a.k.a. the Wasp. She was gifted with 
shrinking powers, wings, and stingers by a smitten 
Pym. In late 1963 the pair were founding members 
of the Avengers, in whose comic book they would 
find much of their success over the following 
decades. One month later, Pym underwent the first 
of many transformations. 

In issue #49 of Tales to Astonish, Pym discov- 
ered that, by adjusting his serum, he could grow 
rather than shrink, and so Giant-Man was born. Sev- 
eral issues later, the strip introduced a group of 
kids called the Giant-Man and Wasp Fan Club, but in 
reality the strip was in trouble and in issue #70 was 
replaced by the Sub-Mariner, just as Ant-Man and 
the Wasp had been replaced in The Avengers #15 
by the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. After a year in 
the wilderness, the pair returned and became 
Avengers regulars throughout the 1960s, but all 
this shrinking and growing were taking their toll on 
poor old Pym, who first changed his name to 
Goliath and then had a mental breakdown, reap- 
pearing as the mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know 
Yellowjacket. Undeterred by her beau's raging schiz- 
ophrenia, the Wasp promptly married Pym/Yellow- 
jacket and, even though he soon returned to nor- 
mal, the seeds of future trouble were sown. 

For the rest of that decade, Yellowjacket and 
the Wasp were occasional stars in the Avengers, 
while Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, "borrowed" 
Pym's growth serum and became a new, bare- 
chested Goliath. In the early 1970s, the pair went 
on an extended "research" leave of absence, 
although Pym starred in a brief run in Marvel Fea- 
ture (issues #4-#10 in 1972) as Ant-Man, before 
returning to the group with issue #137. Though Pym 
seemed content to be Yellowjacket, his lab assis- 
tant Bill Foster briefly became the size-changing 



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Black Goliath for five issues of his own comic. The 
1980s were a less happy time for the couple, with 
the Wasp becoming ever more prominent in the 
Avengers while Pym gradually went around the bend 
(again) in his lab. In a sequence of events starting 
in The Avengers #213, Hank had a nervous break- 
down, hit Van Dyne, was court-martialed by the 
team, framed by Egghead for stealing some nuclear 
devices, jailed, freed, divorced, retired, un-retired, 
and finally inducted in the West Coast Avengers (as 
depressed scientist-in-residence). 

Meanwhile, someone at Marvel noticed that 
there was currently no one in their line called Ant- 
Man, and so a new one duly appeared in two 
issues of Marvel Premiere (issues #47 and #48, in 
1981). This new incarnation was Scott Lang, who 
had turned to crime to support his family and had 
been jailed for three years, during which his wife 
divorced him. On his release, he found work with 
Stark Industries but stole one of Pym's old Ant-Man 
costumes to rescue the one doctor who could save 
his critically ill daughter (and who had rather incon- 
veniently been kidnapped). Following his first suc- 
cessful outing as Ant-Man, Lang was given the suit 
permanently by a very understanding Pym and has 
since gone on to guest appearances in Avengers, 
Rom, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, and Alias. After quit- 
ting his job with Stark Industries, he was hired by 
the Fantastic Four to replace Reed Richards when 
that character temporarily disappeared (in Fantas- 
tic Four #388). Following Reed's inevitable return, 
Lang became something of a glorified computer 
repairman for the team before joining the Heroes 
for Hire for a couple of years in the late 1990s 
(and appearing as mentor and rival to his grown-up, 
Wasp-like daughter Cassie — a.k.a. "Stinger" — in 
the parallel-future Avengers book A-Next). Like the 
original Ant-Man, Lang's powers are not really sig- 
nificant enough to sustain a solo series, but he 
makes a decent team player and his own insecurity 
and self-doubt make him an engaging character. 

As far as Pym is concerned, the late 1980s 
saw him begin to rebuild his life and, for a while, he 



* 



used his abilities (now made inherent after such 
prolonged use of his various potions and gases) to 
shrink or enlarge other objects before gaining the 
confidence to become a superhero again. In due 
time, he rejoined the Avengers as Giant-Man, once 
more changed his name to Goliath, and gradually 
became reconciled with the Wasp. Post-millennial 
developments have seen the inevitable third men- 
tal breakdown and the reappearance of Yellow- 
jacket. Although this time Yellowjacket initially 
occupied a separate body, he and Pym were even- 
tually merged together again and now, as Yellow- 
jacket, he remains a central character in the 
Avengers. While never a major figure in the comics 
world, Pym has enjoyed something of a cult follow- 
ing, particularly as Ant-Man, which has resulted in 
a well-received book collection of his Tales to 
Astonish years (in 2002) and the occasional action 
figure and statue. His sole brush with the mass 
media was in the 1999-2000 Fox Avengers televi- 
sion cartoon, where he appeared simply as scien- 
tist Dr. Hank Pym. — DAR 



Anti-communism: See Fighting American; Gold- 
en Age of Superheroes (1938-1954); Super- 
patriots 



Anti-drug Series 

In an October 1970 article for New York magazine 
titled "The Radicalization of the Superheroes," Mar- 
vel Comics writer and editor-in-chief Stan Lee said, "I 
feel that comics could do much good as far as help- 
ing kids avoid the danger of drugs." Less than a year 
later, Lee would make history with the same senti- 
ment. "I got a letter from the Department of Health, 
Education and Welfare," Lee recalled, "which said, in 
essence, that they recognized the great influence 
that Marvel Comics and Spider-Man have on young 
people. And they thought it would really be very ben- 
eficial if we created a story warning kids about the 
dangerous effects of drug addiction." 



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The comics industry's self-censoring Comics 
Code Authority would not allow the depiction of drugs 
under its 1954 Comics Code, so a comic that 
broached the subject would have to do so without its 
seal of approval. Lee forged ahead with a novel 
Spider-Man story about the dangers of drugs, which 
he fought to publish in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 
1 #96 (May 1971). In this issue, Spider-Man rescues 
an African-American youth who, under the influence 
of drugs and imagining he can fly, jumps from a sky- 
scraper. Later in the story, as alter ego Peter Parker, 
the hero muses, "My life as Spider-Man is probably 
as dangerous as any — but I'd rather face a hundred 
supervillains than toss it away by getting hooked on 
hard drugs! 'Cause that's one fight you can't win!" 

The first issue published by a comic-book com- 
pany without code approval since the code's incep- 
tion, Spider-Man #96 (and subsequent issues #97 
[June] and #98 [July]) challenged the code to revise 
its language. And revise it did. The Comics Code's 
new language stated, "Narcotics addiction shall not 
be presented except as a vicious habit." With the 
adoption of the more lax standards, DC editor 
Carmine Infantino went on record in a 1971 New 
York Times article with his support of the code's 
new attitude: "I think this can prove that the medi- 
um that was considered junk for one generation will 
be jewel for the next. It can explore the social ills 
for the younger generation and help them decide 
how to direct their lives." It didn't take long for DC 
to follow in Marvel's footsteps — publishing Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow #85 in September 1971, 
which boldly portrays the Neal Adams-rendered 
Green Arrow sidekick, Speedy, shooting up drugs on 
the issue's front cover. The tagline? "DC attacks 
youths' greatest problem ... drugs!" 

In fact, over the course of more than a dozen 
issues, under the hand of writer Denny O'Neil and 
artist Neal Adams, Green Lantern/Green Arrow 
would tackle more than drugs in their forging of a 
larger comics-industry movement known as "rele- 
vance." Beginning in May 1970 with Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow #76, frank discussion of vari- 



AN IMPORTANT MESS ACE FROM THE HONORABLE JOHN V. LINDCAT 
MAYOR OF NEW YOBK CI TT 




Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86 © 1971 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY NEAL ADAMS. 



ous American social and cultural topics dujourtook 
place inside Green Lantern/Green Arrow's pages — 
including prejudice, Native American rights, 
women's liberation, ecological waste, consumerism, 
overpopulation, and campus unrest. Said O'Neil of 
the series, "It was superheroes questioning them- 
selves for the first time." This critically acclaimed 
approach to realism in superhero comics had come 
to its natural conclusion by the mid-1970s, as the 
readership tired of having superheroes confront 
social ills instead of the standard fare of mad scien- 
tists and alien invaders. However, with more atten- 
tion to narrative impact than social obligation, such 
themes have returned sporadically but prominently 



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Anti-heroes 



in the decades since, with the recurrent alcoholism 
of Iron Man's secret identity Tony Stark and the 
abused childhood of the Hulk's alter ego Bruce Ban- 
ner being just two of the best known. — GM 

Anti-heroes 

"A fitting ending for his kind," the hero remarked 
without compunction, as the adversary he had just 
assaulted flailed toward a grisly demise into a vat 
of acid. This was, surprisingly, the Batman, at the 
conclusion of his first story — "The Case of the 
Chemical Syndicate" — in Detective Comics #27 
(May 1939). Granted, his foe, a murderous "rat" 
named Stryker, certainly deserved a comeuppance, 
but Batman's action was shockingly excessive. By 
conventional standards, heroes do not kill. 

Nor did Batman for long: In under a year his 
editors at DC Comics forced the character's creator, 
Bob Kane, to align Batman with the law — "The 
whole moral climate changed," Kane said; "You 
couldn't kill or shoot villains" — and paired him with 
a buoyant Boy Wonder, Robin. For decades Batman 
was a costumed cop and a father figure, before 
being returned to his foreboding roots as an anti- 
hero, beginning in the 1970s in a "creature of the 
night" movement orchestrated by writer Denny 
O'Neil and artist Neal Adams. 

By definition, an anti-hero is a protagonist 
possessing qualities customarily considered non- 
heroic. An anti-hero may exhibit personality flaws 
such as self-absorption or pity, emotional 
extremes like rage or introversion, a distrust of 
accepted values, or a lack of social decorum. Con- 
versely, a hero cut from the traditional cloth is 
altruistic and dedicated to righting wrongs while 
following the letter of the law. 

Literary authors have long been enamored of 
anti-heroes: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, for 
example, was a mischievous runaway who broke the 
law to liberate a slave. On radio dramas and in pulp 



%b 



magazines of the early twentieth century, the Shad- 
ow frightened criminals with his unholy, disembodied 
laugh, leaving a trail of corpses behind as he exact- 
ed justice, and the Green Hornet perpetuated the 
myth of his mob alliance to sting gangsters in 
entrapment ploys. In film and on television, anti- 
heroes are common, from the suave but roguish 
James Bond, to Clint Eastwood as the gun-slinging 
"Man with No Name" in the movie The Good, the 
Bad, and the Ugly (1966), to Michael Chiklis' Vic 
Mackley, the brutal L.A. cop in the TV drama The 
Shield (2002-present). These anti-heroes engage in 
actions that are illegal, rebellious, or scandalous, 
but their motivations for doing so resonate with 
readers and viewers. 

Sometimes, the line demarcating anti-heroism 
and villainy is blurred. The two sides are divided, 
however, by the understanding that the anti-hero is 
driven to attain a higher ideal. There's a little "bad" 
in everyone, be it the result of original sin or an 
innate desire to nurture self-indulgence. Hence, the 
popularity of anti-heroes: Their methods may be 
taboo, but their goals are (usually) laudable. 

Namor, the pompous undersea superhero bet- 
ter known as the Sub-Mariner, was Marvel Comics' 
first anti-hero, premiering in 1939. The offspring of 
a human sea captain and a denizen of an aquatic 
race, Namor harbored venomous hatred toward the 
"surface dwellers" for underwater bombings that 
nearly exterminated his people (his very first story 
in Marvel Comics #1 concluded with the caption 
"And so Namor, the Avenging Son, faces the surface 
men of the world, in what promises to be mortal 
combat!"). With his awesome strength, his ability to 
fly (thanks to tiny wings on his ankles), his com- 
mand of the seas, and his unbridled rage, Sub- 
Mariner regularly attacked the city of New York, top- 
pling bridges and destroying buildings. During a 
momentous 1941 clash with the Human Torch, 
Namor flooded Manhattan with a massive tidal 
wave. These heinous measures never categorized 
the Sub-Mariner as a villain, however; as Peter 
Sanderson observes in his book Marvel Universe 



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Anti-heroes 



(1996), "Readers understood that he abided by his 
own moral code, according to which he was a lone 
avenger and defender of his people." Once the Unit- 
ed States became involved in World War II, Namor 
directed his ire toward the Axis powers, even rescu- 
ing Allied seamen. In 1962, after an absence from 
comics along with many other superheroes, Sub- 
Mariner returned to attack New York. Over time his 
hostility quelled, although readers of Marvel comics 
can never be sure if this unpredictable anti-hero will 
resurface as friend or foe. 

Amazing Man, Centaur Publications' barely 
remembered superhero first seen in September 
1939, was not adverse to stealing police vehicles 
and dropping bombs during his initial appearances, 
but, like Batman, was soon watered down and paired 
with a sidekick named Tommy the Amazing Kid. 

Materializing in DCs More Fun Comics #52 
(1940), the Spectre was the next anti-hero to appear 
in comic books. The Spectre was actually Jim Corri- 
gan, a hard-edged gumshoe who was the victim of a 
gangland execution. Corrigan was turned away from 
the Pearly Gates by an ethereal voice: "Your mission 
on Earth is unfinished ... You shall remain earth- 
bound battling crime on your world, with supernatur- 
al powers ..." For the first phase of his career in the 
early to mid-1940s, the Spectre was essentially a 
"ghostly guardian" who fought criminals with a 
bizarre array of occult abilities; he returned in the 
mid-1960s to tackle magical menaces. In an early 
1970s revival by writer Michael Fleischer and artist 
Jim Aparo, the Spectre became a wrathful spirit, dis- 
posing of evildoers in an array of ghastly manners 
that included conjuring a giant pair of scissors to cut 
a man in half. This anti-heroic interpretation of the 
Spectre has propelled him through several revivals 
in the decades that followed. 

MU Publications, best known for its whole- 
some line of comics starring teenage Archie 
Andrews and his friends, uncharacteristically pub- 
lished the adventures of two anti-heroes during 
comics' Golden Age (1938-1954). The first was the 



Comet (1940-1941), a volatile chemist named 
John Dickering who created a gas that enabled him 
to fly. The Comet also wielded destructive eye 
beams, which he used to disable and sometimes 
slaughter his foes. After seventeen stories, the 
Comet was waylaid by mobsters and murdered. His 
brother Bob swore to avenge his slain sibling as the 
cowled and cloaked Hangman (1941-1944). The 
Hangman terrified his prey by projecting his symbol, 
a noose, against a wall or even a foe's face, and he 
was merciless in his missions. Both of these bleak 
anti-heroes originally appeared in a comic book 
titled, oddly enough, Pep Comics. 

Shortly after the end of World War II, superhero 
comics suffered a precipitous plunge in popularity 
and most fell by the wayside. Cultural climates shift- 
ed as the United States lived in paranoia of the 
spread of Communism and of nuclear war. Heroes 
of that era represented traditional values, from 
Superman's "truth, justice, and the American way" 
to the old-fashioned prairie righteousness (shoot 
the bad guy) of popular Western TV shows and 
comic books. Then came Stan Lee. 

In 1961 Lee had written and edited various 
Marvel Comics series for twenty years and was cre- 
atively depleted, ready to find another job. A corpo- 
rate mandate to produce a superhero team (based 
on rival DC Comics' renewed success with the Jus- 
tice League) inspired him to give the medium one 
last chance and create something different: super- 
heroes with "real" personalities. With Fantastic 
Four#l (1961), Lee and his partner, artist Jack 
Kirby, introduced the "FF," a family of four often 
quarrelsome figures banding together as a force for 
good. While none of these characters were anti- 
heroes in the strictest sense, the FF's success 
encouraged Lee and Kirby to combine monster and 
superhero into one anti-heroic form with their next 
creation. 

"Is he man or monster or ... is he both?" 
queried the cover copy of The Incredible Hulk #1 
(1962). The Hulk, "the strongest man of all time!!!" 



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Anti-heroes 



as that same cover proclaimed, was a green- 
skinned behemoth (although gray in his first tale) 
who was actually a meek but repressed scientist 
named Dr. Bruce Banner. Banner was exposed to a 
devastating blast of gamma radiation, which should 
have killed him but instead gave him an even worse 
fate: Whenever his anger consumed him, Banner 
would transform into the rampaging creature of 
rage, the Hulk. Like the Frankenstein Monster, the 
Hulk just wanted to be left alone, but the U.S. Army 
had other ideas, their efforts to apprehend the Hulk 
always goading him into destructive retribution. The 
dichotomy between Banner and the Hulk was origi- 
nally portrayed as a Jekyll-and-Hyde switch, but in 
the comics of the 1980s it was given deeper signifi- 
cance by writer Bill Mantlo. Mantlo established that 
Banner experienced physical abuse as a child and 
repressed his rage for years, that anger later 
exploding uncontrollably as his Hulk persona. Direc- 
tor Ang Lee nurtured this concept when he brought 
the emerald anti-hero to the big screen in the block- 
buster film The Hulk (2003). In the 2000s Bruce 
Jones, writer of Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, regu- 
larly explores the mental anguish suffered by Ban- 
ner when contemplating the annihilation caused by 
his alter ego. 

Throughout the 1960s Stan Lee continued to 
create a "Marvel Age" of problem-plagued super- 
heroes, but competitor DC Comics simply followed 
tradition with altruistic characters — until Deadman. 
In Strange Adventures #205 (1967), sharp-tongued, 
arrogant circus aerialist Boston Brand was shot to 
death while performing a trapeze act. Like the Spec- 
tre, Brand, as Deadman, was assigned an after-life 
mission: to find his killer. Tough to do, given his dis- 
embodied form. Deadman's self-absorption in his 
search for his assassin made his motivation anti- 
heroic, although Brand experienced some level of 
redemption during his journeys, frequently using his 
eerie ability to possess humans' bodies to assist 
those in need. 

Also in 1967, Charlton Comics took a radical 
step with one of its "action heroes." In creator/artist 



jfi 



Steve Ditko's "Question" backup series in Blue Beetle 
#4, the Question willingly permitted his enemy to 
drown by refusing to rescue him. Dick Giordano, the 
comic's editor, admitted in his biography, Dick Gior- 
dano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time (2003), 
"That was over the top for the time. I thought, 'we're 
trying to be different, we're trying to be bold,' so it 
didn't bother me." This story kindled bitter controver- 
sy and vehement letters. While Marvel's Hulk was an 
anti-hero by circumstance, Charlton's Question was 
one by choice. DC Comics acquired the rights to 
Ditko's creation in the 1980s and produced a criti- 
cally acclaimed series starring the anti-hero (The 
Question, 1987-1990). 

Marvel Comics introduced a pair of characters 
in 1974 that would ultimately reshape the mold for 
superheroes. In The Amazing Spider-Man #129, 
"Spidey" was targeted by a black-clad, heavily 
armed combatant with a white skull shirt insignia: 
the Punisher. Originally conceived as a relentless 
hired gun ("It's you again! Won't you ever quit?" 
asked Spider-Man as the Punisher dogged him; 
"Not while you're still alive, punk!" was his answer 
as he kicked Spidey in the head), the Punisher was 
soon converted into an anti-hero, a dangerous 
enemy of organized crime whose methods were 
sometimes more brutal than his enemies'. In 
November 1974 the Hulk encountered a "gaudily 
garbed gentleman" with "claws beared, teeth 
clenched, his face awash with almost feral fury": 
Wolverine. Brandishing retractable claws forged of 
the unbreakable metal adamantium, Wolverine's 
"natural inclination was to disembowel an antago- 
nist without a second thought," notes Les Daniels 
in Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's 
Greatest Comics (1992). Wolverine struggles to 
resist his untamed proclivities, although he has 
killed foes in the past. 

It is interesting to note that both the Punisher 
and Wolverine premiered during the year that U.S. 
president Richard Nixon resigned from office due to 
his role in the Watergate scandal. The American peo- 
ple, particularly its youth, had grown jaded by a 



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Anti-heroes 



leader who lied to them. Readers knew exactly 
where they stood with visceral heroes like Wolverine 
and the Punisher: There was no talk, no compro- 
mise, no manipulation, only quick, decisive action. 
This attitude similarly played out on the silver screen 
in two prominent film franchises, the Death Wish 
movies starring Charles Branson as a vigilante mop- 
ping up street crime, and the Dirty Harry series with 
Clint Eastwood as the no-nonsense San Francisco 
cop packing a .45 magnum and little patience. 

Frank Miller's Elektra continued this trend. Intro- 
duced in Marvel's Daredevil #168 (1981), Elektra, 
superhero Daredevil's former lover, is an assassin for 
hire, proficiently trained in martial arts. Her marks 
are always evildoers, but her flair for carnage puts 
her on the opposite side of the law from Daredevil. 
Her brazen methods and uniqueness immediately 
resonated with readers. In the 2000s Elektra stars in 
her own monthly Marvel comic series, and actress 
Jennifer Garner portrayed the assassin in the live- 
action film Daredevil (2003), with the prospect of a 
spinoff Elektra film franchise. Shortly after Elektra's 
debut, Sylvester Stallone's vigilante war vet Rambo 
drew first blood in a 1982 film, followed by two 
sequels. Americans were held captive by anti-heroes. 

1986 was a pivotal year for anti-heroes in 
superhero comics. Elektra creator Miller distin- 
guished himself with his gritty reinterpretation of 
DCs first anti-hero in Batman: The Dark Knight 
Returns (1986), in which a grizzled, older Batman 
emerged from retirement and adopted extreme mea- 
sures to battle rampant crime in Gotham City. DC 
Comics also published Alan Moore and Dave Gib- 
bons' Watchmen beginning that year, a twelve-issue 
series exploring the darker side of superheroes. In 
the mid-1980s Marvel published a limited series 
titled Squadron Supreme, a thinly disguised riff on 
DCs Justice League about a band of superheroes 
who benevolently ruled the world, until one of their 
legion led a rebellion to unseat their power. 

Many new characters who have originated 
since the mid-1980s exhibit anti-heroism rather 



than standard heroism. From Matt Wagner's engine 
of aggression, Grendel, to DCs "greatest mass mur- 
derer ever known," Lobo, anti-heroes represent the 
new breed. By the 1990s they became the norm: 
Image Comics published the hell-born Spawn and 
raucous teams Youngblood and WildC.A.T.S, Dark 
Horse Comics' X and Ghost blasted away bad guys 
without thinking twice, and even the classic heroes 
were altered to reflect the times, including Super- 
man, who was butchered in 1992 and rose from the 
dead with a black uniform and a meaner attitude 
(though this was one of the few such grim reinven- 
tions that didn't last for long). 

The ultimate commentary on this shift in the 
heroic ideal was made by author Mark Waid and 
painter Alex Ross in their four-issue DC Comics 
miniseries Kingdom Come (1996). Kingdom Come 
envisions a near future where the conventional 
superhero is outmoded and a new wave of anti- 
heroes, many of whom are descendants of older 
heroes, have inherited the earth, spoiling it in the 
process. The series evolved into a cataclysmic con- 
flict between the old guard and the new blood. 

Beyond comics, the heroes of mass-media pop 
culture also reflects a brazen, take-no-prisoners 
attitude: Witness Tomb Raider Lara Croft of video 
game and movie fame, as adept with guns as she 
is with archaeology, and the violent, feisty anti- 
heroes that pepper most Japanese manga and 
anime series. 

A devastating real-life catastrophe on Septem- 
ber 11, 2001, helped restore some semblance of 
time-honored principles into the world of super- 
heroes. Terrorist attacks on United States soil 
inspired a resurgence of altruism, reflected in the 
comics medium with new leases on life for 
paragons like Captain America and Superman. 
Those and a few other examples aside, anti-heroes, 
with their human foibles and penchant for swift 
reprisals, remain the norm. This is unlikely to 
change, unless human nature's unspoken impulse 
for permanent retribution changes as well. — ME 



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Aquaman 

Aqvawan 

Although he was not the first aquatic superhero, 
Aquaman is the only one who has been in print 
almost continuously since his creation in 1941. 
Aquaman, also nicknamed King of the Seven Seas, 
first swam onto the scene in More Fun #73, one of 
several creations of legendary DC Comics editor 
Mort Weisinger, with art by Paul Norris. The creators 
covered Aquaman's origin in a mere three panels: 
His father, an undersea explorer named Tom Curry, 
discovers the ruins of long-lost Atlantis and sets up 
home there. From the books and records of that 
ancient civilization, he teaches his son, Arthur 
Curry, how to live and breathe underwater (not to 
mention swim through the ocean at 100 miles per 
hour), and how to communicate with and control the 
many denizens of the deep. Later on, the comic 
reveals that Aquaman's mother had been an 
Atlantean herself, truly solidifying Aquaman as a 
man of the sea. His one true weakness, however, is 
that he cannot survive for more than one hour with- 
out water. But since even the slightest contact with 
water keeps him alive, the Marine Marvel can also 
enjoy the life of a crime fighter on land. 

In 1945, Aquaman moved from More Fun to 
Adventure Comics, where he stayed until 1961, one 
of only five superheroes from comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954) to remain in print throughout the 
1950s. While he started life battling Nazis, most of 
his strips in this later period were peopled with 
petty criminals, or helpless fish in need of rescuing. 
As superheroes came back into vogue by that 
decade's end, the strip was revamped and a young 
companion, plucky boy-hero Aqualad, was intro- 
duced. Affectionately dubbed "Tadpole" and "Little 
Sardine," Aqualad learns the ways of the deep from 
Aquaman, joining his mentor in many undersea 
adventures. In 1961, Aquaman starred in four 
issues of Showcase, which led the next year to his 
own solo comic and an ongoing membership in the 
Justice League of America. 




Aquaman #36 © 1967 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY NICK CARDY. 



Throughout the 1960s, Aquaman was a stal- 
wart of DCs superhero lineup — albeit a somewhat 
middle-aged one. Showcase stories had revealed 
that he was in fact the king of Atlantis, and most of 
his later strips dealt with threats to the kingdom 
from other aquatic races, weird beasts, and alien 
invaders. In short order, he met and wed Mera, a 
water-dwelling girl from another dimension, and the 
pair quickly produced Aquababy. Not to be outdone, 
Aqualad acquired his own love interest, Aquagirl, 
and became a founding member of the Teen Titans. 
With solid writing from Bob Haney and elegant art 
by Nick Cardy, the Aquaman comic was always well 
crafted, but perhaps lacking in excitement. During 
this period, Aquaman jumped from print into various 



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Aquatic Heroes 



cartoon shows— first during the 1967-1968 CBS 
season with Aquaman (voiced by Bud Collyer, who 
voiced Superman for radio and television) and then 
in 1970 on The Superman/Aquaman Hour. Aqua- 
man comics published at the end of the 1960s saw 
a punchier, more ecologically inclined approach 
from Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo, but the comic 
was canceled in 1971 and Aquaman was reduced 
to regular appearances with the Justice League. 

However, a few years later, following the sud- 
den cancellation of the controversial Spectre strip 
in Adventure Comics, Aquaman was rushed back, 
along with his last creative team, to fill the gap. 
This led to a short-lived revival of his own comic, 
which culminated in the unexpected and shocking 
murder of Aquababy by arch-villain Black Manta. In 
time, cancellation was followed by backup slots and 
a starring role in the long-running (1973-1986) 
Super Friends cartoon series, and to the present 
day DC has managed to keep the character in the 
public eye in one way or another. 

Following the death of their son, Mera and 
Aquaman parted company, and the 1980s and 
1990s witnessed a gradual hardening of the hero's 
personality, and even grittier stories. One (of many) 
1980s miniseries introduced a new, camouflaged 
costume to replace his old, fish-scale-covered, 
green-and-orange getup. This run led to a regular 
series in 1991. Its ecological theme proved no more 
popular than the previous, late 1960s attempt, but a 
third series in 1994 met with more success. In a 
reflection of the current popularity of violent anti- 
heroes, Aquaman now grew his hair long, sported a 
straggly beard, lost his left hand, and had it replaced 
by a harpoon! Mera and Aqualad were back on the 
scene but Aquaman's main love interest was Dol- 
phin, a previously obscure water-breathing girl from 
the pages of Showcase some twenty years earlier. 
At seventy-five issues, this was the title's longest 
run, and it was followed after a year's break by a 
fourth series in 2002. It now seems that Aquaman 
has been forced into exile following a coup, and is 
reduced to living in freshwater areas, where he has 



acquired magical powers (and a replacement left 
hand) from the Lady of the Lake. Whatever changes 
the character may go through in the new millennium, 
it now seems certain that he will be a regular news- 
stand presence for years to come. — DAR 

Aquatic Heroes 

Visionaries as diverse as novelist Jules Verne and 
oceanographer Jacques Costeau have captivated 
readers and viewers with accounts, imagined and 
real, of the beauty beneath the sea. Yet horrors 
exist in the murky depths, evolutionary atrocities, 
mutated monstrosities, and oceanic overlords that 
can only be vanquished by the defenders of the 
deep: the aquatic heroes. 

The most legendary of their nautical number — 
Marvel Comics' Prince Namor, better known as the 
Sub-Mariner, and DC Comics' Aquaman, at one time 
the King of the Seven Seas — originally swam in 
opposite currents. The imperious Sub-Mariner 
loathed surface dwellers, routinely attacking sailors 
(particularly Nazi submarines during World War II) 
and the city of New York. Antithetically, the accom- 
modating Aquaman aided endangered seamen and 
protected coastal (and other) communities from sea- 
spawned dangers, such as "The Creature that 
Devoured Detroit," an algae-monster oozing from pol- 
luted waters in Aquaman #56 (1971). The line divid- 
ing the two ebbed with passing years: Sub-Mariner's 
hostility waned and he formed apprehensive partner- 
ships with landlubbers, while Aquaman's surmount- 
ing vortex of misfortunes embittered him. 

Subsea adversaries have plagued the watery 
worlds of both heroes. Sub-Mariner's rogues' gallery 
includes the Shark, a sharp-toothed pirate who jets 
the waters in a shark-shaped ship; U-Man, a pariah 
from Namor's oceanic home, Atlantis; the Man-Eating 
Monsters, aquatic aliens who inhabit the forms of 
earthly sharks; Dr. Dorcas, a psychotic biologist 
commanding an army of mutant "Men-Fish"; and 



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Aquatic Heroes 



the fin-cowled Tiger Shark, an Olympic swimmer- 
turned-supervillain. Aquaman has clashed with the 
Human Flying Fish, a gimmick-enhanced thief plun- 
dering both sky and sea in his garish yellow-and- 
purple gear; the Fisherman, who reels in loot; the 
Ocean Master, Aquaman's demented half-brother 
who simulates his sibling's ability to breathe under- 
water with a seashell-shaped helmet; the Black 
Manta, one of Aquaman's fiercest foes, responsible 
for the death of his son Aquababy; the hideous 
water witch Gamemnae; and the Thirst, a sea- 
devouring mud-golem. 

According to superhero lore, there are undersea 
kingdoms filled with water-breathing humanoids. 
Sub-Mariner and Aquaman both hail from their 
respective publishers' versions of Atlantis, the 
fabled sunken continent now a vibrant oceanic city. 
Marvel's Atlantis contains blue-skinned inhabitants, 
including the late Lady Dorma, Sub-Mariner's wife. 
DCs Atlantis has spawned bipedal inhabitants and a 
race of mermen and mermaids. Migrating there was 
the estranged wife of Aquaman, Mera, a native of a 
watery dimension where denizens manipulate the 
density of H 2 (Mera commands "hard-water" pow- 
ers). Lori Lemaris, a mermaid, attended college on 
the surface world and hid her fishtail in a specially 
constructed wheelchair; she met and fell in love with 
classmate Clark Kent (Superman). During her youth, 
the Silver Age (1956-1969) Wonder Woman dated 
Merboy (alternately called Mer-Boy). Wonder 
Woman's maritime encounters did not end with her 
seafaring suitor: The Amazing Amazon's classic 
1966 Aurora model kit depicted the heroine roping a 
hostile octopus with her magic lasso, and a (comic) 
book-and-record set released by Peter Pan Records 
in 1978 pitted Wonder Woman against the jaws of a 
great white shark. 

Both Sub-Mariner and Aquaman splashed into 
comics during its celebrated Golden Age 
(1938-1954). They were not alone. First seen in 
Eastern Color's Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics #1 
(1940), scientist Bob Blake creates a chemical that 
enables him to transmute himself into living water 



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and uses his uncanny abilities — which include cas- 
cading through pipes and exiting through faucets, 
changing himself into a geyser, and creating waves 
and waterspouts — as Hydroman, a goggled crusad- 
er who wears, curiously, a see-through shirt. Hydro- 
man safeguarded American shores and skies from 
invading Japanese, and sometimes teamed with a 
young sidekick named Rainbow Boy. Hydroman's 
name and powers were arrogated by a Spider-Man 
villain in 1981 who, in the 2000s, literally drizzles 
on thrill seekers in the interactive 3-D Spider-Man 
amusement-park ride at Universal's Islands of 
Adventure in Orlando, Florida. 

Marvel Comics introduced the Fin in the pages 
of Daring Mystery #7 (1941). This costumed crime 
fighter, originally naval officer Peter Noble, survives 
a deep-sea calamity and discovers he can live 
underwater, a gift afforded him by "some strange 
whim of Mother Nature." Donning a tan wetsuit with 
a shark-fin headpiece, the Fin wielded his steel- 
piercing mystical cutlass against Nazis and other 
marine menaces for a few issues before sinking 
into limbo. Noteworthy is the fact that three of the 
Golden Age's aquatic heroes — Sub-Mariner, Hydro- 
man, and the Fin — were illustrated by the same 
man, artist Bill Everett. 

The family of Everett's most famous aquatic 
superhero expanded when Namora, Sub-Mariner's 
cousin, dove into her own series in 1948 as part of 
Marvel's unsuccessful attempt to spotlight a line of 
superheroine comics. This "Sea Beauty" was more 
jovial than her raucous relative, relishing her morn- 
ing swims ("This really works up a good appetite!") 
but paddling into cancellation after a mere three 
issues. Decades later, another Sub-Mariner relative, 
Namorita, was part of the teenage superteam 
called the New Warriors. 

In 1960, Aquaman met Garth, a young boy 
exiled from Atlantis due to a genetic defect — his 
purple eyes, considered a foreboding omen among 
his people. Befriended by the Sea King, the boy 
became his sidekick Aqualad. More recently, Aqua- 



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Aquatic Heroes 



lad has mastered Atlantean sorcery and is now 
known as Tempest. His first girlfriend, Tula (a.k.a. 
Aquagirl), died heroically, and Garth later married 
the undersea adventuress named Dolphin, a char- 
acter originally introduced in a superhero 
"romance" tale as a mysterious sea nymph with 
whom a sailor fell in love, in Showcase #79 (1968). 

Marvel's Triton is one of the Inhumans, a 
shunned race of beings mutated by the mysterious 
Terrigen Mist. Green-skinned and scaly, this gilled 
explorer is adept in the ocean's depths but cannot 
exist outside of water, requiring a water-immersing 
body harness when surfacing. Stingray is another 
Marvel aquatic hero, an oceanographer named Wal- 
ter Newell whose red-and-white super-suit's "glider- 
membrane cape" enables him to soar through the 
skies and the waters, and imbues him with 
enhanced strength and the ability to fire electrical 
"stings." He has been known to operate from an 
island headquarters he calls his Hydrobase. 

Tower Comics' Undersea Agent (1966-1967) is 
actually Lieutenant Davey Jones, part of an aquatic- 
based espionage force called U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. This 
Davey Jones apparently owns a locker stuffed with 
uniforms: He changed costumes throughout his 
six-issue run, his gear ranging from a midnight- 
blue wetsuit with a bubble helmet to more colorful 
variations (orange with red boots, red with blue 
fins, and green with red fins). Undersea Agent and 
his team thwarted the tyrannical Dr. Fang, who 
mocked the heroes on the cover of their first 
issue: "Those fools! Who do they think they are, to 
try to overcome the invincible Dr. Fang?" Jones' 
underwater world was besieged by oceanic oddi- 
ties such as jade-skinned barbarians with tridents, 
a dog-faced shark that bites through subs, and a 
giant robot. 

Similar grotesqueries challenged DC Comics' 
Sea Devils, a thinly disguised aquatic version of 
Marvel's Fantastic Four. Led by Dane Dorrance, the 
Sea Devils encountered giant octopi — tentacled ter- 
rors that have populated heroic fiction for 




BRAINSTORM! V 

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Thhll-O-Rama #2 © 1966 Harvey Comics. 

COVER ART BY GEORGE TUSKA AND JOE SIMON. 



decades — as well as an assemblage of undersea 
rogues like Captain X, Manosaur, Mr. Neptune, the 
Human Tidal Wave, and Octopus Man. The thirty- 
five-issue run of Sea Devils (1961-1967) is best 
remembered among collectors for its photo-realistic 
illustrations by Russ Heath, whose stunning covers 
employed an artistic technique appropriately called 
a "wash" effect. 

Other seaworthy stalwarts have paddled in and 
out of superhero adventures, including Harvey 
Comics' Pirana, an aquatic James Bond in an emer- 
ald wetsuit whose high-tech arsenal (a scuba gun, 
his "toss-net," and his aqua-plane) enabled him to 
checkmate "the world's most brilliant villain," Brain- 
storm; the Amphibian (a.k.a. Amphibion), an Aqua- 



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Archie Heroes 



man pastiche appearing in Marvel's supergroup the 
Squadron Supreme; Mark Harris, a gilled hybrid with 
webbed hands and feet, portrayed by actor Patrick 
Duffy in the short-lived live-action television series 
The Man from Atlantis (1977); Manta, an animated 
TV superhero (on CBS's Tarzan and the Super 7 
[1978]), whose ability to communicate with fish led 
to litigation by DC Comics citing copyright infringe- 
ment of Aquaman; Moray, the wife of Manta; the 
Little Mermaid, the Danish do-gooder from DCs 
Global Guardians whose legs can mutate into a 
fishtail; Fathom, the water-based superheroine 
from Bill Willingham's Elementals; Marrina, a yel- 
low-skinned alien who migrated from her overpopu- 
lated world to Earth and joined forces with Marvel's 
Canadian-based superteam Alpha Flight; and Abe 
Sapien, the amphibian ally of Mike Mignola's occult 
hero Hellboy. 

In DCs Firestorm the Nuclear Man vol. 2 #90 
(1989), the water elemental Naiad is introduced. 
Radical environmentalist Mai Miyazaki single-hand- 
edly protests an oil spill when a rigger's crewman 
fires a flare toward her. Engulfed in flames, Mai 
abandons ship, and Maya, the spirit of the Earth, 
magically makes her one with the sea. Now Naiad, 
Mai is living water and can summon — or even 
become — waves, tsunamis, or whirlpools. In 2003, 
DC introduced the Lady of the Lake as the concierge 
of the unexplored "Secret Sea," a peculiar realm 
where Aquaman now resides. The Lady of the Lake 
regenerated Aquaman's missing hand, which he lost 
in battle, with an appendage made of water. 

Lastly, many non-aquatic heroes have battled 
demons from the deep. Captain Marvel wrestled an 
angry tiger shark on the cover of Whiz Comics #19 
(1941), and the little-known superhero Master Key 
was entangled by a humongous eel in Scoop 
Comics #2 (1942). DCs Shark was a sea creature 
that climbed the evolutionary ladder after radiation 
exposure, becoming a humanoid with heightened 
mental capabilities, which he used to combat Green 
Lantern, Superman, Aquaman, and the entire Jus- 
tice League of America. Luke Cage, Marvel's "Hero 



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for Hire" also known as Power Man, clashed with a 
scaly scalawag calling himself Mr. Fish, as well as a 
street enforcer named Piranha Jones. Even the 
Legion of Super-Heroes, the superteens living 
1,000 years in the future, combated an amphibious 
mutant called Devil-Fish before learning that the 
creature, who lacked the ability to communicate 
with them, was not their enemy. — ME 

Archie Heroes 

Archie Comics is best known for the superheroic 
feat of continuing to thrive while the rest of the 
comics industry slumps, outpacing other companies 
by still selling millions annually and appearing at 
point-of-sale in supermarkets throughout the United 
States while most of its competition is consigned to 
the specialty comic shop. But the imprint that has 
prospered from tales of the ageless all-American 
teen and his madcap pals has at times also fear- 
lessly pursued the caped crime fighter market, 
heeding the call of the genre's cyclical booms. 

Archie Comics began in 1939 as MU, one of 
many pulp-magazine publishers that saw gold in 
them thar colorful costumes. Though obscure today 
and minor by any measure, the company scored a 
surprising number of firsts. For instance, MU 
debuted the original patriotic superhero, the Shield, 
in 1940, fourteen months before (and with an 
almost identical origin to) Captain America, who is 
widely remembered as the first and best of the type. 

At the same time, MU brought out the Comet, an 
early and forgotten brainchild of the now-revered Plas- 
tic Man creator Jack Cole. The Comet discovers a gas 
much lighter than hydrogen and injects it into his 
veins (don't try this at home, kids), gaining the ability 
to fly and the unfortunate side effect of rays that 
shoot uncontrollably from his eyes but are restrained 
by a special visor — an unlikely "power" lifted verba- 
tim, and much more profitably, by Marvel Comics for 
the X-Men team-leader Cyclops decades later. 



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Steel Sterling, who in 1940 acquired the 
strength of that metal by coating himself in a spe- 
cial chemical and leaping naked into a molten vat of 
the stuff (don't even think about it, kids), was actu- 
ally comics' first character to be called "The Man of 
Steel," and MLJ also featured perhaps the first 
death of a superhero and the first "outing" of a 
secret identity. (Such subjects would become preoc- 
cupations in the mid-1980s, with DC Comics' infa- 
mous fan phone-in contest to decide if the Joker 
should kill Robin, and in the early 2000s, with Mar- 
vel's lengthy storyline on the tabloid revelation of 
Daredevil's alter ego.) 

In 1941 the Comet was murdered by vengeful 
gangsters, becoming likely the first star in super- 
hero history to die — or at least to stay dead; the 
medium has seen many costumed resurrections, 
and, with the ghostly crusader Mr. Justice, MLJ was 
one of several companies to feature heroes who 
started dead. (MU broke even on the Comet's 
demise, using the event to inspire his brother to 
become 1941's answer to Charles Branson, the 
Hangman.) A different costumed vigilante, the Black 
Hood, demoted himself to street-clothes detective 
after a villain unmasked him in 1946, though for 
the preceding six years this most generic of super- 
heroes had enjoyed a surprising degree of renown, 
not only headlining comics but starring briefly in his 
own pulp magazine and radio show. 

But even this fame, like that of all the MLJ 
heroes, was fleeting; the ingratiating Archie was 
introduced in the back pages of Pep Comics (then 
the Shield and Hangman's domain) in 1941, and 
by 1945 he was the runaway hit that put all of 
MU's heroes into retreat (even taking over the 
name of the company in that year). It would be 
almost two decades before the costumes would 
come out of storage. 

When DC rang in comics' Silver Age 
(1956-1969) by revising and revamping characters 
like the Flash and Green Lantern in the mid- to late 
1950s, Archie Comics was the first competitor to 
follow suit, with a retooled Shield (adapted by Cap- 



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tain America's own creators, Joe Simon and Jack 
Kirby, as The Double Life of Private Strong). This 
comic was soon followed by The Fly (whose alter 
ego rubs a magic ring to gain all the powers of the 
insect world) in 1959 and The Jaguar (whose alter 
ego, urn, rubs a magic belt to gain all the powers of 
the animal kingdom) in 1961. Marvel Comics had a 
lot more success stealing DCs thunder, while the 
"Archie Adventure Series" books bit the dust within 
a few years or even a few issues. 

Regardless, Archie Comics tried again with the 
"Mighty Comics Group" line in 1965, hiring, of all 
people, Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel to script 
several series in the campy fashion of the day. The 
Fly was renamed Fly-Man; his counterpart Fly-Girl 
appeared; the Shield's son showed up in his dad's 
costume; the Black Hood and the Comet came out 
of retirement (or, in the Comet's case, death); and 
the Hangman and another 1940s MLJ hero, the 
Wizard, were economically repurposed as supervil- 
lains. There were occasional walk-ons by many MLJ 
alums, and the company even licensed an unappe- 
tizingly costumed superhero version of the classic 
pulp avenger the Shadow. 

Capitalizing on the hip humor and hyperbole of 
early 1960s Marvel Comics and the Batman televi- 
sion show while lacking their wit and quality, 
Archie's "Mighty" titles did have a breathless, show- 
must-go-on exuberance that gives them a certain 
crude charm and admirable audacity. If nothing 
else, they tell a crucial part of comics history, as 
indicators of how insatiable the market for super- 
heroes once was — though these books in particular 
were history themselves by 1967. 

Later, Archie Comics met a mid-1980s super- 
hero boomlet with a fitful revival of its own cos- 
tumed heroes, which lasted two years, from 1983 
to 1985. First through the Red Circle imprint 
(1983-1984), a banner under which Archie had 
published respected occult-themed thrillers in the 
1970s, and then through a return of the Archie 
Adventure Series (1984-1985), the company 
revived the Fly (and his original name), the Comet, 



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Astro Boy 



both versions of the Shield, and the Mighty Cru- 
saders (a catchall superteam of the Archie heroes 
first seen in the Mighty Comics days). Some of 
comics history's biggest names passed through the 
short-lived line (including Jack Kirby and Jim Ster- 
anko, who did covers, and Carmine Infantino, who 
did interior art on The Comet), but the comics' style 
seems to have surpassed their substance, and they 
rank among the medium's least remembered. 

In the early 1990s, comics companies were 
eager to feed another fleeting superhero craze, 
fueled by a speculation boom among collectors. 
Feeling new to many readers while providing pub- 
lishers with at least some kind of commercial pedi- 
gree, the Archie heroes briefly came to the rescue 
again, being licensed by DC Comics for the stand- 
alone "Impact" line (1991-1993). The familiar 
names were wheeled out with slightly unfamiliar 
(but none too innovative) origins and alter egos, 
including a Jaguar retooled to be a woman were-cat 
(like Marvel's Tigra), a Black Hood book in which the 
mystical headgear is more the star than its wearers 
(like Dark Horse's The Mask), a Comet powered by 
the explosion of a damaged radio antenna (?), sev- 
eral confusing generations of Shields, and so forth. 
The books generally suffered from the quantity-over- 
quality aesthetic that prevailed at the time, and, 
with only the comics-addict to sustain them, died 
off as the casual mass audience did. (Ironically, the 
rights to these characters hadn't been forthcoming 
a few years before, when a rising writer named Alan 
Moore wanted them for a little DC proposal that 
came to be called Watchmen.) 

The Archie heroes occasionally cameo with 
America's favorite teen and appear on his website to 
stand guard over their own copyrights, but the com- 
pany remains most amazing for the ordinary. — AMC 

Astro ftoy 

Doctor Osamu Tezuka was not the first person in 
Japan to work on manga, nor was he the first person 



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to create an animated work in Japan. Likewise, his 
most well-known character, Atom — renamed Astro 
Boy in the United States — was not his first creation. 
Nor was Astro Boy the first robot character created 
in Japan. Despite this, both Tezuka and Astro would 
go on to redefine manga and animation in Japan, 
influencing future manga artists and creating a new 
era of Japanese animation that would continue into 
the twenty-first century to worldwide accolades. 

Born in 1928, Tezuka began his career as a 
manga artist during the post-World War II years in 
then-occupied Japan. Although a medical student, 
he was also an artist, a passion he had nurtured 
since childhood. He counted among his influences 
American movies, especially the animated works of 
Walt Disney and Max Fleischer. Tezuka would fre- 
quently cite the films of these men — the classic 
1942 Disney film Bambi, for instance — as factors 
in his decision to pursue comics and later anima- 
tion. He would go on to receive his medical degree, 
but would never practice. His first major work was 
1947's Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island), a 
Japanese sensation with an art style that gave 
readers the impression they were watching a 
movie, not reading a comic. Tezuka's works over 
the next forty years included Metropolis (1949), 
Jungle Emperor (1950), Black Jack (1973-1978), 
Hi no fori (The Phoenix; begun in 1954), and 
Adolph (1983). He worked in all genres, from hor- 
ror to science fiction to comedy, and he even creat- 
ed the first full-length shojo ("girls comic") title in 
1953— Princess Knight. 

Despite the large volume of his works, whether 
manga or animated, none became as popular as 
Tezuka's creation Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty Atom). In 
1952, Tetsuwan Atom appeared in the comic maga- 
zine Shonen. The story opens in the year 2003. 
Atom is a robot boy built by Dr. Tenma; the grieving 
scientist is attempting to replace his son Tobio, who 
was killed in a tragic car accident. Sadly, despite 
the robot's efforts to become more human, Tenma 
rejects him. Sent off to a robot merchant, the robot 
is sold to a circus and given the name "Atom." He is 



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Astro Boy 



later found and adopted by the kind Professor 
Ochanomizu, and here begin his adventures. 

Tetsuwan Atom ran for sixteen years and its 
success was immediate. In late 1962, Mushi Pro- 
ductions — the animated studio founded by Tezuka — 
began work on an animated series for Tetsuwan 
Atom. The black-and-white series first premiered on 
January 1, 1963, on the Fuji television network and 
ran for 193 episodes. It was not the first animated 
series to appear on Japanese television (that honor 
belonged to Otagi Cartoon Calender), but it would 
become the first animated series from Japan to be 
broadcast in the United States. The man chiefly 
responsible for this was producer Fred Ladd, who 
worked on adapting 104 episodes for NBC. Ladd 
would be instrumental in bringing over several series 
from Japan to the United States, including Gigantor. 
One of Ladd's assistants in the endeavor was Peter 
Fernandez, who would later go on to work on the 
anime classic Speed Racer. The Tetsuwan Atom 
series was renamed Astro Boy and began airing on 
American television in September 1963. 

As a robot character, Astro ushered in a new 
era of robots in both manga and anime, and led to 
a new love and acceptance of robots in Japan. As a 
robot, Astro followed ten "laws," similar to Isaac 
Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." His powers 
came not from magic but from technology (no doubt 
Tezuka's scientific background was a tremendous 
asset). He could fly using jets in his feet and could 
also journey into space; he could speak sixty lan- 
guages and had searchlights for eyes. While he was 
a peacemaker first, Astro could defend himself with 
superstrength and machine guns in his rear. His 
"heart" was a computer, but his power came from 
an internal atomic fusion reactor. In a country forev- 
er in the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tezu- 
ka took the initiative of using nuclear power for 
peace, not destruction. His strong respect for life 
was evident in Astra's mission of working for peace; 
this went beyond typical "good versus evil" battles. 
With his big eyes, black trunks, red boots, and 
metallic hair, Astro had a distinctive look that 




Astro Boy #1 © 2002 Tezuka Productions. 

COVER ART BY OSAMU TEZUKA. 

intrigued Japanese and American viewers alike (and 
was even the subject of one episode of Bill Watter- 
son's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes). 

Astra's success in his native land caused Tezu- 
ka's stature in Japan to grow. His tremendous out- 
put and influence earned him the title of manga no 
kami-sama — literally, "God of Comics." In 1980, 
Tezuka won the Ink Pot Award at the San Diego 
Comic Convention. Astra's animated adventures 
featured the early efforts of several animators who 
would go on to successful careers as directors. 
Among them were Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit 
Gundam), Rin Taro (Galaxy Express 999), Osamu 
Dezaki (Space Adventure Cobra), and Noburo Ishig- 



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sr 



Astro City 



uro (Space Cruiser Yamato, Macross). Tezuka also 
influenced new generations of manga artists, some 
of whom worked with him as assistants. Among 
them were Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009), Reiji 
Matsumoto (Space Pirate Captain Harlock), and 
Buichi Terasawa (Cobra, Midnight Eye Goku). Even 
American artists such as Wendy Pini (Elfquest) and 
Scott McCloud (Zotl, Understanding Comics) count 
Tezuka as a major influence. 

In 1980, Tezuka brought Astro back to televi- 
sion, this time through Tezuka Productions (Mushi 
Productions had gone bankrupt several years earlier). 
This time, Noburo Ishiguro would direct the fifty-two- 
episode series, now in color and called Shin Tet- 
suwan Atom (New Mighty Atom). The show was now 
set in 2030, and Tezuka had a more direct hand in 
the scripts. A new character was added, a robot girl 
named Uran (Astro Girl in the American version). Dur- 
ing the 1990s, the anime distributor The Right Stuf 
International released the original black-and-white 
series on video in the United States. Manga Enter- 
tainment released the newer series in 2002 under 
the title of Astro Boy New Adventures. A new animat- 
ed series produced by Sony Pictures and Tezuka Pro- 
ductions began airing in Japan in April 2003 (to coin- 
cide with the date given for Astra's construction — 
April 7, 2003), with a dubbed version airing in the 
United States on the Kids' WB! network in early 
2004. An all-computer-generated, American-produced 
Astro Boy movie has been discussed since 1999 but 
still had no definite release date as of early 2004. 

While there had been an Astro Boy comic 
released by Gold Key in 1965, it had been heavily 
redrawn and reedited from an original Tezuka story. 
Now Comics published a monthly Astro Boy series 
in 1987 with Michael Dimpsey writing and Ken 
Steacy (Tempus Fugitive) and Rodney Dunn provid- 
ing the art. Fred Patten also assisted with the plot. 
It was not until 2002 that the original Tetsuwan 
Atom manga was released in the United States 
through Dark Horse Comics and Studio Proteus. 
Now titled Astro Boy, the translation was done by 
Frederick L. Schodt (Manga! Manga! The World of 



$!& 



Japanese Comics), who had been a close friend of 
Tezuka's and worked as a translator for him. The 
translated manga ran for over fifteen volumes. 

Sadly, Tezuka would not see this new flurry of 
interest in Astro Boy in the American popular cul- 
ture; he died in 1989 from complications due to 
stomach cancer. However, Tezuka's legacy has lived 
on in new animated works based on his manga — 
including Astro Boy. And in the actual, real-world 
field of robotics, Astro has also had a profound 
effect. In Japan, many entered the field because 
they had seen or read Astra's adventures as chil- 
dren. Both America and Japan have pursued the 
construction of new, advanced robots, but in Japan, 
there has been a movement toward more 
humanoid-shaped machines. Among the results of 
this effort were the P-series robots built by Honda; 
the successor of these robots was Asimo, a fully 
mobile, walking humanoid robot that was unveiled 
in 2002. In August 2003, the Atom Project was pro- 
posed by a group of Japanese researchers, with the 
ultimate goal being the creation of a humanoid 
robot with the emotional, physical, and mental 
capacity of a five-year-old human child. — MM 

Astro CHy 

Astro City is the preeminent city in America, and 
the hub of superpowered activities on Earth. But 
how do its residents view their superheroic protec- 
tors and the villains they oppose, as well as 
assorted aliens, monsters, and other menaces? 
And how do the heroes themselves feel about their 
lives when they aren't fighting crime? These 
themes are explored in Astro City, a comic-book 
series created by writer Kurt Busiek in August 
1995 for Image Comics imprint WildStorm (and 
originally titled Kurt Busiek's Astro City). Busiek 
worked with interior artist Brent Anderson and 
cover painter Alex Ross to create a world that was 
the opposite in theory from the "realistic" comics 
of the 1990s. Instead of examining what super- 



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Astro City 



heroes would be like in the real world, he posed 
the question, "What would the world be like if 
superheroes were commonplace?" 

Astro City has many archetypal heroes, but 
their private lives — and interaction with the world 
around them — is richer than in many comic-book 
series. The Superman-like Samaritan flies from 
rescue to rescue, never able to enjoy the sensa- 
tion of flight except in his dreams. Winged Victory 
prioritizes those she will aid: women first, men 
second. The superpowered Astra, ten-year-old 
daughter and member of The First Family, wants to 
learn to play hopscotch and go to school with nor- 
mal kids. Jack-in-the-Box uses toys to fight crime 
but worries about his own upcoming child. Dark 
avenger the Confessor hides a startling secret 
from everyone, including his teen sidekick, Altar 
Boy. An ex-villain named Steeljack gets out of 
prison and tries to resume a normal life, despite 
his silver skin. A cartoon anthropomorphic lion 
brought to life experiences the ups and downs of 
Hollywood stardom. 

Not only the heroes are under the spotlight in 
Astro City. As he did in his landmark series 
Marvels — in which he examined the history of Mar- 
vel Comics heroes through the eyes of a newspaper- 
man — Busiek often uses ordinary people and their 
perceptions to tell about the world of Astro City. 
Whether it is a newspaper reporter who cannot 
prove the astonishing adventure he witnessed with 
Silver Agent and the Honor Guard, a thief who dis- 
covers Jack-in-the-Box's identity and imagines what 
the knowledge could do for him, a second-generation 
immigrant girl who finds the monster-filled Shadow 
Hill neighborhood more comforting than the gleam- 
ing city, or a father concerned about moving his fami- 
ly to Astro City because of the super-violence, the 
ordinary citizens of this metropolis make as much of 
an impact in Astro City stories as do the heroes. 

The Astro City series also features many 
homages to past comic-book creators. Street, 
store, and building names are rife with comic book 




Astro City#l © 1995 Juke Box Productions. 

COVER ART BY ALEX ROSS. 



connections. Binderbeck Plaza, the heart of Astro 
City, is named after the creators of Captain Marvel, 
Otto Binder and C. C. Beck, while Iger Square, 
Grandenetti Avenue, and Feldstein's Bar& Grill refer 
to artists Jerry Iger and Jerry Grandenetti, and EC 
Comics/ MAD magazine editor Al Feldstein. 

Since its inception, Astro City has had an irregu- 
lar publishing schedule, but given its anthology for- 
mat, the wait for issues is not as difficult as for serial- 
ized storylines. Four hardcover collections and trade 
paperbacks of Astro City are available, and the series 
(under various names, including the five-issue Astro 
City: Local Heroes miniseries in 2003-2004) is on- 
going from DC Comics' WildStorm/Homage imprint. A 



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The Atom 



short-lived series of Astro City action figures was also 
released in 1999 by Toy Vault, and Bowen Designs 
released a Samaritan statue in April 1999. — AM 

Atlas Comics: See Bronze Age of Superheroes 
(1970-1979); Cat Heroes; Insect Heroes 

The Atom 

There has always been a place in comics for the 
little guy, and few came any smaller than DCs 
Atom — or rather, both of them! The first Atom pre- 
miered in All-Amehcan Comics #19 in late 1940 and 
very soon afterward began appearing as a member 
of the Justice Society in All Star Comics. The young 
Al Pratt, a student at Calvin College, is tired of being 
teased about his diminutive stature and, to impress 
his sweetheart Mary James, vows to transform his 
body into something more presentable. Through 
intensive training with former boxing champ Joe Mor- 
gan, he is soon immensely powerful. After donning a 
brown-and-yellow weightlifting costume (complete 
with straps and buckles), with a blue cowl and cape, 
the Atom starts a one-man crusade against crime 
and injustice. 

Without doubt, the Atom was one of the most 
uncomplicated characters of the Golden Age of 
comics (1938-1954); he had no superpowers, 
secret hideouts, sidekick, weaponry, or gimmicks. 
What the strip had, particularly when drawn by the 
gritty Joe Gallacher, was a sort of down-at-the-heels 
honesty, as the hero took on a variety of hoodlums 
and gangsters in a succession of short, punchy 
yarns. Considering how basic the feature's premise 
was, it is surprising that the Atom was to prove so 
enduring, but he outlasted many of his more flam- 
boyant colleagues. He starred in over fifty issues of 
All-American Comics and, when he was ignominious- 
ly displaced from that title by Inky, Winky and Noddy 
(!), he moved right on over to Flash Comics for a few 
more years' worth of strips. In All Star Comics he 
was to prove one of the most enduring members of 




Showcase #35 © 1961 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY GIL KANE AND MURPHY ANDERSON. 



the Justice Society of America, starring in almost 
every story until the comic's demise in 1951. By this 
time, he had undergone a radical revamp in which he 
had somehow acquired "atomic strength" and sport- 
ed a new costume, topped off with a fin on his head. 

Al Pratt's Atom was next seen, along with the 
rest of the Justice Society, a decade later in the 
1960s, but he was only an occasional participant in 
their adventures, perhaps because another Atom 
had been created in his absence. Following the suc- 
cess of the Flash and Green Lantern, DC editor 
Julius Schwartz was looking for another Golden Age 
character to revamp when artist Gil Kane brought in 
some new designs for the Atom. Kane was inspired 
by Quality Comics' Dollman, and his Atom update 



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Atomic Heroes 



was similarly a hero who could shrink himself down 
to an almost microscopic size. Over three issues of 
Showcase in 1961 and 1962, Schwartz, Kane, and 
writer Gardner Fox introduced physics professor Ray 
Palmer, whose experiments with fragments of a 
white dwarf star enable him to shrink almost at will. 
After discovering that his best size is six inches, 
Palmer dons the requisite red-and-blue superhero 
costume and embarks on a clandestine career as a 
crime fighter. 

Schwartz and Fox had a solid background in 
science fiction, and consequently the Atom's adven- 
tures were frequently based on some sort of scien- 
tific conundrum or another, be it a natural disaster 
or a trip back in time to meet Jules Verne or Edgar 
Allen Poe. When shrunk, the Atom had increased 
physical strength but was still something of a light- 
weight compared to heavy-hitters such as Super- 
man or Wonder Woman, and so his villains, like 
Jason Woodroe the Plant Master or the stripey-cos- 
tumed Chronos, also tended to be second rate. In 
civilian life, Ray Palmer was courting the pretty 
lawyer Jean Loring, but the pair acted more like a 
middle-aged couple than young lovers, and the fea- 
ture as a whole was beautifully illustrated but ulti- 
mately rather dry. After thirty-eight issues of his own 
title (including two guest appearances from his 
Golden Age counterpart) and six more co-headlining 
with Hawkman, the Atom was relegated to a backup 
slot in Action Comics. 

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Atom 
(by now married to Loring) was a regular member of 
the Justice League of America, and that seemed to 
be enough for most fans, few of whom were clam- 
ouring for a new Atom comic. However, Gil Kane still 
fondly remembered his creation and, together with 
writer Jan Strnad, brought out a miniseries, Sword 
of the Atom, in 1983. After finding out that his wife 
was having an affair, Palmer flew out to the Amazon, 
where he discovered a tribe of minute, yellow- 
skinned barbarians, which he promptly joined. This 
new direction, which continued in a series of spe- 
cials throughout the 1980s, owed more to Conan 



than a regular superhero book and was surprisingly 
well written. However, a subsequent 1988 regular 
series was a more pedestrian retread of the 1960s, 
and interest once more died out. 

The 1990s brought an appearance in the Zero 
Hour miniseries and a rather unexpected transfor- 
mation: the now resolutely middle-aged Palmer was 
bizarrely changed into a seventeen-year-old. The 
teenage Palmer did the only logical thing a teenage 
superhero could do: He joined DCs all-purpose kid 
group, the Teen Titans. In 1997, the Justice League 
was relaunched with its original 1960s lineup 
including, of course, the Atom, and it is there that 
he continues to appear to this day, with his tempo- 
rary youthful transformation apparently forgotten by 
everyone, including the comic's creators. — DAR 

Atomic Heroes 

It is no exaggeration to say that the advent of the 
nuclear age changed the world as we knew it, and 
the world of comics echoed that sense of wonder 
and uncertainty. Initially, the atomic bomb was seen 
as a positive development, at least as far as the 
war effort was concerned, and comics were quick to 
exploit this (in fact, some even speculate that Bur- 
tis Publishing's Atomic Bomb #1 pre-dates the 
Hiroshima bomb). The first significant atomic super- 
hero was Atomic Man, who debuted in a 1943 
issue of Prize Publishing's Headline Comics. Atomic 
Man dispatched underworld hoods with a quick zap 
of his fingers, but it could be argued that his most 
notable features were his peculiarly Aztec-style hel- 
met and the fact that he wore a skirt. Atomic Man 
was not, however, unique: Other titles such as 
Atoman, Atomic Thunderbolt, and two separate 
Atomic Comics appeared in 1946. 

Even at this early date there was ambivalence 
and uncertainty about the bomb. On one side there 
were broadly positive "atomic" stories in strips as 
diverse as those of Superman, the Shadow, Mid- 



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Atomic Heroes 




NuMa #1 © 1965 Dell. 

COVER ART BY DICK GIORDANO AND SAL TRAPANI. 



night, Robin, Superduck (in which the cantankerous 
mallard makes his own A-bomb) and Pyroman, who 
was shown on the cover of Startling Comics #41 
jubilantly hugging his own atom bomb. On the other 
hand, the horror and anxiety resulting from the dev- 
astation caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 
reflected in a 1946 Captain Marvel story in which 
all manner of countries nuke each other into obliv- 
ion, leaving the Captain the last man alive on the 
planet. But this was only an imaginary story, so 
that's all right, then. 

After this initial flurry of atomic activity, publish- 
ers turned their attention elsewhere until cold war 
proliferation and the Korean War in particular put 
the red menace firmly on the map. Apocalyptic 



tomes, such as Ace's World War III and Atomic War, 
and ACG's Commander Battle and His Atomic Sub, 
reflected the hysteria and paranoia of the early 
1950s, and inevitably the superhero books got 
mixed up in that turmoil, too. Unlike the 1940s, 
however, this time around it was atomic villains who 
started popping up, such as Doll Man's foe the 
Radioactive Man, Plastic Man's Mr. Fission, and Air- 
boy's Living Fuse. By and large, mainstream super- 
heroes (those few that were left in the 1950s) 
stayed untouched by the genre, with the exception 
of a unique bunch of costumed heroes from the reli- 
ably eccentric Charlton Comics. For reasons known 
only to itself, the company decided that the world 
was crying out for cute costumed critters with an 
atomic bent, and so Atomic Mouse, Atomic Rabbit 
(later changed to Atomic Bunny), and Atom the Cat 
hit the stands. Each minuscule marvel had his own 
unique way of charging up: Atomic Mouse guzzled 
uranium pills before flying into action, and Atomic 
Rabbit ate irradiated Carrot Cubes, while Atom the 
Cat merely needed to eat a fish! As bizarre as it 
might seem, Charlton appeared to have hit upon 
something, with Atomic Mouse thrilling fans for an 
astonishing ten years before hanging up his cape in 
1963. By that time, the rest of the industry had 
learned to love the bomb — well, almost. 

Once again, Charlton led the way when in 1960 
their top artist, Steve Ditko, introduced Captain 
Atom in the pages of Space Adventures. Air Force 
scientist Captain Adam is blown to smithereens in 
a rocket accident, but mysteriously reconstitutes 
himself as the atomic-powered (and very shiny) Cap- 
tain Atom. A few years later, Dell's Nukla had an 
almost identical origin, except that he is shot down 
by the reds, while over at Gold Key Dr. Solar, Man of 
the Atom, was an irradiated scientist who ends up 
with great powers, green skin, and a lousy costume. 

Clearly, atomic power possessed an awe-inspir- 
ing force but carried with it a terrible price. Nowhere 
was this better reflected than at the newly resur- 
gent Marvel Comics of the 1960s. Whereas writers 
had traditionally fallen back on magic, mad scien- 



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The Authority 



tists, or courage, determination, and a snazzy cos- 
tume for their heroes' origins, Marvel's Stan Lee 
seized on the infinite mutations of radiation. The 
Fantastic Four, for example, were created when their 
rocket flew through a storm of cosmic rays; the 
Incredible Hulk was transformed by gamma rays 
from a "G-bomb" during a test explosion; young 
Peter Parker became Spider-Man after a bite from a 
radioactive spider; and Daredevil's extraordinary 
senses developed after he was hit and blinded by a 
radioactive canister. The X-Men were a group of 
teenage mutants gathered together by Professor X. 
While the cause of their mutation is never speci- 
fied, the side effects of radiation were becoming 
better known at that time and so it is no great 
stretch of the imagination to see these characters, 
too (who would later be called "children of the 
atom"), as nuclear heroes. Another Marvel charac- 
ter that makes it into the nuclear club through 
unusual qualifications is Hyperion, a Superman pas- 
tiche the first of whose several origins over the 
years involved him escaping a doomed planet (just 
like Superman's Krypton) that turns out to be the 
first atom ever split by Earth scientists! 

The growing ambivalence and fear about 
nuclear power were reflected in Lee's "heroes with 
problems." Because of their powers and appear- 
ance, the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic 
Four's Thing became outcasts from society. The 
Hulk's alter ego, Bruce Banner, not only became an 
emerald monster but also lost control of his mind, 
while Daredevil's powers must have been scant con- 
solation for the loss of his sight. After the nuclear 
1960s, Marvel's later heroes were again frequently 
mutants of various types, and the publisher's atom- 
ic heroes came to dominate the industry. Over at 
rival DC Comics, on the other hand, radiation and 
mutation rarely raised their ugly heads — with one 
notable exception. The Atomic Knights, who 
debuted in Strange Adventures in 1960, were six 
indomitable heroes in a post-nuclear-war 1986 (!) 
who walked around in medieval suits of armor, 
which supposedly protected them against radiation. 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Some fifteen years later, that same postwar future 
was revisited in a short-lived Hercules title that 
starred the Greek god of legend, mutants, armies, 
talking apes, and the self-same Atomic Knights. 

However, as the threat of global nuclear war 
has receded and distrust of "peaceful" nuclear 
power has increased, the subject has largely disap- 
peared from comics. One exception was 1978's 
Firestorm, the Nuclear Man, who was created by a 
bomb in a nuclear reactor. He rejoiced in the ability 
to throw atomic fireballs and had hair of fire. Telling- 
ly, before the explosion young Ronnie Raymond had 
been protesting against nuclear power, an indication 
that comics and society had moved a long way from 
the brave new world of 1945 and the Atomic Man. 
(The distance is also measured by Bongo Comics' 
buffoonish Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy, a retro 
parody of optimistic atomic heroes appearing in 
what's billed as "Bart Simpson's Favorite Comic") 
Post-Three Mile Island atomic characters have 
tended to be villains, such as Ghost Rider's Nuclear 
Man and Superman's the Atomic Skull ("the man 
with the self-destruct mind"!), though Marvel's 
mutants still dominate both the company and the 
marketplace. Since contemporary superheroes are 
increasingly realistic, the days of ludicrous muta- 
tions and nuclear-powered rabbits may be long 
gone, but atomic energy has a lengthy half-life and 
the atomic heroes will probably be around for a long 
time to come, too. — DAR 

The Authority 

"We are the Authority. Behave." So admonished 
Jenny Sparks, the leader of the superpowered group 
known as the Authority, after the group had sub- 
stantially altered the political and physical aspects 
of an alternate Earth. In those words, she gave the 
dichotomy of the comic-book series The Authority, 
published by WildStorm Comics. By implication, she 
was telling the people of Earth that the group would 
force them to behave, but the Authority itself did not 



* 



The Authority 



behave. Winning the day at any cost, the Authority 
protected humankind while making decisions about 
its future. 

Many members of the Authority had previously 
been members of the United Nations-sponsored 
superhero team Stormwatch, but when that team 
dissolved (and the Stormwatch series was canceled 
in 1998), a new group was formed. The Authority is 
headquartered aboard the Carrier, an immense ship 
that can travel between dimensions on the edge of 
"the Bleed," but which likes to stick close to Earth. 
The Carrier can open "doors," allowing the team to 
teleport almost anywhere in the known world. 

Utilizing her vast experience and wielding elec- 
trical powers, Sparks was the one-hundred-year-old 
leader of the team until her death at midnight on 
December 31, 1999. She was then replaced by 
Jenny Quantum, a fast-growing, precocious infant 
who was adopted by Apollo and Midnighter, a pair of 
gay heroes in a committed relationship. 

Apollo's powers are akin to Superman's. He 
can fly at tremendous speed, has enhanced 
strength and heat vision, can survive in space, and 
is powered by absorbing sunlight. Midnighter is as 
dark as Apollo is light. Essentially Batman-like, Mid- 
nighter is a scrappy fighter dressed in black leather 
who is capable of analyzing fights in a way that 
allows him to win most of the time. 

The Engineer is Angela Spica, a woman whose 
blood is actually mechanical, allowing her to control 
machinery and morph her body's protective covering 
to include weaponry. She is the second Engineer; 
the other multi-generational hero in the group is the 
Doctor. Latest in a long line of shamanistic magi- 
cians, the Doctor can converse with all the Doctors 
before him (of which Albert Einstein and Jesus 
Christ are two), and can magically transmute matter 
into living material such as trees or flowers. 

Jack Hawksmoor and Swift make up the rest of 
the team. Hawksmoor can channel the spirit of 
cities, allowing himself to merge with concrete 
streets and steel buildings, and to utilize their 



strength. The winged Swift (Shen Li-Min) is a 
huntress, viciously attacking from the air. Over the 
course of their adventures, the team members face 
an array of villains, including evil Asian clone-maker 
Kaizen Gamorra, British soldiers from an alternate 
Earth known as Sliding Albion, a group of charac- 
ters resembling Marvel Comics' Avengers (if they 
were rapists and murderers), and more. 

The first twelve issues of The Authority (May 
1999-April 2000) were written by Warren Ellis and 
drawn by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary. They quickly 
established that they were telling grand tales on a 
big canvas; the first four-part storyline had Moscow 
wiped out by hundreds of superpowered clones, then 
London and Los Angeles attacked as well. A second 
four-part story saw the Earth being invaded from an 
alternate dimension, while the third four-parter 
revealed that Earth was actually created by an alien 
being that now wanted to reclaim it. In essence, the 
Authority had to face "God" and stop it. 

Under Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, The Authority 
became both a sales success and a critical suc- 
cess, but the team left the series en masse with 
issue #12 in April 2000. Coming on board was 
writer Mark Millar, aided by artist Frank Quitely (and 
other guest artists as needed). The Authority soon 
took a nastier turn; instead of grand, huge story- 
lines and heroic actions, the Authority were now 
merciless and political, facing fewer cosmic evils 
and determined to change the world as they saw fit. 
Millar's dialogue was coarser as well, and his sto- 
ries tended toward lots of violence, mayhem, rape, 
and taboo-breaking. Millar even managed to offend 
fans of one of the comics world's patron saints, 
super-artist Jack Kirby; in one storyline, Millar's 
Kirby-like Jacob Krigstein character is the villain. 
Another storyline completely replaced the Authority 
with new, similar characters, who were even more 
debased than their predecessors. The real Authori- 
ty, thankfully, returned by the end of that arc. 

By early 2001, Quitely quit the book — multiple 
issues had required fill-in artists already — and Art 



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The Avengers 



Adams stepped aboard, but The Authority was 
mired in controversy (although sales stayed high). 
When news was leaked that pages from The Author- 
ity were being censored after the September 11 
attacks — removed or changed were political 
scenes, extreme gore, and over-the-top debase- 
ment — the series' already shaky publishing sched- 
ule became disrupted further. A completed forty- 
eight-page The Authority: Widescreen special was 
indefinitely postponed due to some scenes rife with 
devastation in New York City. 

Millar's run on The Authority finally ended with 
an extremely delayed issue #29 (July 2002) — an 
issue that featured a comics industry first: a gay 
wedding — and with the exception of some one- 
shots and specials, the series disappeared. 
Despite the uncertainty about the series' future, 
corporate synergy did allow for a set of four Authori- 
ty action figures to be released by DC Direct in 
August 2002. 

In July 2003, WildStorm and DC revived The 
Authority as an ongoing monthly series, under the 
new creative team of writer Robbie Morrison and 
artists Dwayne Turner and Sal Regla. In late 2003, 
the creative team of writer Ed Brubaker and hot 
artist Jim Lee was announced. A role-playing game 
based on the series has been tapped for 2004 
release. Whether The Authority can regain its status 
as both a best-seller and a genre-buster remains to 
be seen. — AM 



The Avengers 

In 1963 Marvel Comics was riding an unprecedented 
wave of sustained success with series such as The 
Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The 
Uncanny X-Men, two of which featured superhero 
teams. But rival publisher DC Comics (coyly referred 
to by Marvel writer/ editor Stan Lee as "the Distin- 
guished Competition") had already struck paydirt 
three years earlier with Justice League of America, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 




The Avengers #51 © 1968 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN BUSCEMA. 



which presented the company's best-selling heroes 
operating together as a crime-fighting team. Marvel's 
initial response to the Justice League of America (J LA) 
had been 1961's The Fantastic Four, which consisted 
of heroes created from whole cloth (with the excep- 
tion of a second-generation Human Torch), because 
Marvel had no preexisting heroes then capable of 
competing with the likes of DCs Superman, Batman, 
Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern. A 
mere two years later, the publishing landscape had 
changed considerably in Marvel's favor, enabling Lee 
and artist Jack Kirby to assemble enough successful 
Marvel headliners to form a supergroup title in the 
J LA mold with The Avengers (whose first issue bore a 
September 1963 cover date). 



fe 



The Avengers 



The Avengers, however, was anything but a car- 
bon copy of Justice League of America, whose mem- 
bers exhibited a stilted uniformity, at times seeming 
almost interchangeable. Marvel's new team not only 
showed real diversity, but also owed its existence 
largely to the machinations of a villain. Loki, the 
Norse god of evil, maneuvers his half-brother, the 
thunder god Thor (from the pages of Journey into 
Mystery), into a battle against the Hulk (whose first 
six-issue Incredible Hulk series had concluded with 
its March 1963 issue), a fracas that also attracts the 
attention of Iron Man (who debuted in March 1963's 
Tales of Suspense #39), Ant-Man, and his crime-fight- 
ing partner and paramour, the Wasp (both of whom 
maintained an address in Tales to Astonish). 
Although this ad hoc quartet at first believes the Hulk 
to be the villain responsible for an act of railway sab- 
otage, Loki quickly emerges as the real culprit and 
suffers a decisive defeat. Before the heroes disperse 
to their respective titles, Ant-Man suggests that they 
make their association a permanent one, and the 
Avengers (a name suggested by the Wasp) is born. 
Even the notably antisocial Hulk agrees to become 
part of this new crime-fighting quintet, hoping that by 
keeping such heroic company he will discourage the 
military from continually hounding him. 

In the mastheads of many Avengers stories of 
the 1970s, the group's origin and subsequent histo- 
ry are aptly encapsulated: "And there came a day 
unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and 
heroines found themselves united against a com- 
mon threat! On that day, the Avengers were born — 
to fight the foes no single super hero could with- 
stand! Through the years, their roster has pros- 
pered, changing many times, but their glory has 
never been denied! Heed the call, then — for now, 
the Avengers Assemble!" Indeed, the aforemen- 
tioned roster changes begin almost immediately, 
with the departure of the Hulk (The Avengers #2, 
1963) and the induction of Captain America after 
his recovery from the block of ice in which he had 
been frozen since the end of the World War II (issue 
#4, 1964). Captain America (whose 1950s incarna- 



tion is conveniently ignored) suffers tremendous 
angst because of his displacement in time and ago- 
nizes over the wartime death of his kid sidekick 
Bucky Barnes; this poignant characterization, and 
the contrast between Cap's steadfast patriotism 
and the hot-headedness of some of his younger 
teammates, swiftly become two of the group's 
essential dramatic foci — as does the return of the 
Nazi Baron Zemo, Captain America's arch-foe, and 
his Masters of Evil, a collection of superpowered 
opponents already familiar to the other Avengers. 

With issue #16 (1965), the original Avengers 
roster is replaced entirely by newcomers (though 
overseen by Captain America). "One great thing 
about the Avengers team," Lee recalled, "is the fact 
that we could always change the lineup of heroes. 
Over the years, we've probably had every one of our 
heroes, and villains too, appearing in The Avengers 
from time to time. As you might imagine, my biggest 
problem was finding things for them to avenge, 
month after month." 

The Avengers distinguished itself from Justice 
League of America in another important respect: It 
questioned the idea of heroism itself. While the JLA 
members were all unambiguous good guys — so 
much so that they were virtually indistinguishable 
from one another, except by their costumes — more 
than a few Avengers started their careers on the 
wrong side of the thin spandex line that separates 
hero from villain. When Thor, Giant-Man (the former 
Ant-Man, who would later change his name again to 
Goliath), and the Wasp simultaneously leave the 
team, Captain America finds himself heading a new 
squad of Avengers: Hawkeye, an accomplished 
archer in the mold of DCs Green Arrow; Quicksilver, 
a mutant speedster reminiscent of DCs Flash; and 
the Scarlet Witch (Quicksilver's sister), a young 
woman with the power to alter probabilities using 
an inborn "hex power," thus making seemingly 
impossible things occur when necessary. 

The recruitment of these characters was a dar- 
ing editorial choice, and it would have been unheard 



1*6 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



The Avengers 



of in a staid organization like the Justice League. 
Hawkeye, after all, had formerly been a super-crimi- 
nal, a part of Iron Man's rogues' gallery (Tales of 
Suspense #57, 1964); Quicksilver and the Scarlet 
Witch had been (reluctant) members of the self- 
described Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, a group 
headed by their father Magneto {X-Men vol. 1 #4, 
1964). This development helped foster a sense 
that anything was possible in the burgeoning Marvel 
universe, the feeling that all human beings possess 
capacities for both good and evil, and that no one 
has to be beyond redemption. This notion is rein- 
forced years later when Wonder Man (introduced as 
a villain in The Avengers #9) returns from the dead 
as a hero and takes his place in the Avengers' 
ranks (The Avengers #151, 1976). Adding further 
realism and ambiguity to the mix is the fact that not 
every superhero desires Avengers membership; 
when the team extends an invitation to Spider-Man 
(The Avengers #11, 1964), he declines it. Reflect- 
ing the rise of feminism in the 1970s, the Wasp 
would return to the group, eventually becoming a 
competent Avengers leader and putting the lie to 
her early 1960s airhead persona. 

From its inception The Avengers was a hit, and 
the series' initial success doubtless owes much to 
the power-packed, sui generis renderings of Kirby, 
who had not only co-created Captain America with 
writer Joe Simon in 1941, but had also collaborated 
with Lee on such Marvel mainstay titles as The Fan- 
tastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and Journey into 
Mystery (featuring Thor). Kirby illustrated The 
Avengers throughout its first year; with issue #9 
(September 1964), Iron Man artist Don Heck (from 
Tales of Suspense) ably took over the penciling 
reins (though Kirby filled in as penciler on issues 
#14-#16, and did the page layouts for other sec- 
ond-year Avengers issues), while Lee continued with 
the writing chores until he handed the series off to 
Roy Thomas (issue #35, December 1966). Over the 
next several years, Thomas worked with such 
notable Marvel artists as the aforementioned Heck, 
John Buscema, George Tuska, Gene Colan, Barry 



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Smith, Sal Buscema, Frank Giacoia, Rich Buckler, 
and Neal Adams, whose brief run on the title in 
1971 (issues #93-#96), during the war between 
the galactic empires of the Skrulls and the Kree 
(alien races created by Lee and Kirby and first seen 
in The Fantastic Four), is widely regarded as among 
the finest Avengers work ever done. 

Under Thomas' direction (with writing assists 
from noted fantasist Harlan Ellison in issues #88 
[1971] and #101 [1972]), Avengers story arcs 
became increasingly complex and characterization- 
oriented, flowering into a superpowered melodrama 
of operatic proportions. Among the many notable 
characters introduced during Thomas' tenure are 
such team members as the Vision (an emotionally 
tortured android with optic-blast powers and the 
ability to turn intangible), and such villains as the 
Grim Reaper (the vengeance-crazed brother of Won- 
der Man) and Ultron (a world-conquering robot who 
sought to destroy his creator, Henry Pym, the former 
Ant-Man). Thomas left the series after issue #104 
(1972), to be succeeded by Steve Englehart (author 
of a seminal time-travel arc involving the villain 
Kang the Conqueror and his time-displaced doppel- 
gangers Rama-Tut and Immortus), Gerry Conway, 
Jim Shooter (Conway's and Shooter's Avengers runs 
are also distinguished by the stunning and highly 
detailed artwork of George Perez), Steve Gerber, 
Tom DeFalco (a future Marvel editor-in-chief), David 
Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Roger 
Stern, Bill Mantlo, and John Byrne. 

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Avengers' 
membership roles would turn over completely sever- 
al times while growing exponentially (despite orders 
from Marvel's fictitious federal government that the 
group be downsized dramatically in 1979), encom- 
passing such major and minor Marvel heroes as 
the Beast (from X-Men), the Black Panther, Starfox, 
Hellcat (Patsy Walker), Mantis (Englehart's "Celes- 
tial Madonna," whose destiny was to give birth to 
the most powerful being in the universe), the Black 
Knight, the She-Hulk, the Sub-Mariner, Tigra, the 
Black Widow, and even the nineteenth-century West- 



*Z 



Azrael 



ern hero known as the Two-Gun Kid. This relentless 
expansion isn't surprising, however, given the spe- 
cial government security-clearance status and the 
weekly thousand-dollar salary (courtesy of Iron 
Man's Stark International munitions firm) afforded 
to members by the late 1970s. By the 1990s all 
the original members of the Fantastic Four — and 
even the chronic non-joiner, Spider-Man — had 
become either reserve or inactive Avengers. 

By the mid-1980s, the New York-based team 
had grown to such unwieldy proportions — despite 
the inactive status of most members — that a sec- 
ond squad was formed in Los Angeles, under the 
initial leadership of Hawkeye (1984 's West Coast 
Avengers limited series, and the ongoing West 
Coast Avengers [later Avengers West Coast] month- 
ly series, which ran from 1985 to 1994). In 1989 a 
self-styled "wannabe" team known as the Great 
Lakes Avengers — consisting of oddball, previously 
unknown fourth-stringers such as Mr. Immortal, 
Dinah Soar, Big Bertha, Flat Man, and Doorman — 
came into being in 1989 (West Coast Avengers 
#46), but never achieved official standing with 
either of the bicoastal teams. 

In late 1995 Marvel released Last Avengers, a 
two-issue series (written by Peter David and drawn 
by Ariel Olivetti) that puts paid to many decades- 
long continuity arcs and boasts a high Avengers 
body count, killing off Captain America, Thor, Her- 
cules, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch, and others. But 
this was far from the end of the line for the Assem- 
blers, who resurfaced in the latest volume of their 
ongoing saga in February 1998 (The Avengers vol. 
3). From that point, fan-favorite writer and Silver Age 
(1956-1969) scholar Kurt Busiek (who made his 
reputation penning 1994's superb, Alex Ross-illus- 
trated Marvels miniseries) chronicled most of the 
team's adventures in its main title for four years, 
collaborating with artists such as George Perez, 
Carlos Pacheco, Jerry Ordway, Stuart Immonen, 
Norm Breyfogle, Richard Howell, Mark Bagley, John 
Romita Jr., Steve Epting, Alan Davis, Manuel Garcia, 
Brent Anderson, Ivan Reis, Kieron Dwyer, Patrick 



Zircher, and Yanick Paquette before leaving the 
series in the hands of writer Geoff Johns in October 
2002 with Avengers vol. 3 #57 (writer Chuck 
Austen took over in vol. 3 #77, March 2004). The 
1990s was also replete with Avengers miniseries 
and other ancillary titles executed by various cre- 
ative teams, including the hugely popular, time- 
spanning Avengers Forever (1999). In 2002, writer 
Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch collaborated on 
an alternately grim and satirical reinvention of the 
series for Marvel's "Ultimate" line, suitably retitled 
The illtimates, which immediately became one of 
comics' best-selling and most critically acclaimed 
series. Also in the new millennium, Busiek and 
Perez teamed up to create the long-awaited 
JLA/Avengers intercompany crossover miniseries 
(2003), which after two decades of false starts 
finally brings the Avengers together with the DC 
Comics superteam that inspired it in the first place. 

Like the comics business itself, the Avengers 
team (of whichever coast) has had its ups and 
downs over the course of four decades. At times it 
has been a brilliant dramatic showcase, at others a 
veritable Island of Misfit Heroes for characters 
unable to sustain themselves in other, more 
focused titles. The constant, almost meteorological 
transformations in the Avengers' membership 
roles, and the concomitant evolution of new, hither- 
to-unconsidered character-driven story possibilities, 
are likely to continue alternately pleasing, surpris- 
ing, and frustrating eager audiences for many 
decades to come — at least so long as the nefarious 
deeds of unnumbered costumed bad guys continue 
to require Avenging. — MAM 



Azraet 



In 1992, publisher DC Comics was faced with a 
dilemma: how to match, or better yet, surpass the 
phenomenal success of their just-released "Death 
of Superman" storyline. Their solution: Create a 
new Batman. Debuting in writer Dennis O'Neil and 



<*& 



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Azrael 



artist Joe Quesada's four-issue miniseries Batman: 
Sword of Azrael #1 (October 1992) is Jean Paul Val- 
ley, who, while in the womb, is genetically condi- 
tioned toward physical perfection by the malevolent 
Order of St. Dumas, an errant sect dating back to 
the Crusades. Brainwashed and combatively trained 
throughout his youth, Valley obediently succeeds 
his late father — an assassin for the Order — donning 
Dad's formidable crimson-and-gold habiliment and 
fiery swords and assuming his destiny as the 
Avenging Angel, Azrael. 

But the Order was in for a surprise: Their 
newest executioner possessed a powerful force of 
will. Azrael was excommunicated from the Order 
after saving the life of Bruce (Batman) Wayne. When 
Batman's back was broken by Bane, a crime lord 
boasting drug-enhanced strength, Wayne selected 
Valley as his successor. Such a move had previously 
been unthinkable; DC had several different Flashes 
and Green Lanterns — and even a string of Robins — 
but the idea of replacing Wayne as the alter ego of 
Batman was as unlikely as ... killing Superman. 
This unprecedented event earned DC Comics exten- 
sive media coverage and huge sales. Readers who 
had previously ignored Batman, thinking the charac- 
ter too familiar, now jumped on board. In a gesture 
showing that its new Batman was no fly-by-night, DC 
Comics had "Az-Bat," as the character was colloqui- 



ally nicknamed, co-star with the Punisher in a 1994 
DC/Marvel Comics crossover. 

While Wayne's Batman was designed to strike 
fear into criminals' hearts, Valley's Batman pushed 
that concept to a dangerous extreme. An unstable 
psychotic whose addled mind allowed him to speak 
with the specter of St. Dumas, Valley, armed with 
Bat-blade-firing gauntlets, repeatedly crossed the 
line, even killing an adversary, thereby breaking the 
original Batman's code to preserve life. As soon as 
he was able, Wayne reappeared as Batman, bol- 
stered by his true proteges Nightwing (Dick 
Grayson) and the new Robin (Tim Drake), and fought 
his surrogate to repossess the "mantle of the Bat." 

No longer the Batman, Valley once again 
became Azrael and in February 1995 spun off into 
his own monthly series, Azrael: Agent of the Bat. 
Author/co-creator O'Neil explored Valley's personal 
and religious redemption (ground he had similarly 
covered three decades prior in the legendary Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow series), leading Azrael, aided 
by St. Dumas refugees Nomoz and Sister Lilhy, on a 
mission to overthrow the Order. Despite occasional 
crossovers with other titles in the Batman fran- 
chise, Azrael ran out of steam and was canceled 
with its one hundredth issue in early 2003, but not 
before Valley had mended his relationship with the 
Dark Knight. —ME 



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*9 




Bac/Gfrf 
Art 



The genre of "Bad Girl art" that emerged in the 
1990s comic-book world was named in contrast to 
the long-standing tradition of "Good Girl art," which 
was popular during comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954) and featured sexy, pin-up heroines 
such as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and early 
superheroines like Phantom Lady and Lady Luck. Bad 
Girl art was birthed out of a trend in comics, film, and 
other media toward strong, positive women heroes 
with an attitude (think Alien's Ellen Ripley and Lara 
Croft, Tomb Raider). Early precursors of today's Bad 
Girl art include Warren Publishing's dark 1970s 
temptress Vampirella and Frank Miller's 1980s assas- 
sin Elektra. In the 1990s and the new millennium 
these bad babes include the likes of Chaos! Comics' 
Lady Death (often cited by comic-book historians as 
the character that ignited the trend); Rob Liefeld's 
Glory and Avengelyne; London Nights' Razor; Image 
Comics' Witchblade; Dark Horse's Ghost and Barb 
Wire; Crusade Comics' Shi; and a revamped and res- 
urrected Elektra. Bad Girl art has also permeated the 
superhero mainstream, as seen in DCs Catwoman 
title and Marvel's Mystique miniseries. 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



These heroines mete out punishment clad in 
sexually provocative outfits — often nothing more 
than a few pieces of tattered cloth, leather, and 
spikes — wielding bladed weapons, a don't-mess- 
with-me attitude, and (often) occult powers. 
Embodying the themes of bondage, eroticism, 
vengeance, and violence, their renderings are the 
most extreme portrayals of the superheroine yet to 
grace comics' pages. Frequently, theological or 
occult themes are a part of these character's ori- 
gins, including archetypes such as demons, fallen 
or militant angels, or vampires. Artistically, they are 
often portrayed as women with exaggerated physi- 
cal attributes, struck in provocative poses, soaked 
in blood, sweat, or tears. In light of the popularity of 
extreme superheroines, Bad Girl art continues to 
proliferate in the pages of Image, Chaos!, Ground 
Zero, and London Night comics, as well as the more 
traditional publishing houses. — GM 



The Badger 

It can be argued that only those with very extreme per- 
sonalities would don masks and tights to wage war on 
crime. Although neurotic superheroes like Spider-Man, 
intermittent multiple-personality sufferers such as the 



St 



The Badger 



Hulk, or borderline psychopaths like the Punisher 
aren't unique in comics, superheroes whose cos- 
tumed personae arise solely from a psychiatric disor- 
der are rare indeed. The costumed martial-arts expert 
known as the Badger is one such hero. 

The creation of writer Mike Baron (co-creator of 
Nexus with artist Steve Rude), the Badger debuted 
in 1983 in Badger vol. 1 #1 (Capital Comics). "The 
Badger is Norbert Sykes," reads the series' splash- 
page origin boilerplate, "a Vietnam veteran suffer- 
ing from an extremely rare multiple personality dis- 
order: seven great personalities in one. The person- 
ality most frequently inhabited by Norbert, indeed 
almost exclusively preferred, is the Badger, a self- 
styled crime fighter who rides the highways and 
byways of America, meting out bloody justice to jay- 
walkers, ticket scalpers, [and] indifferent teenaged 
fast food clerks — in fact, any damn body he feels 
like because he's CRAZY!" 

The seeds of the Badger's madness are sewn 
during Sykes' childhood, during which he is repeat- 
edly abused by his psychopathic stepfather, Larry. 
As a young man, the emotionally fragile Sykes 
serves in Vietnam, where his months-long captivity 
at the hands of the Viet Cong brings him a vision of 
God as a badger named Myrtle, who grants him the 
ability to talk to animals, Dr. Doolittle-style. Trauma- 
tized, Sykes begins manifesting multiple personali- 
ties in addition to plain old Norbert Sykes. 

Sykes' seventh personality — that of the mar- 
tial-arts savvy, self-styled crime fighter who calls 
himself the Badger — apparently emerges only after 
Sykes returns to the United States. Arrested for 
beating up some street punks, the Badger is com- 
mitted to an insane asylum, where he meets fellow 
inmate Hammaglystwythkbrngxxaxolotl (also known 
as Hamilton J. Thorndyke, or simply "Ham" for 
short), a fifth-century Welsh druid with the power to 
control the weather, among other arcane skills. 
Ham shows the Badger how to "fake sanity" long 
enough to secure his release; in fairly short order, 
both men are discharged from the institution and 
take up residence in Ham's forbidding castle, locat- 



# 



ed just south of Barneveld, Wisconsin, and pur- 
chased with the huge fortune Ham has amassed 
over the centuries. The Badger becomes Ham's 
employee, performing numerous odd jobs, using the 
"dozens of obscure, esoteric, arcane, not to men- 
tion abstruse martial arts" he has mastered. 

Although the premiere issue of Badger (1983) 
boasted the cleanly delineated art of Steve Rude, 
Capital Comics (which went on to become one of 
the largest direct-market comics distributors of the 
1980s and 1990s) couldn't make a go of the 
series. Luckily First Comics, a larger independent 
publisher co-founded by Mike Gold, gave the series 
a home beginning with issue #5 (1984). Badger 
continued at First until its seventieth issue (1991), 
when the company folded. Baron wrote the series 
for its entire run, and his uniquely hilarious (and 
sometimes poignant) scripts displayed his self- 
declared enthusiasm both for kung fu adventure 
and the antics of Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge 
McDuck. The Badger made guest appearances in 
Nexus vol. 1 #45-#50 (First Comics, 1988) and 
starred in a four-issue miniseries titled Badger 
Goes Berserk (First Comics, 1989), as well as in a 
new "first issue" (1991's Badger vol. 2 #1), which 
retold the character's origin. In addition, the Badger 
headlined a large-format graphic novel titled 
Hexbreaker (First Comics, 1988). 

In addition to Ham, the Badger developed a fas- 
cinating, unique, and far-ranging supporting cast 
over the years, including such allies as Mavis Davis, a 
female martial artist (and fellow talker-to-the-animals) 
who becomes the Badger's wife; Daisy Fields, Nor- 
bert Sykes' personal psychotherapist and Ham's 
secretary; Jim Wonktendonk, another Nam veteran; 
Connie Ammerperson, an African-American lesbian 
cab driver and feminist activist; Fuzzbuster, an owl 
who helps the Badger avoid speeding tickets; the 
Yak and the Yeti, a pair of large, ancient, hairy, and 
often foul-tempered creatures straight out of Tibetan 
myth; the Wombat, an Australian Vietnam veteran 
(as crazy and costumed as the Badger) who is the 
self-styled protector of all animals; Riley Thorpe, the 



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Bartman 



originator of a martial-arts system called Jabber- 
wocky ("some say it's my jabber, some say it's my 
walk") and one of the Badger's closest associates; 
and Lamont, a figure-skating buffalo who likes to 
hoof-race and is self-conscious about his hairstyle. 

Numbering among the Badger's many bizarre 
nemeses are Hodag, a former Green Beret turned 
neo-Nazi kook (Sykes is no fan of Nazis); Lord 
Weterlackus (alias Slotman), a powerful demon lord 
who draws strength from blood sacrifices; the 
Roach Wrangler, a former exterminator capable of 
raising insect armies; Dr. Buick Riviera, an insane, 
demon-powered, martial artist/physician who uses 
snakes and other animals as hand-to-hand 
weapons; Count Kohler, who can turn ordinary 
humans into demons; Ron Dorgan, a martial artist 
capable of delivering a "death touch"; and Lannier 
Lutefisk, a Badger impersonator who actually takes 
Sykes' place for a whole issue (Badger vol. 1 #65). 

When First Comics disappeared, so did the 
Badger. Then the headcase hero eventually resur- 
faced at Dark Horse Comics with a pair of mini- 
series: Badger: Zen Pop Funny-Animal Version (two 
issues, 1994) and Badger: Shattered Mirror (four 
issues, 1994). Three years later, Baron took his 
emotionally challenged hero to Image Comics in 
another attempt to helm an ongoing Badger series. 
But this comic lasted only eleven issues, either 
because of the industry's general sales slump, or 
because late 1990s audiences were unreceptive to 
over-the-top superheroics based on mental illness. 
To those who would find offense in Norbert Sykes' 
insanity-fueled adventures, however, the Badger 
would no doubt send one of his trademark verbal 
barbs: "Critics are grinks and groinks." — MAM 



ftovbnati 



Fox's long-running animated television series The 
Simpsons (1990-present) is replete with refer- 
ences to superhero comics, from Bartman (the 



ersatz superhero persona of America's favorite bad 
boy, Bart Simpson) and the stereotypically slovenly 
"Comic Book Guy" who runs the Android's Dungeon 
comic shop, to cameo appearances of the cast of 
the 1960s Batman television show, to the revela- 
tion that the fictitious nuclear-enabled muscleman 
called Radioactive Man has been the country's 
most influential superhero for about half a century 
(or so it is told in the fictitious and geographically 
inscrutable town of Springfield). 

In 1993 Bongo Comics (spearheaded by Steve 
and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison, and Simpsons cre- 
ator Matt Groening) underscored the cultural impor- 
tance of Radioactive Man — Bartman's principal 
inspiration — by actually publishing some of the 
atomic hero's key adventures, the very comics read 
by Bart Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, Martin 
Prince, and the rest of the superhero fans of the 
Simpsonverse. Among these four-color snapshots 
of Radioactive Man's decades-long evolution are: 
the sought-after November 1952 Radioactive Man 
premiere issue (1993), which includes an origin 
story that lampoons the Incredible Hulk, Superman, 
Batman, 1950s red-baiting, and the Comics Code 
Authority; May 1962's Radioactive Man #88 
(1994), which lovingly skewers Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, 
and superheroes' teenage sidekicks; August 
1972's Radioactive Man #216 (1994), which paro- 
dies the prosocial "relevance" of DCs Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow ("Jeepers!" exclaims a 
shocked Man of Atoms, "My sidekick Fallout Boy is 
a dirty Hippy!"); October 1980's 412th-issue 
sendup of Chris Claremont and John Byrne's "Dark 
Phoenix" X-Men saga (1994); January 1986's 
679th-issue jab at Marvel's Punisher, DCs Watch- 
men, and The Dark Knight Returns (1994); January 
1995's watershed Radioactive Man #1,000 (1994), 
which aims its barbs squarely at Todd McFarlane 
and the Image Comics aesthetic; and the Summer 
1968 Radioactive Man 80 Page Colossal edition 
(1995), showcasing such gems of Silver Age camp 
as "Radioactive Man, Teen Idol," "The 1,001 Faces 
of Radioactive Ape," and a tale of the Radioactive 



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S3 



Batgirl 



Man of the far-flung future year of 1995. (Since the 
late 1990s, a regular if infrequent Radioactive Man 
series has been gently massacring the remaining 
eras and styles of comics history.) 

Subject to such powerful pop-cultural currents, it 
is no surprise that Bart Simpson would aspire to 
become a superhero himself, in the guise of Bart- 
man. Bart first donned the purple cape and cowl on a 
second-season television episode titled "Three Men 
and a Comic Book" (1991), in an unsuccessful 
attempt to win a discount admission to a comic-book 
convention. Despite this ignominious genesis — and 
in spite of a complete lack of superpowers, crime- 
fighting equipment, Batman-style training, or realistic 
prospects of maintaining a secret identity — Bartman 
managed to make a go of superheroics (at least in 
his own mind). Two years later, a one-shot comic 
book titled Simpsons Comics and Stories marked the 
advent of Bongo Comics and finally brought Bartman 
to the medium that had inspired him in the first 
place. In a story titled "There Shall Come ... a Bart- 
man!!" (written by Steve and Cindy Vance and illus- 
trated by Bill Morrison and Mike Anderson), Bartman 
befriends Radioactive Man's elderly creator by pre- 
venting the venerable nuclear hero from being killed 
off by his rapacious publisher as a sales gimmick — 
thereby making a comment on the stampede of spec- 
ulation, hoarding, and dumping precipitated by DCs 
decision to (temporarily) kill Superman. 

Bartman's first adventure proved popular 
enough to justify granting the spiky-haired, under- 
achieving superhero a Bartman miniseries 
(1993-1995), featuring stories by Gary Glasberg, 
Bill Morrison, Jan Strnad, and Steve Vance, with art 
by Tim Bavington, Chris Clements, Luis Escobar, Jim 
Massara, Phil Ortiz, and Cindy Vance. During the 
series' six-issue run, Bartman stops the Comic 
Book Guy and school bullies Jimbo Jones, Dolph, 
and Kearny from scamming comics fans by adding 
fake "enhancements" to comic book covers; 
encounters the Penalizer (a Punisher pastiche); has 
an existential crisis that leads him to quit the hero 
business temporarily, in an homage to Peter Park- 



er's historic super-sabbatical from The Amazing Spi- 
der-Man #50 (1967); transforms the family pet into 
"Bart Dog, the Canine Crusader," evoking shades of 
Ace the Bat-Hound from Batman stories of the 
1950s; and fights alongside Radioactive Man him- 
self against the entire population of Springfield 
after a nuclear mishap sends the townsfolk on a 
superpowered rampage that began in Simpsons 
Comics #5. In Bartman #5 (1995) Bart's sisters 
Lisa and Maggie swing into costumed action as 
Lisa the Conjurer and the Great Maggeena while 
Bartman is briefly sidelined by a sprained ankle. 

Though Bartman has not seen much action 
during recent years, his fortunes might well change 
in the not-too-distant future. "I think there is a pos- 
sibility of bringing Bartman back," Bongo Entertain- 
ment Group creative director Bill Morrison com- 
mented in 2003. "We're actually planning a couple 
of Bartman stories for upcoming issues of Bart 
Simpson Comics. We may decide to come out with 
a revived Bartman comic." In the meantime, back 
issues of Bartman and trade paperback reprints of 
the miniseries continue to be snapped up by enthu- 
siastic Bartophiles. And comicdom waits eagerly for 
the famous Bart Signal to slice across the night sky 
of Springfield. — MAM 



tetgirl 



# 



Batgirl was created to attract a demographic. The rat- 
ings of ABC-TV's Batman series were slipping during 
its second season (1966-1967), and the show's pro- 
ducers brainstormed a "Batgirl" to lure young girls 
(and lustful men) to the show for its third. 
Dancer/actress Yvonne Craig was hired for the role, 
clad in a form-fitting, purple-and-gold Batsuit, and 
while her high-kicking antics may have ignited some 
awakenings in the young boys watching, she couldn't 
save the series: Ratings continued to slump and Bat- 
man was canceled in 1968 after its third season. 

DC Comics, publisher of the Batman comics 
franchise that inspired the TV show, had, during the 



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Batgirl 



program's run, imitated its success by adding camp 
humor and pop-art sound effects to the comic 
books. When DCs higher-ups caught wind of a Bat- 
girl joining the show's cast, they gave Julius "Julie" 
Schwartz, editor of Batman and Detective Comics, 
the mandate to create an all-new Batgirl for the 
comics (a teenage heroine calling herself Bat-Girl 
[alter ego Betty Kane] had premiered in Batman 
#139 in April 1961 and made a few scattered 
appearances before fading into oblivion). The result 
was "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" in Detec- 
tive Comics #359, January 1967. Behind the bat- 
eared cowl was Barbara Gordon, a stunning red- 
head whose good looks and shapely figure belied 
the physical stereotype of her profession: librarian. 
The daughter of Gotham City police commissioner 
James Gordon, Barbara was headed to the Police- 
men's Masquerade Ball, wearing a black-yellow-and- 
blue Batgirl costume of her own design, when she 
by chance encountered a kidnapping attempt. Killer 
Moth, one of the more outrageous villains to harass 
Gotham City, was abducting millionaire Bruce Wayne 
when this masked "Batgirl," energized by an adren- 
aline rush, burst onto the scene and rescued 
Wayne. Thrilled by this exploit, Barbara maintained 
her Batgirl identity and continued to fight crime, 
ignoring the protestations of Batman, who feared 
that Batgirl's inexperience may bring her harm on 
the dangerous streets of Gotham. 

Through a number of guest appearances in DC 
comic books in 1967 and 1968, Batgirl was por- 
trayed in a manner considered sexist by contempo- 
rary social standards: Much of her arsenal was car- 
ried in a Batpurse attached to her utility belt, a 
Detective cover depicted her distracted by a run in 
her nylon stockings, and she even got into a cat-fight 
with Catwoman! But by the early 1970s, Batgirl had 
matured, using her keen intellect, athletic dexterity, 
and burgeoning detective skills to solve petty and 
not-so-petty thefts. Soon, Barbara Gordon relocated 
to Washington, D.C., as a congresswoman, occasion- 
ally appearing as Batgirl in the nation's capital and 
even teaming with former Boy Wonder Robin, with 




Legends of the DC Universe #11 © 1998 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY KEVIN NOWLAN. 



the hint of a romance between the two. But as Bat- 
man comic books grew grimmer throughout the 
1970s and 1980s, Batgirl's existence weakened 
Batman's, and Barbara Gordon hung up her cowl, 
despite being merchandized by a variety of toy man- 
ufacturers, still craving that girl demographic. 

By the time Gordon resurfaced in 1988 in the 
one-shot comic Batman: The Killing Joke, retroac- 
tive continuity revisions had now made her the 
niece — not the daughter — of Commissioner Gordon. 
In that story, the Joker, Batman's most maniacal 
foe, exacted revenge on his enemy by rampaging 
against those close to him. The Joker shot Barbara, 
leaving her a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. 



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H 



Batman 



Some readers at the time accused DC Comics of 
misogyny, as this brutal attack on Batgirl closely fol- 
lowed the poignant but violent death of Supergirl in 
DCs Crisis on Infinite Earths. But this tragic 
moment actually heralded Barbara Gordon's reemer- 
gence. In Suicide Squad #23 (January 1989), Bar- 
bara became Oracle, a behind-the-scenes crusader 
whose development of a vast computer information 
network, along with her photographic memory and 
her uncanny hacking abilities, enabled her to ferret 
out information to help other heroes. In addition to 
aiding the Suicide Squad, Batman, and others, 
Oracle ultimately bonded with Black Canary and the 
Huntress as the Birds of Prey. A new Batgirl was 
introduced in Batman #567 (July 1999), a mute 
teenage drifter befriended by Barbara Gordon. It 
was soon disclosed that this girl was actually Cas- 
sandra Cain, daughter of the notorious assassin 
David Cain, who had expertly trained his offspring in 
martial arts and other modes of combat. The inter- 
vention of Oracle and Batman helped reshape Cas- 
sandra's destiny, and now she heroically prowls the 
streets of Gotham as the new Batgirl. 

In tandem with and contrary to DC Comics' 
continuity, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl has continued 
a mainstream profile on the small and large 
screens. In animation, Batgirl appeared in several 
shows, including The Batman/Superman Hour 
(1968-1969), The Adventures of Batman and Robin 
(1969-1970), and The New Adventures of Batman 
(1977). She didn't reappear on television until Fox's 
second season of Batman: The Animated Series, 
where she made her debut in the two-part "Shadow 
of the Bat" (September 13-14, 1993), and became 
a semi-regular on that series and its later incarna- 
tions, The Adventures of Batman & Robin 
(1994-1997, Fox) and The New Batman/Superman 
Adventures (1997-1999, the WB). She arrived on 
the big screen in summer 1997's live-action film 
Batman & Robin, in which Alicia Silverstone played 
the superheroine (albeit altered to Barbara Wilson, 
the niece of Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred). Batgirl 
also appeared in the direct-to-video animated films 



Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (March 1998) and 
Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (October 2003), 
as well as in much older form in the futuristic TV 
spin-off cartoon Batman Beyond (1998-2001). 
Actress Dina Meyer was cast as Barbara 
Gordon/Oracle (with flashbacks to her Batgirl 
career) in the short-lived Birds of Prey live-action 
series, on the WB network from fall 2002 through 
early 2003. —ME 



ftobnan 



$b 



Creature of the night. Caped cubmaster. Quipping 
crime fighter. Masked detective. Vengeful vigilante. 
At various times throughout his illustrious career, 
Batman has been all of the above, adapting to shift- 
ing social climes while enduring as one of the most 
recognizable pop-culture icons ever. 

Cartoonist Bob Kane compensated for his limit- 
ed artistic talent with his uninhibited imagination — 
and unabashed mimicry. Inspired by a host of influ- 
ences — Leonardo da Vinci's "ornithopter" design, 
Douglas Fairbanks' swashbuckling outing in The 
Mark ofZorro (1920), and pulp heroes the Shadow 
and the Spider, among others — Kane sketched a 
black-masked, red-costumed bat-man, an image 
refined by recommendations from his silent partner, 
writer Bill Finger, into the black-and-grey version of 
the hero soon to become famous as Batman. While 
Kane, to this day, remains the sole credited creator 
of Batman, Finger's contributions cannot be over- 
looked. By his own admission, Kane offered the look 
of the dark prowler, but Finger provided the story. 

The origin of DC Comics' Batman (which wasn't 
revealed to readers until the character's seventh 
appearance) is a now-familiar fable rooted in 
tragedy. As prosperous physician Thomas Wayne, 
his social butterfly wife Martha, and their young son 
Bruce exit a Gotham City movie house after a night- 
time showing of The Mark ofZorro, they are robbed 
by a thief brandishing a pistol. Dr. Wayne valiantly 



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attempts to protect his wife, but the panicky gun- 
man murders the adult Waynes as their grief-strick- 
en son watches. The lad dedicates his very exis- 
tence to avenging his parents' murders by "spend- 
ing the rest of my life warring on all criminals." After 
years of training his mind and body to perfection, 
Wayne, having inherited his father's millions, mulls 
over a crime-fighting disguise that will terrorize law- 
breakers. A bat flaps through an open window, and 
Wayne deems it an omen. The origin's end caption 
heralds, "And thus is born this weird avenger of the 
dark ... this avenger of evil. The Batman." 

Premiering in May 1939 in Detective Comics 
#27, the Batman became a sudden sensation. In 
his earliest adventures, Batman (alternately called 
"Bat-Man" until the hyphen was dropped for consis- 
tency) was quite brutal: He tossed a thug off of a 
rooftop and executed a vampire by shooting him 
with a silver bullet. Batman's violent methods 
earned him an enemy: police commissioner James 
Gordon. Gordon, a mainstay of Batman's mythos 
since the character's very first story, sicced the 
Gotham Police Department on this peculiar winged 
troublemaker, until later forming an uneasy alliance 
with the Batman after it became obvious they were 
playing on the same team. 

As Batman's acclaim swelled, the character's 
publisher recoiled, fearful that the sinister elements 
in the comic book would be emulated by its young 
audience. DC eliminated Batman's use of firearms 
and extreme force — never again would Batman take 
a life. Just under a year after the hero's debut, DC 
softened him even more in Detective #38 (April 
1940) by introducing Robin the Boy Wonder. 
Robin — actually Dick Grayson, a circus aerialist — 
observes the mob-ordered murder of his parents 
and becomes the ward of a sympathetic Wayne, 
who trains the lad as his crime-fighting ally. Detec- 
tive's sales briskly escalated with Robin's inclusion. 
The Boy Wonder, exuberant and wisecracking, had a 
profound influence on the brooding Batman. The 
former "weird avenger" stepped smoothly into the 
role of father figure. 




Batman Family #17 © 1978 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY MICHAEL KALUTA. 



While maintaining the lead spot in Detective, 
Batman was awarded his own title in the spring of 
1940, with artists Jerry Robinson and Sheldon 
Moldoff signing on to help illustrate the additional 
material (but never signing their stories, due to 
Kane's creator's deal). Batman #1 introduced two 
villains who would become integral components of 
the character's history: the sneering clown prince of 
crime, the Joker, and the sultry princess of plunder, 
the Catwoman (although she was called "The Cat" 
during her initial appearance). Batman and Robin 
were soon challenged by a growing contingent of 
odd antagonists: The frightful Scarecrow, the larce- 
nous Penguin, and the puzzling Riddler were just 



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Batman 



some of the rogues who repeatedly took on this 
"Dynamic Duo." When not battling their bizarre 
rogues' gallery, Batman and Robin were mopping up 
mobsters or unearthing clues to crimes in myster- 
ies that challenged the reader to play along as arm- 
chair detectives. 

Batman and Robin's synchronized acrobatics 
and deductive mastery dazzled readers, as did their 
arsenal: They each sported utility belts containing 
the tools of their trade, including Batarangs (bat- 
winged boomerangs), Bat-ropes (for climbing and 
swinging), microcameras and tape recorders, gas 
pellets, acetylene torches, bolas, respirators, first- 
aid kits, penlights, and Bat-cuffs. For transportation, 
the Dynamic Duo hit the streets in their Batmobile, 
the skies in their Batplane, and the sea in their Bat- 
boat, an armada warehoused in the secret Batcave 
beneath the hero's grand home, Wayne Manor. By 
1942, Commissioner Gordon — in a full reversal 
from the days when he ordered his officers to fire 
upon the Batman — was summoning the hero into 
action by illuminating the nighttime skies of Gotham 
City with the Bat-signal. 

The Dynamic Duo's burgeoning popularity could 
not be contained in two magazines alone. They 
soon appeared in DCs World's Best (later World's 
Finest) Comics, and in 1943 swung into their own 
newspaper strip, a medium in which they encoun- 
tered their first defeat — at the hands of a hero who 
would soon be their ally, Superman. Many newspa- 
pers declined to carry the Batman daily and Sunday 
strips since they were already running the Super- 
man feature, cutting short Batman and Robin's first 
excursion into the funnypapers after a mere two 
years. Nonetheless, Batman didn't hold a grudge: 
He and Robin guest starred on several episodes of 
the radio program The Adventures of Superman in 
the mid-1940s. 

Straying even further from Batman's grim 
roots, DC introduced a comic-relief character in Bat- 
man #16 (1943): a gentleman's gentleman named 
Alfred Pennyworth. The son of the butler of Bruce 
Wayne's father, Alfred surprised Wayne and Grayson 



# 



by showing up on their doorstep — and surprised 
them even more when he discovered their Batman 
and Robin guises. The humorous element was 
quickly abandoned and Alfred became the Dynamic 
Duo's valuable and trusted aide. 

Unlike DCs and Marvel Comics' patriotic 
paragons, Superman and Captain America, Batman 
did very little for the war effort in the 1940s other 
than hawk bonds on his covers. Flag waving and 
Nazi bashing were not his forte — he and Robin 
invested their energies in keeping American citizens 
safe at home. In addition to their comics appear- 
ances, they segued into movie theaters in two seri- 
als, Batman (1943) and The New Adventures of Bat- 
man and Robin (1949). 

As most superheroes were put out to pasture 
after World War II, Batman was one of three DC 
Comics characters to maintain his own series, the 
others being Superman and Wonder Woman. Sur- 
vivors Superman and Batman even joined forces as 
"Your Two Favorite Heroes — Together" in the pages 
of World's Finest. Despite Batman's resiliency (and 
the emergence of popular artist Dick Sprang, whose 
interpretation of the Joker remains one of the clas- 
sic renditions of the character), the 1950s were 
unkind to the cowled crime fighter and his sidekick. 
The science-fiction craze that mushroomed out of 
the atomic age injected concepts into the Batman 
comic books ill-suited to their street-level milieu: 
Time travel, mutations of Batman and Robin, invad- 
ing aliens, and giant insects were common themes. 

The biggest threat facing Batman and Robin in 
the 1950s, however, was real-life psychiatrist 
Fredric Wertham. In his scathing book Seduction of 
the Innocent (1954), Dr. Wertham charged that the 
comic-book industry was morally corrupting its 
impressionable young readers, impeaching Batman 
and Robin in particular for flaunting a gay lifestyle. 
Wertham wrote, "They live in sumptuous quarters, 
with beautiful flowers in large vases, and have a 
butler. It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals 
living together." Granted, our hero didn't have much 
luck with women — Wayne zipped through a throng of 



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beauties like Julie Madison, Vicki Vale, and Kathy 
Kane, and Batman was tantalized by femme fatale 
Catwoman and, on a couple of instances, even 
Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane — but if DCs writ- 
ers and editors intended the Dynamic Duo's rela- 
tionship as a gay metaphor, it's a secret that has 
remained closeted. In response to Wertham's dam- 
aging allegations and ensuing parental and U.S. 
Senate criticism, DC Comics built a wholesome 
"Batman Family" with the Caped Crusader as its 
pointy-eared patriarch. Soon Batman and Robin 
were joined by Batwoman and Ace the Bat-Hound, 
as well as Bat-Girl and even the magical imp Bat- 
Mite. Batman's ghoulish adversaries were either 
neutered or discarded from the series. For years, 
DC produced a kinder, gentler Batman — and read- 
ers defected. Batman and Detective Comics were 
on the brink of cancellation. 

Editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz, who launched 
the Silver Age of comics (1956-1969) through his 
renovations of Golden Age (1938-1954) favorites 
the Flash, Green Lantern, and the Justice Society 
of America (reworked in 1960 as the Justice 
League, a team that counted Batman among its 
eminent roster), was tapped by DC to work his 
magic on Batman. Enter the "New Look" era in 
1964: Schwartz updated the appearance of the 
hero by adding a yellow oval to Batman's chest 
insignia; hired Flash illustrator Carmine Infantino to 
modernize the artwork; evicted the codependent 
Batman Family, except for Robin; and excised the 
silly sci-fi gimmickry that had strangled the charac- 
ter for more than ten years. Detective mysteries 
became the norm, Batman's rogues' gallery reap- 
peared (with new additions like Blockbuster), and 
Robin was franchised out for membership in a 
junior Justice League called the Teen Titans. The 
only bad call Schwartz made was the elimination of 
Alfred: Batman's butler died in 1964 and was 
replaced by Grayson's Aunt Harriet, Schwartz's vol- 
ley to counter Wertham's contentions of a decade 
earlier, but that decision was soon reversed and 
Alfred was resurrected. 



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On January 12, 1966, ABC premiered a live- 
action Batman television series starring handsome 
Adam West as a swaggering Batman/Wayne and 
unseasoned newcomer Burt Ward as an efferves- 
cent Robin/Grayson. Batman bubbled with flashy 
costumes and sets (at a time when color television 
was relatively new), pop-art sound-effect graphics 
("Pow!" "Zowie!"), a surfin' soundtrack by Neal 
Hefti, and guest appearances by popular celebrities 
as villains. The show's flamboyant action enthralled 
kids, while its campy humor amused their parents. 
Batman, which aired twice a week (the first night's 
cliff-hanger would be resolved "tomorrow night, 
same Bat-time, same Bat-channel," as the narrator 
promised), was not only an immediate hit, it birthed 
a national phenomenon. America went "Bat" crazy: 
West as Batman appeared on major magazine cov- 
ers including Life and TV Guide, Ward as Robin 
became a teen heartthrob, an unprecedented wave 
of Bat-merchandise was sold to boys and girls, the 
Batman newspaper strip resumed, and a theatrical 
movie was churned out for the summer of 1966. DC 
plastered Batman on as many comics as possi- 
ble — the hero usurped Justice League and World's 
Finest covers from his partners, and Batman team- 
ups took over the title The Brave and the Bold. The 
entire genre of superheroes benefited from this Bat- 
mania, with costumed crime fighters new and old 
taking over the airwaves, comics racks, and toy 
shelves for a few years. ABC's Batman returned for 
two more seasons, but ratings sagged each year 
(despite the introduction of Yvonne Craig in season 
three as Batgirl, a character also inserted into the 
comics), and the show was axed in 1968, although 
Batman segued to Saturday-morning television in 
September 1968 as part of the animated The Bat- 
man/Superman Hour. 

The inflated comic-book sales DC enjoyed 
from the television show's hit status quickly deflat- 
ed once it left the air. Batman needed another 
shot in the arm. Artist Neal Adams' photo-realistic 
illustrations and experimental layouts on the 
Deadman series in DCs Strange Adventures had 



* 



Batman 



made him comics' "it" boy. With the 
Batman/Deadman pairing in The Brave and the 
Bold #79 (1968), Adams began a stint on that 
team-up title that would, with each issue, revitalize 
the look of Batman: the hero's batears began to 
grow longer, his brow became more menacingly 
furrowed, his cape engulfed comics panels like 
flowing batwings, and his escapades always took 
place at night — even when scripter Bob Haney 
called for a daytime scene! Adams took it upon 
himself to restore Batman to his roots as a fore- 
boding nocturnal force — he was "the" Batman 
again. Editor Schwartz noticed, and recruited 
Adams to the main Bat-titles. 

Other changes were transpiring at the same 
time: In late 1969, Dick Grayson left home for col- 
lege (and his own adventures as Robin the Teen 
Wonder), and Wayne and Alfred temporarily board- 
ed up the mansion and relocated into a highrise in 
the heart of Gotham. New and frightening foes like 
Man-Bat and Ra's al Ghul appeared, Two-Face 
returned from limbo, and the Joker was trans- 
formed from a clownish buffoon into a homicidal 
maniac. Throughout the 1970s, writers like Dennis 
O'Neil, Steve Englehart, and Len Wein, and dynam- 
ic artists including Adams, Dick Giordano, and Mar- 
shall Rogers produced gothic, atmospheric master- 
pieces that are still lauded by readers over thirty 
years later. Batman overcame a sales slump in the 
early 1970s and was again being exploited by DC 
by the mid-1970s: The Joker, Man-Bat, and The 
Batman Family joined DCs lineup. Batman's roman- 
tic life became a captivating soap opera; Batman 
cavorted with Talia, the vivacious but villainous 
daughter of his new foe al Ghul, and Wayne fell in 
love with the natty Silver St. Cloud, who actually 
deduced his dual identity by recognizing Bruce's 
chin in the Batmask. While Batman was the "Dark- 
night Detective" in DCs comics, television wouldn't 
allow the light-hearted interpretation of the hero to 
die: Witness ABC's kid-friendly Super Friends 
(beginning in 1973 and running, in various incarna- 
tions, until the mid-1980s) and CBS's The New 



Adventures of Batman (1977, featuring the voices 
of West and Ward). A puffy West and Ward even 
donned their colorful costumes once again in 1978 
for a pair of campy one-hour television specials 
called Legends of the Super-Heroes (also featuring 
the Flash, Green Lantern, the Riddler, and other 
good and bad guys). 

This didn't faze DCs comic-book Batman, how- 
ever. In the 1980s, his comics explored grimmer 
themes: Batman became a vampire, blew off his 
Justice League pals and formed the Outsiders, and 
encountered freakish new villains like the bone- 
crushing Killer Croc. By 1984, Grayson had hung 
up his red Robin tunic to become Nightwing, and 
troubled teen Jason Todd was introduced as the 
new — and rebellious — Boy Wonder. Batman's most 
influential moment of the decade occurred with 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), a four- 
issue miniseries by writer/artist Frank Miller and 
inker Klaus Janson. Set in the near future, Dark 
Knight portrayed a grizzled, booze-addled Bruce 
Wayne crawling out of retirement to restore order to 
a chaotic Gotham as the Batman. Miller's gritty 
take on Batman established a template for other 
writers and artists to follow. Batman comics grew 
somber, and sometimes graphically startling: The 
manic Joker debased and nearly killed Commis- 
sioner Gordon and Batgirl in Batman: The Killing 
Joke (1988), and did kill the new Robin — echoing 
reader demand from a phone-in contest — in Bat- 
man #428 (1988). A new Robin, Tim Drake, 
entered the canon the following year, as did anoth- 
er Tim, real-life movie director Tim Burton. 

Burton, a wild-haired, cartoonish figure himself, 
was fascinated by fantasy: His earliest cinematic 
efforts included Frankenweenie (1984) and Pee- 
Wee's Big Adventure (1985). So when he took on 
the project of bringing Batman to the big screen, 
comics fans were thrilled ... until they learned of his 
casting choice. Michael Keaton, a quirky actor slight 
of build and best known for comedy roles in Mr. 
Mom (1983) and Burton's own Beetlejuice (1988), 
was chosen by the director to play Wayne and Bat- 



DO 



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man. A delegation of comics fans demanded 
Keaton's removal from the project. Burton was con- 
vinced, however, that the wild look in Keaton's eyes 
would give him the edge to portray the obsessed 
hero. Box-office receipts proved him right: Batman 
(1989), which included Jack Nicholson as the Joker 
and Kim Basinger as love interest Vicki Vale, was 
the year's megahit, spawning a wave of Bat-mer- 
chandise the likes of which had not been seen 
since 1966. 

1992 was Batman's next pivotal year. Burton 
and Keaton were back in theaters with Batman 
Returns, inspiring a television cartoon spinoff that 
fall: the no/r-ish Batman: The Animated Series. In 
the comics, a brutish crime lord called Bane 
deposed Gotham's guardian by snapping Batman's 
spine and triumphantly pitching him off a rooftop. 
During his convalescence, Wayne was replaced by 
a psychotically violent surrogate Batman named 
Jean Paul Valley (a.k.a. Azrael). Once healed, the 
true Batman overcame Valley and resumed "the 
mantle of the Bat." Even the leveling of Gotham 
City by an earthquake in DCs serialized storyline 
"No Man's Land" (1999) could not stop the hero. 
Bolstered by a convoy of comic-book titles and 
specials, a perennial line of action figures (more 
than one hundred variations of Batman figures 
have been produced since the 1990s), an endur- 
ing television presence (the 1966 Batman series 
aired weekly on TV Land in 2004, and Batman: 
The Animated Series continued for years, inspiring 
the futuristic Batman Beyond and the superteam 
Justice League cartoon shows), and live-action 
movies (Val Kilmer and George Clooney played Bat- 
man in two additional film sequels, and Warner 
Bros, is aggressively developing a reintroduction 
of the Batman film franchise), the Dark Knight 
shows no signs of age. 

Since his 1939 debut, Batman has repeatedly 
proved that while he may suffer setbacks, he is 
undefeatable. He represents our fears, and inspires 
us to conquer them. And he will inevitably continue 
to do so for decades to come. — ME 



fktbnan in 
the Media 

Although he began his comic-book career as a crea- 
ture of the night, Batman has been portrayed on 
television and film as both a dark avenger and a 
campy crime-fighting clown. Artist Bob Kane was 
influenced by Douglas Fairbanks' look in The Mark 
ofZorro (1920) and the villainous cloaked character 
in The Bat (1926) when he designed Batman, and 
as he and writer Bill Finger further developed the 
character following his May 1939 debut, cinematic 
influences continued. Although sidekick Robin was 
introduced in 1940 without specific media inspira- 
tions, the look of arch-villain the Joker was trans- 
ferred almost verbatim from the eerie smiling 
appearance of Conrad Veidt in The Man Who 
Laughs (1927). 

FIM-SeZTAL BEGINNINGS 

In 1943, just four years after his comic debut, 
Batman was brought to the masses in a film serial. 
Columbia had the rights to both Superman and Bat- 
man, but they chose to film the non-superpowered 
hero first. Film serials were short films that played 
in movie theaters every week, each ending in a cliff- 
hanger so that audiences would return the following 
week to see the next chapter. 

The fifteen-chapter Batman serial debuted on 
July 16, 1943, starring Lewis Wilson as Batman 
and Douglas Croft as Robin. The damsel-in-distress 
of the piece was Linda Page, played by Shirley Pat- 
terson, while Caucasian actor J. Carroll Naish 
pushed racial boundaries (and, a later generation of 
viewers would agree, crossed the line into stereo- 
type) as the villainous Japanese spy Dr. Daka. While 
trying to steal radium to fuel his atomic disintegra- 
tor, Daka uses a mind-control device on the resi- 
dents of Gotham City, turning them into "zombies." 



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Since the serial was shot in black-and-white, 
the colors of Batman and Robin's costumes were 
irrelevant, but they looked very similar to the comic 
designs, even if Batman's ears more closely resem- 
bled horns. The serial was dull at times — largely 
due to both Wilson's and Croft's performances and 
a meandering script — but it did firmly establish the 
Batcave (which was utilized more in publisher DCs 
comics thereafter). 

In 1945, Batman and Robin both made regular 
guest-appearances on the Superman radio show, 
often played by Matt Crowley and Ronald Liss, 
respectively. A few aborted attempts at a solo Bat- 
man radio series were made, but the Dark Knight's 
next appearance was back in the serials. Following 
the success of their first Superman serial in 1948, 
Columbia chose to go back to the Batcave, with 
Superman's director, Spencer Bennet, at the helm. 

Batman and Robin, a fifteen-chapter serial 
(also known as The Return of Batman) premiered in 
theaters on May 26, 1949. This time, Robert Low- 
ery played Batman and John Duncan played Robin. 
In this outing, they faced the Wizard (Leonard 
Penn), who uses a top-secret remote control device 
to take command of planes, trains, and automo- 
biles, then uses a stolen "neutralizer" and a zone 
of invisibility, all to commit dastardly crimes such as 
stealing diamonds. The serial includes Vicki Vale 
(Jane Adams), who had recently been introduced in 
the comics, but it is a lackluster production in 
almost every sense. The cliff-hangers are poorly 
written, the acting is mediocre, the costumes are 
bad, the music is weak, and even the director 
seems to have lost interest in his own product. 

Batman retreated to the pages of comics for 
another fifteen years, at which time the first serial 
was re-edited and re-released under the title An 
Evening with Batman and Robin (1965). The press 
materials for the re-release called it "The Greatest 
Serial Ever Filmed," and quoted a review that noted 



that it was "two high-camp folk heroes in a 
marathon of fist-fights, zombies, & ravenous alliga- 
tors!" It was that camp element that would become 
the public's prime association with Batman for the 
next several years. 

FOZAYS INTO TELEVISION 

Television network ABC acquired the rights for 
a live-action Batman series shortly after the serial 
was re-released (one legend has it that an execu- 
tive was inspired by a print of the film he saw at 
Hugh Hefner's Chicago Playboy mansion), and work 
on a pilot began in fall 1965. Producer William Dozi- 
er and his crew decided on a style for the series 
that would mimic the elements of the comic in a 
way that stayed true to them and made fun of them 
at the same time. Cameras were tilted for an askew 
perspective, colors were brightened, deadpan narra- 
tion was employed, and most famously, animated 
sound effects of "Biff! Bam! Pow!" were superim- 
posed on the screen during fight scenes. 

Although Lyle Waggoner originally read for the 
dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, the part went to 
fellow small-screen bit-parter Adam West, who 
proved perfect at staying in completely serious char- 
acter no matter what wackiness ensued around 
him. Newcomer Burt Ward was youthful partner Dick 
Grayson/Robin, whose expressions were generally 
preceded by the adjective "Holy," as in "Holy Price- 
less Collection of Etruscan Snoods!" Genteel Alan 
Napier was butler Alfred, while befuddled Commis- 
sioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara were played by Neil 
Hamilton and Stafford Repp, respectively. 

Debuting mid-season on January 12, 1966, 
Batman was an almost immediate success. Each 
half-hour show was a two-parter, with the first part 
ending in a cliff-hanger and the conclusion airing 
the following night. It was a bold experiment, and it 
paid off handsomely in ratings and merchandising; 



Opposite: Michael Keaton portrays the Dark Night in Batman Returns. 



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even the theme song by Neal Hefti hit the music 
charts. Additionally, big-name actors wanted to be a 
part of the series, enabling the producers to cast 
villains and bit parts more easily. Villains included 
the Riddler (Frank Gorshin [who would get an Emmy 
nomination for the role], and John Astin), the Joker 
(Cesar Romero), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), 
Catwoman (Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, Eartha 
Kitt), Mr. Freeze (George Sanders, Otto Preminger), 
Bookworm (Roddy McDowall), Ma Parker (Shelley 
Winters), Egghead (Vincent Price), Chandell (Liber- 
ace), Siren (Joan Collins), and many more. 

Batman was popular enough that, between 
the first and second seasons, a feature film was 
shot utilizing much of the series' cast as Batman 
and Robin faced their four toughest villains: the 
Penguin, the Joker, the Riddler (Gorshin), and Cat- 
woman (Meriwether). Batman was released by 
Twentieth Century Fox on August 3, 1966, further 
fueling the Bat-craze sweeping the country. A Bat- 
copter and Batboat were created for the film, and 
were later utilized in addition to the Batmobile on 
the series. Other Bat-vehicles and Bat-gadgets 
include the Batcycle; the Batmobile's micro-TV Bat- 
scanner; the Bat-charger launcher; and various 
Batcave accessories, including the navigational 
aid computer and the "complete anti-criminal eye- 
pattern master file." Although a scene with Shark- 
Repellent Batspray is funny, perhaps the most 
memorable scene in the film involves Batman try- 
ing to get rid of an explosive device on a crowded 
pier. "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb," 
he intones, deadpan. 

Fearing then-significant concerns that Batman 
and Robin would be perceived as homosexual, two 
female characters were added to the TV series. 
Aunt Harriet Cooper (Madge Blake) was introduced 
into the household of stately Wayne Manor, and — 
following an eight-minute presentation pilot which 
was filmed to test the character — femme sidekick 
Batgirl (a luminous Yvonne Craig) followed in the 
series' third season in fall 1967. Batgirl, who 
debuted in comic-book form only a few months 



before, had actually been created as an advance 
tie-in to what the TV producers had in mind. 

But by the third season, even Batgirl could not 
help save the Batman series, which had been experi- 
encing a significant drop in viewership during year 
two. ABC cut the series back to one night a week, and 
on March 14, 1968, ended Batman with its 120th 
episode. Although NBC expressed an interest in reviv- 
ing the series, by the time they made clear overtures 
to Twentieth Century Fox, ABC had already scrapped 
the sets. Batman almost immediately entered the 
syndication market, where it has been an ultra-popu- 
lar television staple for more than thirty years. 

ANIMATION 

Six months after the live-action Batman series 
ended, CBS debuted a Filmation animated series of 
adventures in The Batman/Superman Hour. Each 
episode featured one seven-minute story, as well as 
a two-part fourteen-minute show. The tone of the 
tales was slightly less campy than the live series, 
though the villainous deathtraps were just as elabo- 
rate. Antagonists included Joker, Penguin, Cat- 
woman, Scarecrow, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and others. 
Olan Soule voiced Batman, with Casey Kasem 
(before his radio stardom) voicing Robin, and Jane 
Webb handling vocal chores for Batgirl. Ted Knight 
lent his tones to almost all of the villains, as well as 
Commissioner Gordon and the Narrator. From 1969 
to 1970, the Bat-stories were split off into their own 
series, titled The Adventures of Batman and Robin. 
During this period, Filmation also animated five 
brief Batman segments for Children's Television 
Workshop's Sesame Street series, some of which 
featured Joker and Penguin. 

The animated Batman wasn't off the air for too 
long after the Filmation series ended. In 1972, 
Hanna-Barbera was producing The New Scooby-Doo 
Movies for CBS. Each episode found the familiar 
gang of mystery-solvers teaming up with celebrities, 
both real — such as Sonny and Cher or the Three 
Stooges — and fictional. Batman and Robin guest- 



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Batman in the Media 



starred in two episodes, helping the Scooby Gang 
foil the dastardly plans of Joker and Penguin. Inter- 
estingly enough, Casey Kasem provided the voices 
for both Shaggy and Robin, while Olan Soule again 
voiced Batman. The shows were a warm-up for 
Hanna-Barbera, who thought that a crime-fighting 
team of superheroes should work in animation as 
well as it did in the comics. 

On September 8, 1973, ABC-TV debuted Super 
Friends, a new Hanna-Barbera series that teamed 
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, and 
Aquaman to fight crime. The group was accompa- 
nied on their adventures by teenagers Wendy and 
Marvin, and their pet, Wonder Dog (in the comics, 
Wendy was retroactively written to be Bruce Wayne's 
niece). Soule and Kasem stayed on to provide the 
Dynamic Duo's voices. The series was a relative 
success, and its sixteen episodes stayed in rotation 
on ABC until fall 1977, when the format was 
revamped and new characters were added to create 
The All New Super Friends Hour. 

It wasn't until 1978's revamp, Challenge of the 
Super Friends, that any Batman villains showed up 
in the Super Friends milieu. Joining in with the 
Legion of Doom were Scarecrow and Riddler, cer- 
tainly not the most powerful of Batman's rogues' 
gallery. Riddler would pop up again in 1980's The 
Super Friends Hour, but it wasn't until the 1985 
incarnation of the series, The Super Powers Team: 
Galactic Guardians (which saw Adam West take 
over Batman's vocal duties from Olan Soule) that 
other Bat-villains came into play. Penguin would 
reappear, as would Joker (as a member of the Wild 
Cards gang), but it was in an episode titled "The 
Fear" that ground was broken. In the episode, 
Scarecrow subjects Batman to a fear device and 
puts him in Crime Alley, the place where his parents 
were murdered. The show marked the first time in 
Batman's near-fifty-year history that his origin had 
been addressed in any medium other than print. 

Even while he was appearing as a regular in 
the various Super Friends series, the animated Bat- 



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man was also showing up on another network. In 
early 1977, Filmation produced The New Adven- 
tures of Batman lor CBS. The sixteen episodes 
found Batman, Robin, and Batgirl joined in their 
crime-fighting adventures by a fifth-dimensional imp 
known as Bat-Mite. Villains ranged from known 
characters such as Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Mr. 
Freeze, and Clayface to newcomers like Sweet 
Tooth, Professor Bubbles, Electro, and Chameleon 
(the latter two unrelated to Marvel Comics villains 
of the same names). Adam West and Burt Ward 
were reunited for the lead character voices, though 
Filmation didn't really tout the reunion in any adver- 
tising or marketing campaigns. 

In the fall of 1977, CBS teamed the Caped 
Crusader with the King of the Jungle for The ESat- 
man/Tarzan Adventure Hour, though no new 
episodes were produced. The following year the 
series became Tarzan and the Super 7, and that 
title lasted until 1980 when it was changed to Bat- 
man and the Super 7 (on NBC). Having rebroadcast 
the Batman episodes to death, the network finally 
retired the series in the fall of 1981. Bat-Mite would 
eventually make his reappearance in the comics. 

Batman and Robin made one further appear- 
ance on television in the 1970s, when Hanna-Bar- 
bera produced two hour-long live-action specials for 
NBC. Legends of the Super-Heroes was the overall 
title, but "The Challenge" aired January 18, 1979 
and "The Roast" aired January 25, 1979. Not only 
did Adam West and Burt Ward reprise their famous 
roles, but so did Frank Gorshin as Riddler. Even the 
Batmobile made an appearance. Most interestingly, 
the specials also saw the first live-action appearance 
of the Huntress, who in the comics was the daughter 
of the Earth-Two Batman and Catwoman! The spe- 
cials were tremendously campy, and never re-aired. 

THB PARK KNIGHT 
ONFIMANPTV 

Film producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber had 
been trying for years to get a Batman film on track in 



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Batman in the Media 



Hollywood, and in the late 1980s they finally found 
the key to their film with director Tim Burton, whose 
dark sensibilities gelled with the grittier Batman 
comics of the post-Dark Knight Returns era. With a 
script by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, produc- 
tion designer Anton Furst began creating stunning 
gothic sets for Gotham City at Pinewood Studios in 
London. The Warner Bros, film was slated to be a 
big-budget affair, and although few in the potential 
audience quibbled with Kim Basinger's casting as 
Vicki Vale, nor with Jack Nicholson as Joker, it was 
the man behind the Batmask that gave fans pause. 
Michael Keaton had been primarily known for his 
comedic roles, and fans were apoplectic when his 
casting as Batman was announced. 

The $40 million Batman was released on June 
23, 1989, with a huge media campaign behind it. 
Accepting Keaton wholeheartedly, fans were also 
agog at how seriously the film took the comic-book 
mythos, even if it did tweak Batman's origin so that 
Joker was involved. The film grossed over $250 mil- 
lion worldwide, and merchandising ran into the 
multi-million dollars. A sequel was immediately 
greenlighted, and Burton decided to up the ante in 
terms of strangeness and characters alike. 

Batman Returns flew into theaters on June 12, 
1992, but the story was darker than its predeces- 
sor and merchandisers were not happy. Danny DeVi- 
to played a creepy Penguin whose deformities 
caused him to be abandoned by his parents, while 
Michelle Pfeiffer played much-abused Selina Kyle, 
who becomes the sexually liberated Catwoman over 
the course of the film. Pfeiffer had gotten the role 
when first choice Annette Bening dropped out due 
to pregnancy; before the part had been recast, how- 
ever, actress Sean Young forced her way onto the 
Warner Bros, lot in a Catwoman costume, demand- 
ing to see Tim Burton about the role. He hid behind 
a desk rather than face Young, and she later went 
on talk shows to discuss the matter. 

One character who would have been in Batman 
Returns was Robin, and the role was actually cast and 
costumed — with a twist. Young actor Marlon Wayans 



fjo 



was set to play an African-American Robin, but the 
character was completely excised from the script 
before Wayans could film any scenes. Burton felt the 
movie was overstuffed with characters as written, and 
the cutting of Robin streamlined the film more. 

Although it was the highest-grossing film of 
1992, Batman Returns "only" made $163 million at 
the box office, and merchandising revenue was 
severely depressed. Warner now wanted a new vision 
for the films, one that would be brighter and more 
merchandising- and kid-friendly. Tim Burton exited 
talks for a sequel, and with him went Michael 
Keaton. Ironically, Burton's dark vision for the Caped 
Crusader was already being played out in a format 
that did appeal to younger and older audiences alike. 

In 1990, several animators at Warner Bros, 
produced a three-minute test pilot of Batman, done 
in a style they called "Dark Deco." Eventually the 
concept sold to Fox, and work began on the new 
Batman: The Animated Series. When the show 
started airing on September 5, 1992, Batman: TAS 
wowed audiences and critics alike. The stories were 
gloomy and dark, the villains were nasty, and Bat- 
man was brooding. The look of the series was par- 
ticularly gorgeous, utilizing Art Deco architecture 
and character designs on darkened or black back- 
grounds, with heavy airbrushed effects. The animat- 
ed Gotham City now seemed as if it could only exist 
at night, and its protector was right at home among 
the jutting spires and stone gargoyles. 

Producers Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski were 
responsible for much of Batman: TAS's visual look, 
while Alan Burnett came in to serve as story editor 
and co-producer. Burnett had previously worked on 
The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, and he 
hired writer Paul Dini to come aboard as well. The 
stories the production crew created included many 
classic and newer Batman comic villains, as well as 
supporting cast members and storylines lifted 
directly from the pages of the comics themselves. 

Batman: TAS's voice cast was excellent, led by 
Kevin Conroy in the lead role. Loren Lester played 



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Batman in the Media 



Dick Grayson/Robin, while Melissa Gilbert and Tara 
Charendoff took on the role of Batgirl/Barbara Gor- 
don. Once Grayson became Nightwing, the new 
Robin/Tim Drake was played by Mathew Valencia. 
The villain roster was once again filled with familiar 
Hollywood names: Mark Hamill (Joker); Adrienne Bar- 
beau (Catwoman); Ron Perlman (Clayface); Richard 
Moll (Two-Face); Roddy McDowall (The Mad Hatter); 
David Warner (Ra's Al Ghul); and Helen Slater (Talia), 
among others. One episode even paid tribute to an 
older hero in Gotham — the Grey Ghost — and the pro- 
ducers cast Adam West in the vocal role. 

Batman: The Animated Series quickly became 
one of the most critically acclaimed animated series 
in television history, winning numerous Emmy 
Awards and a generation of faithful viewers. Seventy 
episodes were produced in the original show. In Sep- 
tember 1994, the series moved to Saturday morn- 
ings and adopted a more kid-friendly tone, becoming 
The Adventures of Batman & Robin. Fifteen more 
new episodes were produced, mixed in with older 
reruns. The last new show aired in the fall of 1995, 
but repeats continued for a while thereafter. 

In 1997, the series jumped from Fox to the 
fledgling WB! network, becoming even more stylized 
along the way. The show was paired with Superman 
episodes as The New Batman/Superman Adven- 
tures, and a final thirteen episodes were produced, 
airing through early 1999. 

While the animated series was showing, several 
feature-length productions were created. Batman: 
Mask of the Phantasm was the first Batman animat- 
ed theatrical release, premiering on Christmas Day 
of 1993. A direct-to-video story called Batman & Mr. 
Freeze: SubZero was released on March 17, 1998, 
while The Batman/Superman Movie was actually a 
video compilation of three October 1997 Superman 
TV episodes that guest-starred Batman. 

Even as the animated Batman was pleasing 
fans, critics, and merchandisers alike, the feature- 
film franchise was gearing up for a pair of sequels. 
Joel Schumacher directed Batman Forever (1995) 



and Batman & Robin (1997), with a heavy-handed 
campy tone that laid on a thick homoerotic element 
to the series. Replacing Keaton in Forever was Val 
Kilmer, and George Clooney stepped into the cape 
and cowl for Batman & Robin. Marlon Wayans was- 
n't called back for Robin's role, and instead, Chris 
O'Donnell donned the rubber body-suit in both 
films. Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl joined the Dynam- 
ic Duo in Batman & Robin, but as in the TV series, 
the character's inclusion came too late to help the 
franchise's sagging box office. 

Batman Forever utilized comedian Jim Carrey 
as Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, but 
neither was served by the slapdash script, nor 
Schumacher's penchant for letting them run com- 
pletely over the top with their characterizations. 
The campy tone and dialogue worsened for Bat- 
man & Robin, wherein Uma Thurman played a 
seductive Poison Ivy and Arnold Schwarzenegger 
played a leaden Mr. Freeze. Both films were sav- 
aged by the critics and fans, and after Batman & 
Robin underperformed at the box office, Schu- 
macher even publicly admitted to having hurt the 
Batman film franchise. 

No matter how the films fared at the box office, 
Warner was not about to let the successful part of 
its Batman franchise fall completely. In January 
1999, the WB debuted Batman Beyond, a futuristic 
animated series in which a young boy named Terry 
McGinnis discovers the secrets of Batman fifty 
years into Gotham City's future. Now, using a high- 
tech costume — and being coached by the crotchety 
recluse Bruce Wayne — Terry fights crime as the Bat- 
man of the future. By its end in 2001, fifty-two 
episodes of Batman Beyond were produced. 

In December 2000, a direct-to-video animated 
feature called Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker 
was released. Warner had planned an earlier street 
date, but after political pressure about violence 
aimed at young audiences, the studio decided to re- 
edit the film. In 2002, an uncut version of the film 
was released on DVD, rated PG-13 for violence. 



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Batman Villains 



In December 2001, Batman began to appear in 
Justice League, a half-hour animated series on the 
Cartoon Network. There, he occasionally battles 
familiar Bat-villains like Joker and Clayface, 
although more often he joins his super-colleagues 
to battle other menaces. As with all of the other 
Warner-produced cartoons since 1990, Kevin Con- 
roy provides the voice of Batman, while Mark Hamill 
is the Joker. Batman guest-starred with the Justice 
League on two episodes of WB's Static Shock car- 
toon in 2003, and that year also saw Robin appear 
on Cartoon Network's Teen Titans series and the 
release of the direct-to-video feature Batman: Mys- 
tery of the Batwoman. 

In March 2003, CBS aired Return to the Bat- 
cave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt, a tele- 
film comedy reuniting Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank 
Gorshin, Julie Newmar, and a handful of other Bat- 
man TV veterans in a story that told of their "real- 
life" misadventures filming the 1960s series. Warn- 
er Bros, executives are still planning on Batman 
returning to the live-action scene. Versions of a TV 
series featuring a teenage Bruce Wayne have been 
discussed, as has his appearance on the hit series 
Smallville. Multiple movie scripts have been written 
for a new Batman film, with scenarios including the 
popular 1980s comics storyline Batman: Year One, 
a modern Batman, and the futuristic Batman 
Beyond all being considered. 

In September 2003, Christian Bale (American 
Psycho) was announced as the next actor to play a 
big-screen Batman, for director Christopher Nolan 
(Memento) and scripter David Goyer (Blade), with 
filming of the "early days of Batman" story to begin 
in the spring of 2004. A return to animation was 
also in the works, with The Batman announced in 
February 2004 for Kids WB! and Cartoon Network. 
Set to debut in the fall of that year, the show focus- 
es on the earliest days of Batman's career and his 
first clashes against his formidable rogues' gallery. 
The roofs of Gotham City may be silent for the time 
being, but the dark night shadows hold the promise 
of more Bat-adventures in the future. — AM 



(tetonan ffllaim 

Since his debut in Detective Comics #29 (1939), 
Batman has battled the most infamous and imagina- 
tive rogues' gallery in comics. It didn't begin that way, 
however. In the Dark Knight's initial outings, cre- 
ator/artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger accentuat- 
ed the cowled hero, not his adversaries, pitting him 
against generic gangsters, cliched evil masterminds, 
and vampires. Near the end of Batman's inaugural 
year of publication, in Detective Comics #36 (1940), 
the hero encountered his first scoundrel of note: Pro- 
fessor Hugo Strange. In his early appearances, 
Strange smothered Gotham City with fog, mutated 
mental patients into monsters, and even lashed Bat- 
man with a bullwhip, his sinister antics raising the 
badness bar for all Bat-villains to come. 

Batman #1 (Spring 1940) introduced "The 
Cat," soon to be re-dubbed Catwoman, the slinky 
"princess of plunder" who would soon become one 
of Batman's greatest foes, and the Joker. With his 
pallid pigmentation, green hair, and baleful smile, 
the Joker's frightfulness extended beyond his ghast- 
ly looks: This homicidal harlequin exterminated foes 
and associates alike with a poison that froze his 
victims' faces in hideous grins. Also debuting in 
1940, horror-movie star Basil Karlo (a thinly dis- 
guised homage to Boris Karloff) embarked upon a 
career of serial killings in the guise that made him 
famous on film: Clayface. As the readers' world 
became gripped by a war that produced real-life 
genocidal menaces, Batman's creators were chal- 
lenged to envision larger-than-life villains: Jonathan 
Crane was so scarred by childhood taunts over his 
gangly appearance that he adopted the guise of a 
cornfield Scarecrow and made Batman quake in his 
boots with his terror-inducing gas. The impeccably 
dressed racketeer the Penguin waddled into 
Gotham abetted by a flock of feathered fiends and 
an armada of deadly umbrellas. Half of district 
attorney Harvey Dent's visage was so gruesomely 
deformed by a gangster's acid attack that he 



& 



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Batman Villains 



became Jekyll and Hyde in one man, and as the 
schizoid Two-Face unleashed a crime career in 
which each action was predicated on the flip of a 
coin. The Riddler compulsively taunted Batman and 
his junior partner Robin the Boy Wonder with conun- 
drums that contained clues to his forthcoming 
crimes. Jervis Tetch fancied himself the Mad Hatter 
from Alice in Wonderland and nearly toppled the 
Dynamic Duo with hypnotic devices concealed with- 
in his chapeau. Other villains bowing in the 1940s, 
like the rotund Tweedledee and Tweedledum and 
seafaring Tiger Shark, didn't fare as well and soon 
vanished from view. 

In the 1950s, U.S. Senate hearings over 
comics' graphic story content, and the ensuing 
comics industry-created "Comics Code" that man- 
dated what comics publishers could and couldn't 
publish, forced Batman to stray from his dark roots 
into silliness, and his villains followed suit. The gris- 
ly Joker was sanitized into the "Clown Prince of 
Crime," the Penguin was similarly softened for 
comic relief, and Catwoman temporarily sheathed 
her claws and slinked into inactivity, as did Two- 
Face. Villains premiering during that decade were 
uninspired and gimmick-ridden, like Killer Moth, Fire- 
fly, the Terrible Trio (the Fox, the Shark, and the Vul- 
ture, thugs wearing Mardi Gras-like animal heads), 
and Calendar Man. Only the icy Mr. Freeze, called 
"Mr. Zero" in his 1959 debut, proved chilling 
enough to develop staying power with readers. 

By the early 1960s, the Batman franchise was 
in sad shape, and the Dynamic Duo's rogues' 
gallery appeared infrequently, with alien invaders, 
lampoons of movie monsters, and, once again, 
mundane mobsters becoming the norm. Yet one 
memorable new villain managed to ooze out of this 
mire: ne'er-do-well Matt Hagen became the new 
Clayface, a formidable shape-shifter, after wading in 
a shimmering pool of an unexplained liquid. In 
1964, sagging sales led DC Comics to give Batman 
a much-needed facelift in a movement called the 
"New Look," orchestrated by editor Julius Schwartz. 
Artist Carmine Infantino provided a sleeker, more 




Showcase 94 #1 © 1994 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY KEVIN NOWLAN. 



stylized interpretation of Batman and Robin, and 
the stories incorporated more crime-detection and 
scientific elements. Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Cat- 
woman, and Scarecrow returned to active duty, 
joined by a heinous host of new foes: the brutish 
Blockbuster, whose rage could only be quelled by 
the face of Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego; the 
psychedelic Spellbinder; the captivating Poison Ivy, 
whose intoxicating allure divided the Dynamic Duo; 
and international crimelord Dr. Tzin-Tzin. 

During the heyday of ABC's Batman television 
show (1966-1968), being cast as a guest Bat-vil- 
lain was a coveted Hollywood gig, and Tinseltown's 



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69 



Batman's Weapons and Gadgets 



luminaries vied for roles. Mainstay menaces from 
the comic books were present — the Joker (Cesar 
Romero), the Riddler (Frank Gorshin and, temporari- 
ly, John Astin), and the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), 
among others — and new antagonists were created, 
including Egghead (Vincent Price), King Tut (Victor 
Buono), and the Siren (Joan Collins). 

Batman experienced a comic-book renaissance 
in the 1970s. Writers Frank Robbins and Denny 
O'Neil returned the hero to his original "creature of 
the night" status, and the villains became more star- 
tling as well. Man-Bat, a biologist whose goal of emu- 
lating Batman bore freakish results, first flapped his 
wings in 1970. Ra's al Ghul, a global terrorist empow- 
ered with immortality from regular dips in the "Lazu- 
rus Pit," deduced the hero's Wayne identity and 
chose the "Detective" (as he called Batman) as his 
successor. Batman refused, of course, despite the 
temptation of al Ghul's fetching daughter Talia. And 
the ominous old guard got nastier: The Joker 
resumed murdering victims with a smile and Two- 
Face, more demented than ever, returned from limbo. 

By the 1980s, Batman's rogues were no longer 
mere costumed thieves: They were now full-fledged 
psychopaths, incarcerated at (and systematically 
escaping from) Arkham Asylum, an institution for the 
criminally insane. Newer villains were introduced — 
including the shocking Electrocutioner, devilish siblings 
Night-Slayer and Nocturna, a female Clayface (who 
later joined her predecessors as the Mudpack), and 
the vigilante Anarky — but they lacked the longevity of 
two new threats: the reptilian-skinned Killer Croc and 
the mousy mobster Ventriloquist (who voiced crime 
commands through his dummy Scarface). Still, no Bat- 
villain better epitomized the grim-and-gritty 1980s than 
the good old Joker, who ended the decade by shooting 
and paralyzing Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon, murdering the 
second Robin, and usurping the screen from the title 
star (in a tour de force by actor Jack Nicholson) in Tim 
Burton's hit film Batman (1989). 

By the 1990s, the traditional superhero — in 
comics and in other media — was no more. In his 



^0 



place stood the anti-hero, the dark avenger whose 
methods for apprehending adversaries were often 
as violent as his foes'. Batman had jumpstarted 
this movement twenty years prior and continued the 
trend through that decade and into the 2000s, dif- 
ferentiated from other anti-heroes by his pledge to 
preserve human life. His contemporary enemies 
share no such vow — newer foes often leave a trail 
of bodies in their wake. Witness Bane (whose 
"VenorrT'-enhanced strength enabled him to break 
Batman's back); Nicholas Scratch, Orca, and assas- 
sins Brutale and Cain; retreads like Charaxes (a 
mutated Killer Moth); the new Spellbinder; and yet 
another Clayface. The breakthrough Bat-baddie of 
the 1990s was the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn, 
originally created for television's Batman: The Ani- 
mated Series (1992). Quinn proved so popular she 
was added to DC Comics continuity, even receiving 
her own monthly series in 2000. 

That long-running Batman cartoon series includ- 
ed a legion of Bat-villains, the most popular of which 
was the Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill. On the big 
screen, the continuation of the Batman franchise 
lured box-office giants to the roles of Bat-rogues: 
Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer 
as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992); Tommy 
Lee Jones as Two-Face and Jim Carrey as the Riddler 
in Batman Forever (1995); and Arnold Schwarzeneg- 
ger as Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in 
Batman & Robin (1997). The Dark Knight's foes, par- 
ticularly the Joker, have been heavily merchandized 
since the mid-1960s in everything from action fig- 
ures to children's underwear. — ME 



fctbmn's Weapons 
and Gadgets 

Perhaps no other costumed crime fighter claims 
all the weapons, tools, and gadgets that DC 
Comics' Batman possesses. And for good rea- 

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Batman's Weapons and Gadgets 



son: Unlike most superheroes, Batman does not 
have any innate superhuman abilities. Instead, he 
fights with a martial arts expertise that might 
make Jet Li flinch, the high-tech gadgetry of 
James Bond, a host of otherworldly weapons, cus- 
tom-designed vehicles, and razor-sharp detective 
skills, his ability to deductively reason tanta- 
mount to master sleuth Hercule Poirot. The Dark 
Knight's equipment is often black or midnight 
blue, bearing a bat insignia. 

His utility belt — a fundamental part of the 
Caped Crusader's costume and the backbone of 
his crime-fighting arsenal — contains the stuff of 
boys' wildest imaginings. Containers hold every 
conceivable apparatus, from fingerprint equipment 
to a palm-top communicator, complete with 
encrypted cell phone and e-mail capabilities. Bat- 
man's notorious Bat-rope is drawn out of the lining 
of his utility belt, much like the line on a fishing 
reel. Because this silken cord is as "strong as 
steel," it can easily be used as a lasso, or for scal- 
ing skyscrapers and swinging from rooftops. Histo- 
rian Michael L. Fleisher noted that the utility belt 
has been used on "easily a thousand occasions" 
throughout Batman's long career, its various con- 
tents — changed over the years and composed of 
dozens if not hundreds of implements — used to 
"rescue him from life-and-death situations and help 
him apprehend criminals." First introduced as part 
of Batman's costume in 1939 and last overhauled 
during the "No Man's Land" story arc of 1999 in 
order to accommodate more weapons and supplies 
for an earthquake-ridden Gotham City, the utility 
belt is counted among Batman's strongest crime- 
fighting assets. 

Tucked neatly within Batman's utility belt are 
various Batarang compartments, first introduced 
into Batman's staple of battle supplies in Septem- 
ber 1939. While the Batarang can be pulled from 
his belt instantly and thrown and retrieved with 
Green Beret-like accuracy, Batman also devel- 
oped, in 1946, a Batarang gun, for firing the 
Batarang over especially long distances. The 



Batarang has had many variations, including the 
magnetic Batarang, the seeing-eye Batarang 
(which contains a miniature camera), the flash- 
bulb Batarang (for illuminating a subject or tem- 
porarily blinding an evil-doer), and the bomb 
Batarang (armed with explosives and always use- 
ful in a pinch). Used consistently throughout the 
history of Batman comics, Batarangs have also 
gone Hollywood in the live-action Batman TV 
series of the 1960s and live-action feature films 
of the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

Other Bat-gadgets created by Batman over the 
years include the entangling Bat-bolo; the Batpoon, 
a harpoon with Bat-rope attached; Bat-grenades; 
and a Bat glass cutter. Bat-darts were also a 
favorite accessory of the Dark Knight in the late 
1950s and, like other items in Batman's arsenal, 
come and go as needed. Green-tinted infrared gog- 
gles allow Batman to see in the dark "just like a 
real bat" (proclaimed Detective Comics #37) and 
magnifying goggles allow him to see distant objects 
close-up, though of late Batman relies more heavily 
on his ultra-tech multifunction binoculars. Shark- 
Repellent Batspray graced the big screen in the 
1966 live-action movie Batman, always useful for 
battling deadly sea creatures that have started 
chewing on body parts. Likewise, the 1960s Bat- 
man TV show introduced the Bat-shield — a folding, 
shield-like device doubling as a motorcycle window 
and protecting the Batman and sidekick Robin — 
though comic-book fans will probably never see this 
particular Bat-gizmo in print. 

During the 1950s and 1960s, Batman devel- 
oped a line of gliding and scaling accessories for 
accessing Gotham, including glider Bat-wings that 
functioned much like a hang-glider; and a pair of 
"human jet-power units" that — when strapped to 
Batman and Robin's backs — allowed the heroes to 
soar through the air at breakneck speed. For scal- 
ing skyscrapers, Batman frequently used — what 
else? — specially crafted gloves and knee pads with 
suction cups attached. To allow the heroes to walk 
on water, the Dynamic Duo used "air-inflated" raft 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Battle of the Planets 



shoes. When he is not sleuthing about with his vari- 
ous jumplines, today's Batman prefers to travel via 
his technologically advanced Batmobile, bulletproof 
Batcycle, or Bat-humvee. 

Gone are the Golden Age (1938-1954) spy- 
like devices like the Flying Eye, a remote-controlled 
bowling ball-shaped machine that could soar 
through the air, hover at command, and then tele- 
vise what it saw and heard back to a receiver 
located in the Batcave. For checking out the scene 
of a crime and performing other investigative work, 
only the most advanced technology will suffice. 
Batman's ultra-cool Universal Tool is a lightweight, 
miniaturized self-contained tool kit. His Crime- 
Scene Kit comes complete with a multispectral, 
high-resolution camera, fingerprint kit, evidence- 
collecting bags in various sizes, and forensics 
software. A fingerlight, fitted with a rubberized 
mouth-holder to allow for hands-free use, illumi- 
nates the scene of any crime. Alter ego Bruce 
Wayne's WayneTech research often provides the 
electronics, computer chips, or other equipment 
necessary to make the Guardian of Gotham's 
sleuthing tools function. 

Other members of the Bat-family have enjoyed 
their own gadgetry, though most accessories pale in 
comparison to the Dark Knight's. Robin's utility belt 
always ran a close second to his mentor's. As 
Nightwing, the costumed hero sports night-vision 
lenses in his mask and prefers to keep his weapons 
arsenal loaded in his glove gauntlets rather than a 
utility belt. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl wore a 
weapons belt, complete with a bat-insignia-decorated 
Batpurse — perfect for lipstick and assorted sundries. 
As Oracle, Gordon is Gotham's information broker, 
with her super-computer workstation as her most 
coveted accessory. In his heydey, canine crime-fight- 
ing companion Ace the Bat-Hound, in character with 
his black mask and bat insignia on his collar, sported 
a tiny two-way radio in his collar that allowed Batman 
and Robin to call for him once he traveled outside 
voice range, as well as to overhear villains' conversa- 
tions once Ace had tracked them down. — GM 



xt> 



tattle of 
the Pf arrets 

For more than thirty years the heroes of the classic 
television series Battle of the Planets have 
enthralled legions of children everywhere. The band 
of teenagers that form the superhero group G-Force 
were the creation of Tatsuo Yoshida, the founder of 
Tatsunoko Animation and the originator of the clas- 
sic 1960s anime character Speed Racer. Yoshida 
envisioned a show that explored the relationship 
between humans and science, and so named his 
Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team 
Gatchaman. From the moment the program pre- 
miered on primetime Japanese television in 1972, 
it was a smash hit. With its homeland success, it 
was inevitable that Gatchaman would invade televi- 
sion sets across the world. When it hit the United 
States in 1978 as the rechristened Battle of the 
Planets, the show was an instant success — becom- 
ing one of the most popular anime series ever to air 
on American television and leading the way for a 
massive worldwide anime revolution. 

The massive box office success of Star Wars 
convinced Sandy Frank, an independent television 
program packager, that Gatchaman might be just 
the thing to whet the appetite of children craving 
more intergalactic adventures. Sparing no expense, 
Frank hired formidable animation veterans Jameson 
Brewer and Alan Dinehart to reformat the original 
Gatchaman shows for Western audiences by toning 
down the violent and sexual content, which Japan- 
ese audiences were accustomed to. One of most 
controversial characters was the villain Zoltar, who 
was originally portrayed as a hermaphrodite, an 
aspect of his persona that would never fly with 
American censors. Also, since the original Japanese 
production was earthbound, creators conceived of 
new animation that depicted space flight and plan- 
ets. Finally, the show was given its Star Wars-esque 
name, and an empire was born. 



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Battle of the Planets 



Battle of the Planets took 
place in a not-so-distant future 
where Earth and its colonized 
worlds formed the Intergalactic 
Federation of Planets to ensure 
peace across the universe. When 
the Federation's defenses were 
down, an evil organization named 
Spectra, led by the tyrant Zoltar 
and his master the Luminous 
One, came from its decaying uni- 
verse to conquer the Federation. 
The only thing that stood 
between Spectraand the Federa- 
tion was a company of five 
teenagers named G-Force, who 
were sworn to serve and protect 
the Federation's survival with 
their enhanced abilities, sheer 
determination, and mighty 
Phoenix aircraft. 

G-Force established the five- 
person team archetype that set 
the mold for Japanese superhero 
teams in shows like The Mighty 
Morphin' Power Rangers and 
Voltron. In Battle of the Planets, 
each member was unique in per- 
sonality and appearance, and 
each had a distinctive "bird" cos- 
tume along with his or her own 
custom vehicle. The group con- 
sisted of the stern leader Mark; 
the hot-headed Jason; the beauti- 
ful Princess; the comic relief 
Keyop; and the easygoing Tiny. 
The characters had extensive combat training, but 
also had "cerebonic implants," giving them 
increased strength and endurance (in the original 
Gatchaman series, the team had no implants). All 
the team members, with the exception of Tiny, were 
orphans of one sort or another — Keyop (who had a 
speech impediment that caused him to speak with 




Battle of the Planets © 2002 Sandy Frank Entertainment. 



an odd, chirping sound) was a test-tube baby, born 
in a laboratory. The team was lead by Chief Ander- 
son of the Intergalactic Federation. Monitoring the 
team from their main headquarters, Center Nep- 
tune, was the robot 7-Zark-7. A character similar to 
Star Wars' R2-D2, Zark was created for the State- 
side version of the series, to provide narration for 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Big Bang Heroes 



the show and to create a bridge over the portions 
that had been edited. 

Even though the premise of the series was 
slightly altered from the original, the sophisticated 
characterizations and strong storylines stood out for 
audiences used to feeding on the light and breezy 
Hanna Barbera-influenced animation that was abun- 
dant in the 1970s. Battle of the Planets became an 
international hit as well; the series found success in 
countries including Great Britain, France, Spain, 
Canada, and the Netherlands, accompanied by mer- 
chandise such as board games, toys, specialty mag- 
azines, and comic books. 

By the mid-1980s, Battle of the Planets went off 
the air. Various incarnations of the show have enjoyed 
moderate success, including G-Force, Turner's re-edit- 
ed version of the original Gatchaman shows, which 
ran on TBS briefly beginning in July 1987; but it was 
not until 1995 that the entire series was shown on 
the Cartoon Network. In the 1990s, Saban Enter- 
tainment produced another English-language ver- 
sion called Eagle Riders; however, the company 
used the second Gatchaman series, which aired in 
Japan in 1978. 

In the 1990s and 2000s, the characters have 
enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to a new 
toy line and the best-selling Battle of the Planets 
series from Top Cow Comics, with art direction by 
Alex Ross, and Munier Sharrieff and Wilson Tortosa 
handling the story and art, respectively. Beginning in 
October 2001, the classic episodes were released 
on DVD from Rhino Home Video. The DVD collection 
also includes the original, unedited episodes of 
Gatchaman that were used in the creation of Battle 
of the Planets. The soundtrack for the series was 
released on CD in early 2001. — MM 



dig Bang Heroes 

Return to the days of 1940s yesteryear when super- 
strong Ultiman starred in Ultiman Comics and HiOc- 



f* 



tane Comics, dark detective Knight Watchman head- 
lined Deductive Comics, patriotic supersoldierthe 
Badge fought Nazis, and the Knights of Justice 
teamed up to undo dastardly plots. Don't remember 
those heroes? How about the updated 1960s super- 
group Round Table of America or the teen sidekick 
group the Whiz Kids? What about the time when 
Amazonian goddess Venus had her powers removed? 

If those situations and characters sound famil- 
iar, but not quite right, that's because they are a 
part of the fictional history of the Big Bang Comics 
line. The creation of Gary S. Carlson and Chris 
Ecker, Big Bang is the ultimate homage to the comic 
world's Golden Age (1938-1954) and Silver Age 
(1956-1969). Debuting in 1995, at a time when 
heroes were grim and gritty, being reinvented as 
gun-toting or claw-bearing murderers — and when 
few Golden Age reprints were being offered from 
any publisher — Big Bang Comics gave readers sto- 
ries that looked, felt, and read like the comics of 
decades past. Occasionally, issues of the series 
would take a more "modern" look at the characters, 
but the majority of the stories were set in the era 
between 1939 and 1969. 

In addition to those previously mentioned, 
other Big Bang characters included super-speedster 
the Blitz, Thunder Girl (who shouted a magic word to 
transform and gain powers of flight and strength), 
mystical spirit of vengeance Dr. Weird, the Beacon 
(whose jewel-in-a-miner's-helmet gave him light- 
based powers), star-powered Dr. Stellar, pill-powered 
Vita-Man, slinkily dressed femme fatale Shadow 
Lady, flaming hero the Blue Blaze, aquatic hero the 
Human Sub, shrinking hero the Hummingbird, and 
uncanny archer Robo-Hood, in addition to the afore- 
mentioned Whiz Kids (Knight Watchman's acrobatic 
sidekick Kid Gallahad, Blitz's quick-footed junior 
partner Cyclone, and Atomic Sub's water-breathing 
granddaughter Moray). 

Big Bang villains were as familiar as the 
heroes they faced. Ultiman fought extradimension 
imp Mr. Mix-it-Up and evil genius Dexter Cortex, 
while Knight Watchman faced the clownish prince of 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Bird Heroes 



SEPT. 1996 




Big Bang Comics #4 © 1996 Gary Carlson and 
Chris Ecker. 

COVER ART BY TERRY BEATTY. 



crime Pink Flamingo and shape-changer Mr. Mask. 
The Badge traded blows with the zombie-like Dr. 
Cadaver and the ghastly Axis spy the Yellow Peril, 
but Thunder Girl's worst adversary was the brilliant- 
but-wicked monkey known as Dr. Hy Q. Binana! Not 
all of Big Bang's characters quite so closely resem- 
bled any specific superhero or villain from the DC, 
Marvel, or Fawcett Comics universes, but many 
easy comparisons can be drawn. 

Co-creator Gary Carlson said in a 1998 online 
interview that part of the reason he set Big Bang 
Comics so far in the past was "because the recent 
comics past has been so bleak. Most of us remem- 



ber when comics were fun to read." After a few char- 
acters previously appeared in Carlson's self-pub- 
lished Megaton (1983-1986), Big Bang Comics 
#0-#4 were published by Caliber Press in 
1995-1996, as well as miniseries for Knight Watch- 
men and Dr Weird. In 1996, Carlson brought the 
series to Image Comics and restarted the series 
with issue #1. There, the crew was able to utilize 
Erik Larsen's Shazam-esque pastiche Mighty Man in 
stories that aped C. C. Beck's Captain Marvel 
adventures, while Jim Valentino's Shadowhawk 
made a Silver Age appearance. Even Alan Moore's 
own Silver Age pastiche characters from Image's 
1963 appeared. Two highlight issues from the Big 
Bang Comics series (#24 and #27, 1999) were 
done in the style of Jim Steranko's History of 
Comics publications, and included — amidst dozens 
of fake covers — a comprehensive and believable 
historical look at the Big Bang characters. 

A low-budget direct-to-video Knights of Justice 
film was released in summer 2000, featuring Ulti- 
man (Mike Constantin), Thunder Girl (Sandra Kuhn), 
Knight Watchmen (Allen Woodman), and newcomer 
Masker (Lorin Taylor) against the evil scientist Cor- 
tex (writer/director Philip R. Cable). Further film or 
television versions of the characters have been 
under discussion. Knight Watchman creator Chris 
Ecker has sponsored wrestlers wearing his hero's 
costume. And although the final regular issue of Big 
Bang Comics (#35) was released in 2001, further 
specials have appeared: World Class Comics, Ulti- 
man Giant, Whiz Kids, and Big Bang Comics Sum- 
mer Special. Even if the stories and characters are 
trapped in the past, it appears that there will contin- 
ue to be Big Bang Comics in the future. — AM 

Bird Heroes 

Flight represents the ultimate freedom. Conse- 
quently, humankind has for centuries regarded the 
bird as a muse for its mythology, its science, and its 
fantasy. As a result, a flock of bird-based super- 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Bird Heroes 



heroes have soared through comic books, televi- 
sion, and movies. 

Hawkman is the most famous of the bird 
heroes, originating in DC Comics' Flash Comics #1 
(1940). His golden, winged helmet and broad feath- 
ered wingspan have prompted a host of imitators, 
but Hawkman himself was not the first feathered 
fighter in the comics — the Hawkmen of the Flash 
Gordon comic strip preceded him. Yet Hawkman 
endures, although his nest has been re-feathered 
by numerous reworkings. His companion Hawkgirl 
has flown alongside him since the 1940s, and in 
2001 became a television star as part of the Car- 
toon Network's animated Justice League series. 

Among the Hawkman clones are two young 
hatchlings directly connected to the Winged Won- 
der's lore (by way of groups he's belonged to). Gold- 
en Eagle, a long-haired teen named Charley Parker, 
took wing in Justice League of America #116 
(1975) as a surrogate Hawkman in a battle with the 
hero's foe the Matter Master, then joined Titans 
West, an offshoot of the Teen Titans. Northwind, 
who premiered in All-Star Squadron #25 (1983), 
hails from a secret society of human/bird hybrids 
living in the appropriately named Feithera, a remote 
area of Greenland. The son of a Feitherian princess 
and a human anthropologist, Northwind's mixed her- 
itage and peculiar appearance — ebon, feathery 
skin, golden plumage "hair," and natural wings — 
makes him forever a recluse outside of his home- 
land, although he finds kinship among the members 
of the supergroup Infinity, Inc. Northwind can con- 
verse with birds and commands migratory powers. 

Air Man began his short flight as a superhero 
in Centaur Comics' Keen Detective Funnies #23 
(1949). Drake Stevens adopts synthetic wings and 
a jet-pack to avenge the killing of his father — an 
ornithologist — and uses guns and even explosives 
in his aerial war on crime. His massive wingspan 
was an obvious takeoff on Hawkman, but Air Man's 
dazzlingly hued feathers of yellow, white, and red 
differentiate his appearance from his predecessor's 
more earthen image. The Owl, one of the few super- 



lb 



heroes to wear a lavender costume, was first seen 
in Dell Comics' Crackajack Funnies #25 (1940). 
More Batman than Hawkman, the Owl is actually 
police investigator Nick Terry, but prowls the streets 
at night in his flying Owlmobile and glides through 
the air with his parachute cape. The Owl employs 
perhaps the most bizarre weapon of any superhero: 
His Owl-gun's "ga-ga ray" induces owl-like behav- 
ior — what a hoot! The Owl was sometimes joined in 
his crime-fighting endeavors by Terry's fiancee, 
Laura Holt, masquerading as Owl Girl. The Owl's 
adventures lasted under two years, and a two-issue 
Gold Key Comics revival in 1967-1968 failed to 
earn him a permanent perch. 

The television superhero Birdman, a product of 
the Hanna-Barbera animation studios, was first 
seen on NBC's Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (1967). 
Brightly garbed in a yellow bodysuit with a blue cowl 
and blue wings, this airborne adventurer can fly, is 
super strong, and emits hand-generated solar 
beams, gifts afforded him by the Egyptian god of 
the sun, Ra. Operating from the volcano-based Bird 
Lair, Birdman and his eagle Avenger — with, occa- 
sionally, his kid sidekick Birdboy — are dispatched by 
the operative "Falcon 7" to thwart the threats of 
supervillains like Vulturo, Nitron, and Cumulus, 
members of the lawless league F.E.A.R. After two 
seasons, Birdman fluttered into occasional reruns 
until being resurrected in 2001 as Harvey Birdman, 
Attorney at Law as part of the Cartoon Network's 
Adult Swim programming. 

Another cinematic crusader, Condorman, made 
a multimedia premiere in late 1980 in a newspaper 
comic strip (that lasted roughly four months), a 
three-issue Gold Key comic-book series, and a live- 
action theatrical movie starring Michael Crawford, 
who would later become famous in Broadway's Phan- 
tom of the Opera. Woody Wilkins is a comic-book 
artist who festoons himself in the vibrant, feathered 
attire of his creation, Condorman, to fully understand 
his character, and is recruited by a CIA agent friend 
to use his flying costume to protect Russian defec- 
tors from errant KGB agents. Condorman, the movie 



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Bird Heroes 



(1981), attempted mass-demographic appeal by 
mixing a variety of genres, hence its tagline, "An 
action adventure romantic comedy spy story." 

Black Condor is an appellation shared by two 
airborne comic-book superheroes. The original 
Black Condor, who bowed in Quality Comics' Crack 
Comics #1 (1940), was raised by a black condor 
and learned to fly by example. Sporting a midnight- 
blue ensemble of briefs, boots, and glider wings, 
the superhero Black Condor was ultimately pur- 
chased by DC Comics and absorbed into its uni- 
verse, beginning in the 1970s with appearances in 
Justice League of America and Freedom Fighters. 
DC updated the hero in 1992, making the new 
Black Condor a young man given the natural power 
of flight through the machinations of a centuries-old 
sect, the Society of the Golden Wing. 

Other flying bird heroes include Timely (later Mar- 
vel) Comics' Red Raven, a Golden Age (1938-1954) 
character wearing, as his name suggests, a crimson 
costume with red wings (albeit those of a bat rather 
than his namesake); Marvel Comics' Falcon, a red- 
and-white clad African-American hero whose glider 
wings propel him through the air; Marvel's Nighthawk, 
a blue-clad crusader with jet-propelled wings; Blue 
Eagle, a member of Marvel's Squadron Supreme, who 
dons anti-gravity wings to soar the heavens (in his 
adventures he temporarily changes his name to Cap'n 
Hawk and Condor); a DC heroine called Dawnstar, an 
"Amerind" (American Indian) member of the futuristic 
team the Legion of Super-Heroes, born with white 
wings and a foolproof tracking ability; Craig Lawson, 
a.k.a. Raven of Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, 
whose costumes molted from issue to issue, ranging 
from rocket-powered glider wings to bulletproof metal 
wings; Snowbird of Marvel's Alpha Flight, who morphs 
into Arctic creatures, including owls; and France's 
superhero Peregrine ("falcon" in French), who flew 
through Marvel's multicultural miniseries Contest of 
Champions (1982). 

Not all birds are airborne, nor are all bird- 
named superheroes. The most famous is Robin, the 
partner of Batman. This Boy Wonder sports a bright 



red breast (his tunic), but generally takes to the air 
by swinging on his Bat-rope. Robin was parodied as 
Sparrow in the oft-reprinted "Bats-Man" story in 
MAD #105 (1966). The original version of DCs the 
Hawk and the Dove were teenage brothers — polar 
political opposites — bequeathed bird costumes and 
enhanced strength and nimbleness by a mysterious 
voice in Showcase #75 (1968). The Blackhawks 
can fly, but only in their planes. This international 
team of fighter pilots premiered in Military Comics 
#1 (1941). Prize Publications' Black Owl started his 
career in 1940 in a tuxedo and owl mask before 
adopting blue tights and a yellow bird headdress, 
more standard-issue superhero garb. His outfit and 
name aside, he bore no other bird characteristics, 
but managed to stay in print through 1948. 

Black Canary, one of DCs street operatives called 
the Birds of Prey, is flightless, but at one time com- 
manded a dizzying sonic scream called her "canary 
cry." Her Marvel counterpart, martial artist Bobbi 
Morse — better known as Mockingbird — was an agent 
of the espionage organization S.H.I.E.L.D. before 
becoming a member of the Avengers. Mockingbird is 
renowned for her iron "battle staves" — twin batons 
that, when connected, serve as a vaulting pole — and 
for her mockery: She frequently disconcerts her foes 
with derisions. Marvel's Songbird plagiarized Black 
Canary's cry: When she premiered in Marvel Two-In- 
One #56 (1979) she was the pro-wrestler-turned- 
supervillain Screaming Mimi, using her hypersonic 
screech to disorient opponents. She resurfaced in 
1997 as Songbird, one of the team of super-fugitives 
called the Thunderbolts, and ultimately reformed. 

Other bird-named heroes have been fly-by- 
nights: The Eagle, decked out in red, white, and 
blue with a gold eagle chest insignia, was more 
superpatriot than bird hero, and flitted through sev- 
eral Fox Features Syndicate titles in 1940 and 
1941; comics' original Raven, premiering in Ace 
Periodicals' Sure-Fire Lightning #1 (1940), was 
essentially a copy of the Green Hornet but with a 
bird motif; and TV's Blue Falcon, a priggish animat- 
ed superhero, played the straight man to his wacky 



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Birds of Prey 



partner, the clumsy robotic dog Dynomutt. No char- 
acter better exemplifies the bird hero than Howard 
the Duck, writer Steve Gerber's anthropomorphic 
drake "trapped in a world he never made" — the 
Marvel universe! Howard popped into the pages of 
Marvel's Man-Thing series in 1973 and stuck 
around for several years, trying to find his place this 
reality of "hairless apes" (humans), fighting mon- 
sters and supervillains (and even teaming up with 
Spider-Man) along the way. Filmmaker George Lucas 
brought the character to life in the 1986 theatrical 
flop Howard the Duck. — ME 

Birds of Prey 

Even with a dozen or so costumed vigilantes prowl- 
ing over its rooftops, Gotham City is filled with 
crime. Most of the heroes have had interaction with 
Batman, and some have even been his proteges. 
One such heroine was Barbara Gordon, whose 
career as Batgirl put many criminals behind bars. 
After the Joker shot her, a paraplegic Gordon 
refused to sink into self-pity, or accept that her 
crime-fighting career was over. Using money from 
Wayne Enterprises and other sources, the now 
wheelchair-bound Gordon established a base of 
operations in the Clocktower high above Gotham. 
There, utilizing an astonishing array of computers 
and electronics, Gordon became Oracle, an informa- 
tion broker who uses her databases and contacts 
to fight crime — not only in Gotham, but worldwide. 

As leader of a rotating-membership superhero 
mini-group called Birds of Prey, Gordon first utilized 
Power Girl as an operative, but that relationship was 
disastrously short-lived. Oracle examined the other 
female superheroines whom she knew and settled 
upon Dinah Lance, the second-generation crime 
fighter known as the Black Canary. The daughter of 
the original Black Canary, Lance not only has con- 
summate detective and martial arts skills, she also 
has a metagenetic ability to use a sonic "Canary 
Cry" to topple opponents and doorways alike. 



*|fc 



Oracle has used other operatives as part of her 
"Birds of Prey," allying herself with the mysterious 
crossbow-wielding Huntress, and even an occasional 
male hero, such as the Blue Beetle. Although Black 
Canary is also involved with the Justice Society of 
America, she prefers to work as one of Oracle's 
operatives. And for Barbara Gordon, the good she 
does as Oracle — helping Batman, Nightwing, the 
Justice League, or the Birds of Prey — balances out 
the mobility she lost to Gotham's craziest criminal. 

Gordon first appeared as Oracle in Suicide 
Squad #29 (January 1989), her new persona the re- 
creation of writer John Ostrander. The Birds of Prey 
concept began as a series of one-shots and minis- 
eries in 1996, and included appearances in Show- 
case and Green Arrow. The concept proved popular 
enough that a regular Birds of Prey series began in 
January 1999. 

Although a Birds of Prey television series was 
introduced in 2002, all the characters had made 
appearances in television and film prior to this. Bat- 
girl was featured in the 1960s Batman television 
series and the 1997 feature film Batman & Robin, 
as well as a number of animated TV series and 
films from the 1960s onward. Black Canary and 
Huntress both made a pair of television appear- 
ances in Hanna-Barbera's two Legends of the 
Super-Heroes primetime specials on NBC (airing 
February 3 and 10, 1977). The campy stories had a 
collection of superheroes interacting with supervil- 
lains in "The Challenge" and "The Roast." Black 
Canary was played by the one-named Danuta (Rylko- 
Soderman, later a television evangelist), while 
Huntress was played by Barbara Joyce. 

On October 9, 2002, the WB network debuted 
a highly advertised new live-action series called 
Birds of Prey, based loosely on the DC comic book. 
The narration at the show's beginning established 
the characters as a trio of heroines: Helena Kyle, 
a.k.a. Huntress (Ashley Scott), was the half-metahu- 
man daughter of Batman and Catwoman; the for- 
mer Batgirl Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Oracle (Dina 
Meyer) was the wheelchair-bound computer genius; 



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Black Canary 



and Dinah Redmond (Rachel Skarsten) was the run- 
away metahuman daughter of the original Black 
Canary. Headquartered in the Clocktower, the trio 
protected New Gotham from villains of all sorts. 

The series mixed a lot of concepts from the 
comics, including the original version of Huntress 
(the Batman's daughter concept that had been writ- 
ten out of continuity) and guest appearances by the 
Joker (only briefly), Harley Quinn, Lady Shiva, Clay- 
face, and the original Black Canary. Barbara Gordon 
even donned her Batgirl suit a few times. Despite 
its high action quotient and Batman-esque promos, 
Birds of Prey only lasted for thirteen episodes, and 
the two-part finale aired on February 19, 2003. 

The fate of the TV show has not affected the 
Birds of Prey comic book. Oracle and Black 
Canary — and occasionally Huntress — have with- 
stood the biggest villain of all. If a slumping comic- 
book market can't hurt the Birds of Prey, how can 
any escapee from Arkham Asylum hope to? — AM 

flack Canary 

The Black Canary was the last major DC Comics 
superhero created in the Golden Age of comics 
(1938-1954) and, in one form or another, she has 
proved to be one of the most enduring. She was 
introduced in the pages of Flash Comics #86 in 
August 1947 as a sort of villainous Robin Hood 
with a femme fatale twist, guesting in the Johnny 
Thunder strip. The Black Canary stole from crimi- 
nals but kept the money herself, though Johnny — 
once he had got over his lovesick attraction for 
her — quickly persuaded her to go straight. She 
soon gained a solid fan following and as a result 
was able to repay Johnny's devotion by taking over 
his slot in the comic. She also ousted him from the 
Justice Society of America, and became the last 
new member to join. 

While little was initially revealed of her origins, a 
1970s story described how, as a child, Dinah Drake 



was relentlessly trained by her police lieutenant 
father to be a policewoman, only to see him die of a 
broken heart when she was turned down by the 
force. Inspired by such heroes as Batman, Drake 
resolved that she could best serve her father's 
memory by becoming a costumed crime fighter; by 
the time of this story, it seems that everyone 
thought it best to ignore her brief fling with crime. 
So, dressed in dark halter-top, shorts, jacket, boots, 
nylon stockings, and a blonde wig (her only element 
of disguise), Drake became the Black Canary. Armed 
only with her detective skills and martial arts knowl- 
edge, she proved to be quite a formidable character. 
In her civilian identity Drake ran a flower shop, but 
she seemed to spend just as much time fending off 
the amorous advances of boyfriend Larry Lance, a 
rather down-at-the-heels private eye. In a role rever- 
sal, and in welcome relief from the usual damsel-in- 
distress cliche, it was Lance who was frequently cap- 
tured by villains and the Black Canary who had to 
rush in to save the day. 

Written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by 
Carmine Infantino, the Black Canary strip ran for 
twelve installments — until Flash Comics was can- 
celed. She also starred in twenty Justice Society 
tales up to 1951, when even that legendary strip 
went under. But when the Justice Society was 
brought back in the 1960s, as annual guests in The 
Justice League, the Black Canary was there, too, 
having apparently gone into semi-retirement and 
married Lance in the interim. Poor Lance did not 
last long after his wife's second stint in the team, 
as an encounter with a sentient star called Aquar- 
ius (in Justice League #74) resulted in his tragic 
death. A heartbroken Canary promptly jumped ship 
to the Justice League, to avoid the sad memories of 
Lance that would be brought back by seeing her old 
Justice Society teammates, and embarked on a 
long career with the League. She became romanti- 
cally linked with the somewhat dissolute Green 
Arrow and, when he joined with Green Lantern in 
their groundbreaking early 1970s series, she went 
along as well. 



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The Black Cat I 



Green Arrow became an archetypical anti- 
authority radical, and Black Canary, infused with the 
era's concerns, assumed advocacy of women's lib 
and operated with noticeably more self-assurance. 
Throughout the decade, she appeared both with 
and without Green Arrow in stories in Adventure 
Comics, Action Comics, and World's Finest Comics, 
as well as with the Justice League, and she really 
became an integral part of DCs lineup. The 1980s 
were a less encouraging time for her, however, as 
she settled down into the role of Green Arrow's "old 
lady" and a civilian life in (once more) a flower 
shop. In an attempt to cash in on the vogue for grit- 
tier heroes, the Green Arrow was toughened up in a 
1987 miniseries, part of which involved the Black 
Canary being savagely attacked, tortured, and 
assaulted, going from powerful superheroine to vic- 
tim in one ill-judged story. The violent assault also 
appears to have robbed her of her one superpow- 
er — a sort of sonic cry, which had been gifted her in 
the early battle with Aquarius that had killed her 
husband. In time, the romance with Green Arrow 
soured and the couple split. 

In the mid-1990s Zero Hour series, DC attempt- 
ed to simplify and reinvigorate its comics line and, in 
a confusing bit of retrofitting, editors decided that 
from the moment she joined the Justice League, 
fans had not been reading about the Black Canary 
of the 1940s but her daughter! However illogical this 
may have been, that period did indeed see a 
renewed interest in the character, with a short-lived 
solo series and a starring role in the Birds of Prey 
comic. The solo series proved to be an ill-considered 
attempt at (yet another) gritty reinvention, as Dinah 
Lance was given a wretched new costume to take on 
Seattle's crack dealers. By contrast, in Birds of Prey 
Lance moved to Gotham City to join Oracle, 
Huntress, and even Catwoman in a far more life- 
affirming mixture of crime-busting and Thelma & 
/.ou/se-style empowerment. A 2002 Birds of Prey TV 
show proved to be something of a disappointment to 
fans, but the rest of the 2000s have been kind to 
the Canary, with her Birds of Prey adventures alter- 



nating with appearances in a newly reformed Justice 
Society. With yet another costume, two comics, and 
a heightened public profile, things have never been 
better for the Black Canary. — DAR 

The Black Cat I 

The Black Cat is responsible for several firsts in 
her medium: She starred in the first comic from 
the legendary Harvey Comics, Pocket Comics #1 
(in August 1941), and was the first and longest- 
lived Harvey superhero, in addition to being the 
first major costumed superheroine to grace comic- 
book pages. 

Alfred Harvey had been an editor at Fox Comics 
when he decided to enter the comics market as a 
publisher himself, starting with Pocket Comics. As 
its name suggests, this was a digest-sized title, run- 
ning up to one hundred pages, which Harvey pack- 
aged together with artist Joe Simon (of Captain 
America fame). The comic flew off the newsstands — 
but not in the way that Harvey expected! Its small 
size made it easy to steal, and light-fingered comics 
fans were carrying them off in droves. However, one 
of Harvey's creations in that first issue, the Black 
Cat (drawn by Al Gabrielle), would prove to be much 
more satisfyingly successful. 

The Black Cat's alter ego, actress Linda Turner 
(named after real-life actresses Linda Darnell and 
Lana Turner), works for a tyrannical movie director 
called Garboil, whom she suspects is actually a 
Nazi Fifth-Columnist. Inspired by her cat's instant 
dislike of Garboil, she decides to adopt the identity 
of a cat — a black cat — and dons a suitably feline 
costume of low-cut black swimsuit, black pointed 
mask, gloves, and boots. Her origin story 
announces her quite pointedly: "Linda Turner, Holly- 
wood Star and America's Sweetheart, becomes 
bored with her ultra-sophisticated life of movie 
make-believe and takes to crime-fighting in her 
most dynamic role of all as the ... BLACK CAT!" 



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Teaming up with pipe-smok- 
ing reporter Rick Home, the Black 
Cat tracks down Garboil and his 
pals and smashes their spy ring. 
Home soon becomes Turner's 
constant companion, reporting on 
set from her many films but 
secretly harboring a crush for the 
Black Cat — never suspecting that 
she and Turner are one and the 
same. Although not superpow- 
ered in the traditional sense of 
the word, Turner's years of stunt- 
work and Hollywood action 
scenes left her with an athletic 
physique and mastery of martial 
arts, making her a formidable 
opponent for any miscreant. 

After four issues of Pocket 
Comics, Harvey switched "Holly- 
wood's Glamorous Detective 
Star" over to the more conven- 
tionally sized Speed Comics, 
where she appeared throughout 
World War II (from issues #17 in 
1942 to issue #38 in 1945), as well as in occasion- 
al strips in All-New Comics. Those were creditable 
enough stories, drawn by the likes of Jill Elgin, Bob 
Powell, and Arturo Caseneuve, but it was the largely 
forgettable Captain Freedom who was usually the 
title's cover star, and our heroine had to wait for the 
lifting of wartime paper restrictions and the creation 
of her own title before she could really come into 
her own. Black Cat #1 premiered in the summer of 
1946 and, from issue #4, became one of the era's 
most attractive strips with the addition of Lee Elias 
on art. British artist Elias was a great talent, work- 
ing in the tradition of Milton Caniff (famed creator of 
newspaper strips Terry and the Pirates and Steve 
Canyon), and he added finesse, glamour, and a 
touch of humor to the feature. 

The postwar years were characterized by a 
succession of crazes for such disparate genres as 




The Black Cat (circa 1940s) from Alfred Harvey's Black Cat (1995). ™ & © 
Lorne-Harvey Publications Inc. 

ART BY LEE ELIAS. 



romance, crime, funny animals, and horror, which 
Al Harvey was determined to exploit. Seeing that 
Westerns were suddenly in vogue, Harvey tem- 
porarily changed the comic's title to Black Cat 
Western, which saw the heroine swap her trade- 
mark motorcycle for a horse. That period lasted a 
mere four issues (#16-#19). Then, from issue 
#30, retaining the character's name but not her 
presence, the comic became Black Cat Mystery, 
one of several Harvey horror comics, and poor old 
Linda Turner was banished into limbo. After sever- 
al years of astonishingly gory horror tales (drawn 
by Elias, Warren Kremer, Bob Powell, and others), 
the incoming self-censorship body, the Comics 
Code Authority, prompted a sudden change of 
direction and the title briefly reverted once more 
to Black Cat Western with its old star (for 
#54-#56 in 1955). 



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The Black Cat II 



These were the last Black Cat adventures for 
decades, as the comic's direction was changed back 
to "mystery" yet again when the mid-1950s superhero 
boom hoped for by Marvel, Magazine Enterprises, and 
others failed to materialize. After sporadic anthology 
issues of Black Cat Mystery in the late 1950s, the 
Black Cat herself reappeared to cash in on the 1960s 
superhero craze, but the three issues published then 
were reprints, which seemed out of place among the 
more sophisticated Marvel comics of that era. 

Of course, Harvey Comics experienced enor- 
mous success throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 
1970s with its line of wholesome children's 
favorites, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Little 
Dot, Sad Sack, and Richie Rich. Elements of the 
Harvey empire were sold off in the 1980s, resulting 
in the Casper and Richie Rich movies, while other 
properties, notably the Black Cat, stayed within the 
Harvey family. Under its Recollection imprint, Harvey 
brought out nine issues of The Original Black Cat 
(1988-1992), while its Lome-Harvey imprint 
released Black Cat: The Origins in 1995. The latter 
title mixed vintage Elias reprints with stories featur- 
ing a new Black Cat: movie stunt double Kim Stone. 
In the comic, this new Black Cat dons her costume 
to star in a film about the original Black Cat. 
Indeed, there were rumors of a Black Cat feature 
film at the time, but the project proved to be a non- 
starter, and neither have any further comics adven- 
tures appeared since the mid-1990s. — DAR 

The Mack Cat U 

Between 1979 and 1983, Spider-Man (Peter Parker) 
has to face life without Mary Jane Watson, the long- 
time love interest whom he is destined one day to 
marry. During this romantic interregnum, Parker's 
love life begins taking a decidedly unusual direction 
when he encounters Felicia Hardy, the talented bur- 
glar and platinum-blonde bombshell known as the 
Black Cat, who debuted in 1979 in The Amazing 
Spider-Man vol. 1 #194. 



$% 



The creation of writer Marv Wolfman and illus- 
trators Keith Pollard and Frank Giacoia,the Black 
Cat introduced an element of emotional chaos into 
the life of a youthful but steadily maturing — and 
thus ever-more-serious — hero. The daughter of a 
renowned cat burglar (Walter Hardy) who follows in 
her father's footsteps after he is imprisoned for life, 
Hardy becomes infatuated with Spider-Man, even 
going so far as building a shrine in his honor. She 
decides to turn over a new leaf, earns a legal par- 
don for her past crimes, and even becomes the 
wall-crawler's partner in crime fighting, if only briefly. 
As her formerly adversarial relationship with Spidey 
blossoms into a real romance, the hero takes her 
into his confidence enough to share his secret iden- 
tity with her. Only then does he discover that she 
finds Peter Parker boring; her interest is entirely in 
Parker's costumed persona and the freedom and 
excitement it represents. 

At first there is nothing superhuman about 
Hardy's burglar skills and tricks, which include a 
world-class gymnast's agility, martial arts expertise, 
a cable device she uses for swinging from rooftops 
(or as a tightrope), and the "accidents" she carefully 
arranges to befall anyone who crosses her path (she 
is a black cat, after all). In the mid-1980s, after the 
villains the Owl and Dr. Octopus nearly kill her in an 
action-packed issue of Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 
1 #75, 1983), she becomes worried that her lack of 
superpowers is making her a liability to her lover and 
partner in crime-busting, whom she fears will dump 
her. During Spider-Man's brief absence from Earth 
during the twelve-issue Marvel Super Heroes Secret 
Wars miniseries (May 1984-April 1985), Hardy 
gains a genuine superpower, namely the ability to 
prevail against her opponents using a mutation- 
derived probability-altering (or "bad luck") ability. But 
the scientists who give the Black Cat this bizarre 
ability are in the employ of the villainous Kingpin, 
who counts on her "bad luck" to bring about Spider- 
Man's destruction. Hardy's ill-considered actions — 
and her dishonesty in keeping them a secret — ulti- 
mately doom her relationship with Spidey, although 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Black Condor 



the sorcery of Dr. Strange subsequently removes her 
bad luck powers. 

On the rebound from Spider-Man, she travels 
across Europe, where she has a short-lived affair 
with the criminal known as the Foreigner before 
returning to New York. After Parker marries Hardy's 
romantic rival Mary Jane Watson in 1987, the Black 
Cat's life continues to intertwine with Spidey's, at 
least occasionally. Hardy tries to provoke Parker 
into jealousy by briefly dating his former high-school 
rival Flash Thompson, only to find herself acciden- 
tally falling in love with Flash; when he leaves her, 
she is genuinely heartbroken. Surprisingly, Hardy 
and Watson later become good friends. Her criminal 
career a thing of the past, the Black Cat goes on to 
found her own security company, Cat's Eye Investi- 
gations (as outlined in the 1994 four-issue minis- 
eries, Felicia Hardy: The Black Cat), and still assists 
her former flame in his struggles against such 
superfoes as the new "evil" Spider-Woman, intro- 
duced in 1999, and Hydro-Man, with whom she 
clashed as recently as 2000. 

Although the Black Cat's love relationship with 
Spider-Man may have been doomed from the start, 
a 1991 issue of Marvel's What If? provides an 
intriguing glimpse into the insuperable problems 
these two disparate personalities — one cautious 
and hyper-responsible, the other flighty and reck- 
less — would have encountered had they married. 
After a quarter century or more, the Black Cat con- 
tinues to enthrall and intrigue Spidey's audi- 
ences — including the filmmaker Kevin Smith 
(writer, producer, and director of such cult-favorite 
films as Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy). 
Smith wrote the Terry Dodson-illustrated three- 
issue Spider-Man/Black Cat miniseries titled The 
Evil That Men Do (August-October 2002), and 
plans (along with Dodson) to pen more of Felicia 
Hardy's sometimes legally ambiguous adventures. 
In the meantime, readers have the character's par- 
allel-universe counterparts to entertain them in 
occasional issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and Spi- 
der-Girl. —MAM 



Mack Condor 

Of all the publishing houses in comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954), Quality Comics probably had the 
strongest lineup of artists, with Jack Cole, Will Eisner, 
Reed Crandall, and Lou Fine. While the first three of 
these creative forces made their names on well- 
known and well-written series (Plastic Man, the Spirit, 
and Blackhawk, respectively), Fine flitted about from 
feature to feature, only settling down briefly on two of 
Quality's new superhero strips, the Ray and the Black 
Condor. Quality itself was one of the earliest comics 
publishers, started up by ex-printer Everett "Busy" 
Arnold in 1937, and much of its comics material was 
provided by the Eisner/lger studio. When Eisner split 
up the studio, he took Fine and a few others with 
him, and soon Fine was working directly for Arnold as 
one of the company's top cover artists. 

After a stint on Doll Man, Fine started work on 
a large number of strips, including the Ray (for 
Smash Comics), Uncle Sam (in National Comics) 
and the Black Condor, which first appeared in issue 
#1 of Crack Comics, in May 1940. The Black Con- 
dor's origin owed a lot to Edgar Rice Burroughs' 
Tarzan, except in this case the unfortunate child 
was brought up by — you guessed it — condors. Dick 
Grey's parents are murdered by bandits while on an 
archaeological expedition on the steppes of Outer 
Mongolia. The orphaned child is picked up by a 
passing condor, which decides to raise him as her 
own. Over the years, Grey tries to imitate his condor 
brethren and finally discovers how to fly. Later, while 
looking for food, he is set upon by eagles and 
forced to the ground, only to be discovered by a con- 
venient hermit called Father Pierre, who nurses him 
back to life and then looks after the lad. Later, the 
now ailing hermit, with his dying wish, urges Grey 
(whom he has taken to calling the Black Condor) to 
travel to civilization and use his amazing gift for the 
benefit of humankind. 

Adopting a blue-and-grey costume with a hood 
(which he rarely wore), and with large, flapping wings 



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Black Panther 



of cloth beneath his arms, the Black Condor battled 
all sorts of wrongdoers in his first year, before (in 
Crack Comics #11) chancing upon the body of a 
dead senator, Tom Wright. Noticing that he and the 
recently deceased could pass for twins, the Condor 
inexplicably decides to assume the senator's identity, 
inheriting at a stroke a nice job in Washington and a 
pretty young fiancee, Wendy Foster. Only Wendy's 
uncle and guardian knows that the new Tom is an 
impostor, and he seems not to mind! As was so often 
the case in comics, Foster continually bemoaned the 
fact that Wright wasn't more like the dashing Black 
Condor, and she never did connect the two, despite 
her fiance's paltry disguise of a pair of spectacles 
worn when he was out of costume. 

Most of the Black Condor's later adventures 
revolved around the machinations of the departed 
senator's killer, the evil, scheming lobbyist and 
"industrial tyrant," Jasper Crow. On the entry of the 
United States into World War II, Crow conveniently 
became a Nazi sympathizer and the strip became 
flooded with German troops, spies, and insurrec- 
tionists. However, despite the unusual political 
backdrop to the strip, there was little to lift the 
Black Condor above its many rivals, except the 
extraordinary art of Fine, who drew the series for 
most of its twenty-four episodes. Fine was able to 
marry his superior figure-work and drawing ability 
with a graceful, fluid storytelling sense which was 
the envy of his peers. His Black Condor glided 
effortlessly from panel to panel in a succession of 
imaginative poses that inspired a whole generation 
of comic-book artists. When Will Eisner was drafted 
in 1942, Fine (a polio victim as a child and so too 
weak to enlist) was moved over to the more presti- 
gious Spirit strip. Other hands, including Charles 
Sultan and Bob Fujitani, took over the Black Condor 
series in his absence, but the feature ultimately did 
not work without Fine and was canceled in Crack 
Comics #31 in late 1943. 

After the war, Fine went on to become the high- 
ly paid illustrator that he had always dreamed of 
being, and Arnold's Quality Comics continued to 



* 



thrive. However, by 1956 Arnold's comics empire 
was losing ground, and he decided to sell up to 
arch-rivals DC Comics, who continued publishing 
Blackhawk, Robin Hood, Gl Combat, and Heart 
Throbs, but ignored the superhero characters (most 
of whom were long gone by that time, anyway). In 
1973, newly installed Justice League of America 
writer Len Wein remembered that DC owned all 
those venerable Quality heroes and reintroduced 
some of them as a team called the Freedom Fight- 
ers. This new group consisted of Uncle Sam, Doll 
Man, the Ray, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, and 
the Black Condor, and they proved popular enough 
to spin off into their own comic in 1976. 

In The Freedom Fighters, the Black Condor was 
portrayed as a slightly distant, sinister figure, but 
the comic was canceled before much could be 
made of his revamped persona. A new Black Con- 
dor appeared in 1992; this one was a Native Ameri- 
can who underwent all sorts of medical experi- 
ments, ultimately allowing him to fly — under the 
tutelage of the ghost of the first Black Condor. The 
comic also included guest appearances by another 
one of Fine's past triumphs, the Ray. In spite of 
this, however, and the fact that artist Rags Morales 
was something of a Fine acolyte, the title was short- 
lived. In recent years, little has been seen of any of 
the great heroes of Lou Fine or "Busy" Arnold, 
except in reprint form, and it might take a collection 
of 1940s Black Condor strips to rekindle interest in 
the hero. — DAR 

flack Panther 

Within the course of one incredible year in the 
pages of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, the 
writer/artist duo Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created 
characters like the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer, 
Galactus, and the Black Panther — comics' first 
black superhero. To have debuted him in 1966 (in 
Fantastic Four #52) shows both bravery and pre- 
science on Marvel's part and, to their credit, the 



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Black Panther 



Black Panther would go on to take a central role in 
their comics for years to come. The Panther was 
T'Challa, chief of the hidden African country of 
Wakanda; in true comics tradition, African countries 
are always hidden. Wakanda was depicted as a 
peculiar mix of high-tech machinery and mud huts, 
its futuristic technology being derived from "vibrani- 
um" metal found in a meteorite. The Black Panthers 
had been developed as a succession of elite 
guards, each in turn protecting the meteorite with 
the aid of sacred herbs which granted them fantas- 
tic strength and agility. T'Challa was the current 
inheritor of the Black Panther mantle (and all-black 
costume). After meeting the Fantastic Four, T'Challa 
decides his powers would be put to best use pro- 
tecting the whole world (or at least America), and so 
he flies off to New York, leaving his people and his 
rather impractical cape behind. 

For the next couple of years, the character flit- 
ted about from comic to comic before joining the 
Avengers in 1968, where he became a mainstay for 
the next seven years, save for the occasional jaunt 
back to Africa for the odd chunk of vibranium (which 
handily seemed to defeat most criminals). Marvel 
rarely made much of the Panther's color in the 
1960s but in the more radical 1970s he acquired a 
forthright, liberated girlfriend, Monica Lynne, and 
briefly became a teacher in the ghetto, while the 
Avengers took on the racist Sons of the Serpent. 
Although it seems to have been pure coincidence, 
Marvel could not help but note that one of their lead- 
ing characters shared his name with the radical 
black-power movement the Black Panthers, and he 
briefly became the Black Leopard. One month later, 
however, he was back to being the Black Panther 
again, and in 1973 was finally granted his own strip. 

"Panther's Rage" ran for two years in the won- 
derfully titled Jungle Action, written by Don McGre- 
gor and drawn for the most part by the African-Amer- 
ican artist Billy Graham. Reflecting the times' inter- 
est in African roots and black consciousness in gen- 
eral, the strip returned T'Challa to a Wakanda riven 
by infighting and sedition, and it managed to bal- 



ance superheroics with musings on colonialism and 
democracy. The more overtly political material was 
leavened by the Panther's romance with Monica, 
which was surprisingly passionate for the time. For 
the duration of the tale, the strip featured an all- 
black cast, something that had never been attempt- 
ed in comics before, and the innovations continued 
in a later story, which saw the Panther take on the 
Ku Klux Klan in Monica's native Georgia. 

Poor sales prompted Marvel to cancel Jungle 
Action before the Klan story was finished, and 
replace it with a new Black Panther title by his cre- 
ator, Jack Kirby. This new direction was as far from 
the gritty realism of McGregor's tales as it is possi- 
ble to imagine, as our hero encountered the likes of 
King Solomon's Frog, the Yeti, and the Black Muske- 
teers. Not surprisingly, this title, too, was short- 
lived. Sporadic appearances over the next two 
decades kept the Panther in the Marvel firmament, 
but he was increasingly marginalized. Miniseries in 
1988 and 1991 were solid if unspectacular 
attempts at revitalizing what was effectively a 
lapsed franchise. The first tackled apartheid while 
the second dealt with the Panther's search for his 
mother, but neither led to anything substantial. With 
black characters no longer a comics novelty, and 
with role models such as the characters of Mile- 
stone Comics — which had more relevance to their 
readers than a wealthy African king — it seemed as 
if the Panther had had his day. 

However, out of the blue, writer Christopher 
Priest reintroduced the hero as part of the slightly 
more adult "Marvel Knights" line, in a series that 
was acclaimed in every venue from the fan press to 
Entertainment Weekly and continued for six years — 
by far the character's most successful run. For this 
reinvention, a now aging T'Challa returns to the 
urban jungle of New York armed with claws and the 
occasional gun, and after thirty years he once again 
sports a cape. In a series of hard-hitting tales, he 
abdicates, witnesses his daughter's murder, and ulti- 
mately passes on the mantle of the Panther to a 
young cop, Kasper Cole. Though the franchise is dor- 



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Black Widow 



mant once more, persistent interest in the character 
and perennial talk of a Black Panther film is sure to 
make the absence a relatively brief one. — DAR 

Mack Widow 

From her introduction as a superheroine in Tales of 
Suspense #52 in 1964, the Black Widow (created 
by the writer/artist team of Stan Lee and Don Heck) 
has been an almost constant presence across a 
dizzying array of Marvel Comics titles, equal parts 
superhero and superspy. The first communist hero- 
ine to appear in comics, the Black Widow is Mar- 
vel's longest-lived solo heroine. In her first appear- 
ance, battling Iron Man, she was simply Natasha 
Romanoff, a Soviet spy sent on an industrial espi- 
onage mission to Stark Industries — wearing an 
inconspicuous veil and figure-hugging cocktail dress 
combination. A few issues later she was back with 
an embittered young circus performer, the archer 
Hawkeye, whom she persuaded to battle Iron Man, 
but he soon saw the error of his ways and joined 
the Avengers. Inspired by his example, she 
denounced her cold war masters and defected to 
the West, donning a black and grey fishnet costume 
and signing up as a member of S.H.I.E.LD. 
(Supreme Headquarters International Espionage 
Law-Enforcement Division), Marvel's all-purpose 
secret intelligence agency. 

Throughout much of the 1960s, the Widow was 
a regular guest of the Avengers, alternately joining 
in their adventures and pining for Hawkeye. In The 
Avengers #43, her past was fleshed out in more 
detail; she had been orphaned during World War II 
and was brought up by the grizzled mountain man 
Ivan Petrovich. She later married the Soviet super- 
hero the Red Guardian, but on his "death" she 
joined the KGB and was trained to become its top 
operative. In that same issue editors revealed that 
the Red Guardian had been alive all along, but in 
the following issue's melee he was killed anyway. 
Following several rebuffed attempts to join the 



Avengers, she abandoned her efforts (for the next 
twenty years, at any rate) and struck out on her 
own, determined to be a solo adventuress. 

Readers next met the Black Widow in Amazing 
Superman #86 (1970), sporting a revamped all-in- 
one, black leather catsuit and armed with all-pur- 
pose "wristshooter" wristbands (incorporating a 
"widow's line" wire for swinging, tear-gas pellets, 
and "widow's bite" electric stinger), transforming her 
into a groovy late 1960s heroine a la Emma Peel of 
TV's The Avengers. This appearance was immediate- 
ly followed by the Widow's first solo series, a co- 
headlining slot (shared with the Inhumans) in Amaz- 
ing Adventures, which revealed a new jet-setting 
Natasha Romanoff, complete with penthouse pad, 
chauffeur (Ivan), maid, and swinging parties with 
playboys, princes, and Jackie 0. The strips were 
sharp, hip, and beautifully drawn by Gene Colan 
(among others). They pitted the Widow against slum 
lords, the mob, and hippie cults. However, the split- 
book innovation failed to win a large enough reader- 
ship, and the Inhumans were granted sole owner- 
ship of the title with issue #9. Undeterred by this 
setback, Romanoff jumped ship to Daredevil, with- 
out missing a month, and there she stayed for four 
years, even sharing cover billing for a while. 

Daredevil and the Black Widow were a good 
combination: two sleek, elegant figures swinging 
gracefully through the night sky of San Francisco; 
this period of the comic is fondly remembered for 
its sophistication. Following a change of writer, 
Romanoff was written out of the comic and straight 
into another, one of the era's less memorable 
teams, The Champions (running for seventeen 
issues from 1975 to 1978). Former X-Men Iceman 
and the Angel put the Champions together, which 
also included Hercules and Ghost Rider in addition 
to the Black Widow — a more unlikely group of super- 
heroes would be hard to find. Following the group's 
inevitable break-up, the Widow appeared to go on a 
tour of Marvel's entire line, taking in The Avengers 
and Daredevil (again), Marvel Two in One and Mar- 
vel Team-up, as well as a couple of well-executed 



ftb 



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Blackhawk 




Black Widow #1 © 1999 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY J. G. JONES. 



solo strips in Bizarre Adventures #25 (1981) and 
Marvel Fanfare #10-#13 (1983), which emphasized 
her spying past. 

A further guest slot in Daredevil (issue #187, 
1983), under the aegis of enfant terrible Frank 
Miller, led to a harsh, 1980s-style makeover, replac- 
ing the Widow's flowing locks with a spiky buzz-cut 
and sacrificing her hipster belt and groovy bracelets 
for a grey leotard. If the ensuing decade was a rela- 
tively fallow one, then the 1990s proved spectacu- 
larly successful, initially through a lengthy run in 
The Avengers — a team she was finally allowed to 
join and eventually lead. Her increased visibility as 
an Avenger cemented her place in the Marvel hier- 



archy, resulting in appearances in numerous titles, 
including Forceworks and Captain America, though 
a little of her unique background was sacrificed in 
the process. In 1996, the Avengers were literally 
spirited away to another realm, leaving the Black 
Widow holding the fort alone and, notwithstanding 
guest appearances in the new (volume 3) Avengers 
title, the end of the decade was to be one of 
unprecedented solo success. 

Having already returned to the glamour and sex- 
appeal of her 1970s costume, the Black Widow 
made the biggest splash of her career with an 
immensely popular 1999 miniseries by writer Devin 
Grayson and artist J. G. Jones. The story placed the 
Widow in the shady world of international espionage, 
and introduced her blonde Russian counterpart Yele- 
na Belova, a new Black Widow. The combination of 
Romanoff's doubts over her age and abilities, an 
arch-enemy worthy of the name, a succession of 
exciting action set pieces and Jones' beautiful art- 
work (which made him an instant star) was dynamite. 
Further miniseries followed, as well as appearances 
in the Marvel Knights superteam series and (in only 
slightly modified form) the popular parallel-universe 
Avengers comic The Ultimates, confirming that the 
Black Widow's time had finally come. — DAR 

ftackhawk 

Blackhawk was conceived before World War II, 
thrived during the conflict, and enjoyed a long period 
of success in peacetime for two comics companies: 
Quality and DC. The birth of the Blackhawk strip is 
still somewhat contentious, but it probably originat- 
ed through a request for a new feature from Quality 
Comics boss Everett "Busy" Arnold to packager/edi- 
tor/artist Will Eisner. Together with members of his 
studio, Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell, and others, Eis- 
ner created a band of fighting men to counter the 
growing Nazi menace across the ocean. Inspired by 
his love of the foreign legion, Eisner conceived of a 
band of men from all over the globe — the Black- 



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Blackhawk 



hawks — led by a dark man of mystery known simply 
as Blackhawk. The strip premiered in mid-1941 in 
the pages of Military Comics #1, in a script written 
and laid out by Eisner, with finished artwork by 
Chuck Cuidera, and it was an overnight sensation. 

The story opens in blitzkrieged 1939 Warsaw, 
Poland, with a brave pilot struggling out of his 
crashed fighter plane in the wake of a dogfight with 
Captain Von Tepp's Nazi squadron. The downed 
pilot stumbles to his bombed-out house only to find 
his family wiped out in the bombing and, choking 
back his tears, he vows revenge on the evil Von 
Tepp and his rampaging minions. Over the following 
months, the mysterious man — now known by the 
name Blackhawk — gathers a band of daredevil free- 
dom fighters around him (known collectively as the 
Blackhawks) and wages a ruthless guerrilla cam- 
paign against the Teutonic hordes across mainland 
Europe. The story climaxes with another aerial dog- 
fight between Von Tepp and Blackhawk, culminating 
in the Nazi's death. A legend was born. 

In the Golden Age of comics (1938-1954), 
writers rarely lingered over details or backstory, pre- 
ferring to concentrate on action and spectacle. So 
readers never learned how Blackhawk assembled 
his band of happy warriors, nor indeed how he 
acquired the well-appointed Blackhawk Island, 
somewhere in the Atlantic, complete with airfield, 
disappearing forts, Zeppelin shed, and lighthouse. 
Military Comics #2 introduced the rest of the Black- 
hawks: Andre, the suave French ladies' man; Olaf, 
the burly Swede; Stanislaus, the brave Pole; and 
Hendrickson, the veteran, mustached Dutchman 
(who later mysteriously became a German). Other, 
minor Blackhawks, Boris and Zug, were jettisoned in 
favor of all-American boy Chuck and comic relief Chi- 
nese cook Chop-Chop, whose decidedly un-political- 
ly correct ethnic stereotyping was an unfortunate 
feature of the strip for many years. Blackhawk him- 
self was, of course, a Pole (probably at the insis- 
tence of Powell, who was of Polish descent), but 
this was gradually forgotten and in later adventures 
he became a Polish American. 



ftft 



A typical Blackhawk adventure would feature the 
team flying out in their stylish, twin-engined Grumman 
F5F fighters (a contribution from plane-buff Cuidera) to 
fight some Axis threat in an exotic corner of the globe. 
Early strips emphasized aerial battles and owed much 
to pulp/radio stars such as Bill Barnes and G-8, but 
over time the strip became increasingly earthbound, 
with the gang wading into action with guns (or fists) 
blazing. In the dark days of the war, there were few 
qualms about our heroes mowing down vast swathes 
of the enemy, and the Blackhawks were among the 
most bloodthirsty and driven of comics stars. 
Dressed in their matching blue-and-black SS-style uni- 
forms, complete with peaked caps, jodhpurs, and 
jackboots (only Blackhawk himself was allowed the 
embellishment of a yellow hawk insignia on his jack- 
et), the team ironically resembled the fascist horde 
that they were hell-bent on defeating. 

After eleven issues of Military Comics, Cuidera 
was drafted into the air force and Eisner left to con- 
centrate on the Spirit but, despite this, the strip went 
from strength to strength. Reed Crandall, one of 
Quality's top talents, took over the art and a host of 
writers, including Manly Wade Wellman, Bill Woolfold, 
and Batman writer Bill Finger, replaced Eisner. One of 
the incoming writers, Dick French, was also an 
accomplished songwriter, and he introduced the 
novel twist of having the team sing celebratory songs 
(usually about how great they all were!) as they went 
into battle or after each victory. ("Over land, over sea, 
we fight to make men free / Of danger we don't care 
... We're ... Blackhawks!") But it was Crandall who, 
more than anyone else, inspired the feature's fervid 
fan following with his immaculate figure work and 
elaborately choreographed fight scenes. 

With their secret hideout, matching costumes, 
independent persona as a multinational squadron of 
fighters who are not beholden to any one country, 
and leader's secrecy surrounding his original identi- 
ty, the Blackhawks were very much a de facto super- 
group. Yet, whereas most superhero sales dropped 
as the war came to a close, the Hawks retained their 
readership. In 1944, the failing Uncle Sam title was 



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Blackhawk 



changed (with issue #9) into a new Blackhawk 
comic, boasting book-length yarns and even a Chop- 
Chop solo feature. The postwar Blackhawks now 
turned their attention to a succession of world-con- 
quering villains, robots, aliens, mad scientists, and 
femmes fatale. Glamorous vixens such as Madame 
Butterfly, Princess Sari, Amora, and Mavis, Tigress of 
the Sea, all bent on world domination, suddenly 
filled the strips and almost invariably fell in love with 
Blackhawk. Notable villains included Captain Squid, 
King Cobra and his Rattlesnake Squadron, and — 
their most recurring foe — the sharp-toothed Killer 
Shark with his squadron of amphibious Shark 
Planes. As self-appointed guardians of the free 
world, the Blackhawks were responsible for their fair 
share of red-baiting, as stories such as "Slavery in 
Siberia," "The Red Executioner," and "Stalin's 
Ambassador of Murder" illustrate. 

Military Comics was canceled in 1950, one of 
many casualties of the hero implosion of the 1950s, 
but the Blackhawk title itself continued throughout 
the decade — the only team comic to do so. Artists 
such as pin-up king Bill Ward, Rudy Palais, and John 
Forte had all contributed to the strip but Crandall 
was very much the feature's star, and his departure 
for E.C. Comics in 1953 was a serious blow. Howev- 
er, his replacement, Dick Dillin, while not quite as 
inspired, was nevertheless a sold professional and 
proved to be adept at drawing the comic's endless 
crowd scenes. The 1950s Blackhawks still operated 
out of their island hideaway, now mysteriously relo- 
cated to the Pacific Ocean, but their wartime planes 
were traded in for sleek F90 jets. 

By 1957, Quality Comics was a spent force, and 
the company sold (or, as in the case of Blackhawk, 
leased) their top-selling titles to DC. Fortunately, DC 
retained Dillin on the book, along with Chuck 
Cuidera on inks, and so the transition was seam- 
less. DCs titles of that time were full of monsters, 
robots, and aliens, and these also began to domi- 
nate the Hawks' strip, as did a relic of the Quality 
days, the vast War Wheel — literally a colossal, 
house-crushing steel wheel, armed with gun turrets 




MYBROTHERMYEHEMtt 



Blackhawk #242 © 1968 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY PAT BOYETTE. 



and spikes. One welcome DC innovation was a mini- 
skirted adventurer called Zinda, who joined the 
group as Lady Blackhawk (in issue #151) and made 
sporadic appearances throughout the 1960s. Less 
welcome for the purists was 1964's new look, which 
replaced the old stormtrooper-style uniforms with 
garish green-and-red costumes (#197, in 1964) and 
unwanted mascots such as Blackie the Hawk (a pet 
hawk) and Tom Thumb Blackhawk, a midget. 

While never a superhero strip by the strictest def- 
inition of the term, the 1960s Blackhawks had much 
in common with other DC strips such as Challengers 
of the Unknown and the Doom Patrol, but few fans 
guessed how much closer they were going to get. In 



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Blonde Phantom 



1966, in the wake of the successful Batman TV show, 
DC transformed the venerable fighters into tried and 
true superheroes. Hendrickson donned a purple 
boiler-suit to become the Weapons Master, Olaf 
became the silver-suited Leaper (because his new 
suited allowed him to leap vast distances), Stan wore 
a suit of armor a la Marvel's Iron Man to become the 
Golden Centurion, Andre kept his beret but gained a 
fancy motorcycle to become Monsieur Machine, and 
Chop-Chop sported a pair of metal hands to become 
Dr. Hands. Poor old Chuck suffered the worst indigni- 
ty: He was now the Listener, dressed in blue pajamas 
decorated with hundreds of pink ears. Only Blackhawk 
himself avoided the cloaking of an entirely new super- 
costume, trading in his old blue uniform for a more 
fashionable red version, going now by the name of the 
Big Eye. After the Blackhawks had battled supervil- 
lains in their new identities for two years, incoming 
editor Dick Giordano turned to a yellowing old plot 
sent in by teenage fan Marv Wolfman (future Marvel 
editor-in-chief and co-creator of Blade), which returned 
the Blackhawks to their wartime costumes and more 
serious approach. This was the team's best story in 
years, but it came too late to save the comic and, one 
issue later (#243 in 1968), the Hawks seemingly flew 
off into the sunset for the last time. 

Eight years later, new DC boss Jenette Kahn 
oversaw a number of revivals of long-forgotten 
titles, one of which was Blackhawk; the revival 
picked up with issue #244. The new comic took as 
its inspiration the campier 1950s and 1960s DC 
Blackhawks, complete with bizarre villains (Anti- 
Man, Bio-Lord, and a returning War Wheel) and a 
new femme fatale, Duchess Ramona Fatale. The 
strip was set in 1976 and starred a now middle- 
aged band of adventurers, enjoying civilian identi- 
ties as scientists and corporate bosses. None of 
this appealed to a new generation of fans, and so 
the comic was canceled six issues later. 

An enjoyably fanciful team-up with Batman (in 
The Brave and the Bold #167, 1981), in a story set 
during World War II, rekindled interest in the Hawks 
and inspired a new set of wartime tales. A well- 



<fl 



received (by old-time fans, at least) 1982 series 
detailed untold war adventures that were very true to 
the spirit of the old Quality strips. Its two-year run by 
Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle was one of the fea- 
ture's creative high points, as was Howard Chaykin's 
1988 miniseries, but there the similarities end. 
Chaykin's story was a contemporary reinvention of 
the wartime group's exploits, led by a hard-driving, 
vain, Trotskyite, womanizing Blackhawk, who finally 
had a real name: Janos Prohaska. Mixing in such 
elements as gangsters, Zionists, the Spanish Civil 
War, television, and the atomic bomb, this was 
heady stuff indeed. The well-received tale led to a 
number of Blackhawk strips in Action Comics and a 
series in 1989 that was set in 1947 and involved 
the team with the CIA and the "red menace" scare. 

The concept of a band of brave fighters taking 
on evil around the globe had enormous resonance 
to readers in the war-torn 1940s and the cold-war 
paranoia of the 1950s, and perhaps inevitably the 
strip was at its peak in those years. Indeed, such 
was the strip's popularity that it inspired a 1952 
Columbia serial starring Kirk Alyn (also one of the 
screen's earliest Supermans) and a short-lived 
radio show. Sadly, any residual nostalgia for the 
Blackhawks or their wartime oeuvre has largely died 
out, and so they are unlikely to emerge as a com- 
mercial force in the twenty-first-century market. Nev- 
ertheless, a 2002 DC Archive edition reprinting 
their early years may yet prove to have entranced a 
new generation. However, younger fans have already 
been enjoying the legacy of the strip for years with- 
out realizing it; in the mid-1970s, editor Roy 
Thomas (with artist Dave Cockrum and eventual 
writer Len Wein) reinvented the moribund X-Men 
title as a multinational team, inspired by his affec- 
tion for the Blackhawk strips of his youth. — DAR 

Monde Phantom 

Perhaps more than any other company of the 
1940s or 1950s, Marvel Comics' ethos was always 



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Blonde Phantom 



to jump on any trend going and to swamp the news- 
stands with as much product as it could muster. 
The Blonde Phantom was both a response to what 
was happening in several areas of the marketplace 
and a trendsetter herself. Her first appearance 
came in the eleventh issue of All-Select Comics 
(Fall 1946), previously a bastion of Marvel's big 
three superheroes, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, 
and Captain America. She made her presence felt 
by entirely ousting the old heroes from the cover. 

The Blonde Phantom was the brainchild of the 
prolific Otto Binder and was drawn by one of Mar- 
vel's top artists of the time, Syd Shores. Her strips 
were simplicity themselves. In civilian life, she was 
Louise Grant, mousy secretary to the dashing pri- 
vate investigator Mark Mason. Picking up tips from 
the cases on his desk, she donned a slinky red 
evening gown (open at the navel and back), let 
down her blond tresses, swapped her horn-rimmed 
spectacles for a black mask, and slipped on the 
highest of high-heeled slippers. Then, armed with 
her wits, determination, and a .45 (she had no 
superpowers to speak of), she sashayed off to right 
wrongs on America's mean streets. 

The Blonde Phantom strips were an amalgam 
of all sorts of trends that were influencing the 
post-World War II market. The success of Archie 
had shown that girls were beginning to read comics 
in some numbers, and Marvel had exploited that 
with a flood of teen titles, such as Millie the Model, 
Patsy Walker, Tessie the Typist, Margie, and many 
others. The company had always had success with 
its superhero books, and so they might have imag- 
ined that a superhero for girls should be a hit. 
Indeed, Marvel had met with some success with 
earlier girl heroes, such as Miss America and Miss 
Fury. Another of the era's big hits was the crime 
genre, first established by Lev Gleason's million- 
selling Crime Does Not Pay title. So, perhaps 
inevitably, the Blonde Phantom's adventures were 
full of vicious gangsters and crazed psychopaths. 
Stories such as "The Devil's Playground," "Modelled 
for Murder," "Horror in Hollywood," and "The Man 



Who Deserved to Die" indicate the sort of hard- 
boiled fare served up in her yarns. 

In true superhero fashion, Binder had a lot of 
fun with the Phantom's secret identity since, much 
in the manner of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, 
Louise Grant loved Mason, but he only had eyes for 
the sultry, dashing Blonde Phantom. In a reverse of 
the usual damsel-in-distress shtick so prevalent in 
the Golden Age of comics (1938-1954), it was usu- 
ally the trouble-prone Mason who needed rescuing, 
only increasing his ardour for his beautiful rescuer. 
Interestingly, a little less than a year later, DC 
Comics came out with the Black Canary, a similarly 
blonde adventuress with a detective paramour in 
perpetual need of rescuing, though the Canary 
would prove to be far longer-lived than the Phantom. 

After one issue in All Select and a plug in Millie 
the Model #2 (wherein Millie dresses up in a 
Blonde Phantom costume and promotes Blonde 
Phantom perfume), the Blonde Phantom was given 
her own quarterly title (adopting its initial number- 
ing from the All-Select series at #12). Within a year, 
she was starring in each issue of Marvel Mystery 
Comics as well and by mid-1948 had also gained 
regular backup slots in Sub-Mariner and Black- 
stone. By August of that year, her success inspired 
Marvel to launch an entire line of girls' super- 
heroes, and the first issues of Sun Girl, Venus, and 
Namora were released. Coupled with Blonde Phan- 
tom's various strips and Golden Girl's emergence in 
the pages of Captain America, that gave Marvel five 
superheroines. Inevitably, the various heroines 
crossed over with each other, and the Blonde Phan- 
tom guest-starred in Sun Girl, but perhaps the 
whole experiment was overdone and, within a year, 
not only the heroines but also Marvel's entire super- 
hero line was out of print. 

In her two-and-a-half-year existence, the Blonde 
Phantom appeared in more than thirty stories 
spread across eight titles, but in May 1949 her own 
title was transformed into Lovers with its twenty- 
third issue, reflecting the next trend that would 
dominate the newsstands for much of the coming 



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Blue Beetle 



decade: romance comics. Whereas Venus would 
live on for several more years, riding the waves of 
romance, mystery, and horror trends, and Namora's 
daughter, Namorita, would find success in the 
1970s and beyond, the Blonde Phantom joined Sun 
Girl, Golden Girl, and Miss Fury in obscurity. — DAR 

&ue teeOe 

The Blue Beetle was the second superhero to have 
his own comic, and went on to more changes and 
publishers (six in all) than almost any other charac- 
ter in comics history. He also spanned the quality 
spectrum from excellent to absolutely awful. In 
1939, Victor Fox was an accountant at DC Comics 
who had noticed with envy the profits coming in 
from the company's new Superman character. Mov- 
ing to a different floor in the same building, he set 
up his own company, Fox Comics, and hired the Will 
Eisner/Jerry Iger creative shop to provide the story 
and artwork for his new venture. Unfortunately, their 
first character, Wonder Man, was immediately hit by 
a lawsuit from DC, and so they quickly dreamed up 
a new hero, the Blue Beetle. In his first appearance 
(drawn by Charles Nicholas in Mystery Men Comics 
#1), the Beetle was little more than a Green Hornet 
clone, but he was soon given a blue chain mail cos- 
tume with a mask and hood topped off with anten- 
nae; the latter sadly disappeared by his fourth strip. 

In his civilian identity, the Beetle was rookie 
cop Dan Garret, whose athletic prowess made him 
a powerful hero as soon as he donned his cos- 
tume — though the gun he toted in the early days 
was probably more useful. As far as superpowers 
go, he really had none, although he often projected 
his beetle insignia on dark walls. Soon enough, he 
was given a girlfriend, reporter Joan Mason, and a 
special vitamin mixture (2X) that beefed up his mus- 
cles. The Blue Beetle briefly had his own radio show 
and newspaper strip, but the poor overall quality of 
Fox's product led the company to close shop in 
1942. A few months later, the Beetle was back on 



the stands, this time published by Fox's printers, 
Holyoke, who (historians believe) took over the char- 
acter in lieu of debts. The Holyoke years saw the 
character gain a sidekick called Spunky but, if any- 
thing, the strip got even worse. By 1944, Victor Fox 
had come back into publishing and took over the 
comic again for a series of catastrophically awful 
strips in which the Beetle could suddenly fly, and 
also mysteriously acquired the Beetlemobile and 
the Beetleboat. 

One of the hottest comics of the postwar 
years was the ultraviolent Crime Does Not Pay, and 
in 1946 Fox decided to get a piece of that action. 
This new direction concentrated more on the Blue 
Beetle's shapely girlfriend and featured a series of 
so-called "true crime stories," which were little 
more than an excuse for acres of flesh and gallons 
of blood. Story titles such as "Satan's Circus," 
"The Vanishing Nude," and "House of a Thousand 
Corpses" tell it all. By the end of the decade, Fox 
had left comics forever, but the Beetle was soon 
picked up by bargain-basement publisher Charlton, 
who brought out a few nondescript issues in 1955. 
Somehow, I.W. Comics got its hands on some old 
artwork and, in 1964, released it in two issues 
inexplicably retitled The Human Fly. That same year 
(are you following this?), Charlton was back again 
with a ten-issue run of staggeringly silly strips in 
which the beefed-up hero appeared to resemble 
the Pillsbury Doughboy. 

Then something strange happened: The Blue 
Beetle finally starred in some good stories — very 
good stories, in fact. Soon after leaving his aston- 
ishingly successful Spider-Man comic, artist Steve 
Ditko moved over to Charlton and completely 
revamped the Beetle. Ditko's hero was now scien- 
tist Ted Kord and he had a stylish new costume, his 
own designer flying vehicle (in the shape of a bee- 
tle, of course) and genuinely exciting, well-drawn 
stories. Inexplicably, despite action scenes that 
rivaled Spider-Man at its best, the public simply 
wasn't interested, and the comic was canceled 
after barely a year. 



<tf> 



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Bronze Age of Superheroes (1970-1979) 




Blue Beetle #3 © 1967 Charlton Comics. 

COVER ART BY STEVE DITKO. 



A generation later, the few fans who bought 
Ditko's issues were creating comics of their own, 
and the first of many revivals saw print in 1981 in 
the semi-pro Charlton Bullseye. A few years later, 
another fan publication, Amehcomics, pitted the 
two Blue Beetles against each other in pitched bat- 
tle, before things came full circle and DC Comics, 
the impetus for the Beetle's creation in the first 
place, bought the rights to the character. For much 
of the 1980s, he starred in amiable yarns in his 
own comic and enjoyed great success in one of sev- 
eral incarnations of the Justice League. In true 
1980s fashion, it seems that Kord used his scien- 
tific expertise to become a millionaire and 



appeared to have settled down to a life of leisure. 
However, a 2003 miniseries — the wittily titled For- 
mally Known as the Justice League — brought him 
out of retirement so yet another generation of fans 
can enjoy his adventures again. — DAR 

Bronze Age of 
Superheroes 
(1970-1979) 

Superheroes were in their infancy during comics' 
Golden Age (1938-1954), experienced growing 
pains during the Silver Age (1956-1969), and 
reached adolescence during the Bronze Age 
(1970-1979). 

vw epic fox ouz rmes" 

During the 1960s, Marvel Comics snuck up on 
DC Comics and usurped the industry's number-one 
spot. DCs editorial director Carmine Infantino start- 
ed the 1970s with both guns blazing, vowing to 
regain DCs market share. The biggest bullet in 
Infantino's holster was the illustrious Jack Kirby, the 
veteran artist who co-created most of Marvel's 
major superheroes, including Captain America, the 
Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and the X-Men. 

After a series of teaser ads announcing that 
"Kirby is Coming," in 1970 Kirby began working 
exclusively for DC and introduced a mythic tapestry 
into the company's universe, a series of four inter- 
locking series — three new books of his own design, 
The New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Mir- 
acle, plus a revamp of DCs long-running Super- 
man's Pal Jimmy Olsen — under the umbrella title 
"The Fourth World." Among its gaggle of gods, both 
good and evil, stood Darkseid, DCs first utterly 
malevolent villain. Kirby's vigorous artwork and con- 
cepts recharged DC with an energy never before 



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Bronze Age of Superheroes (1970-1979) 



seen at the company, as did his hyperbolic cover 
blurbs like "An Epic for Our Times" and "Don't 
Ask — Just Buy It!" But not enough people are buy- 
ing it, thought DC, and Kirby's Fourth World died 
after two years, although the characters have con- 
tinued to exist for decades. After follow-ups includ- 
ing The Demon, OMAC, Sandman, and Kamandi, 
the Last Boy on Earth, Kirby returned to Marvel. 

SUPeZHZBO ZZLZVANCZ 

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (1970) was a 
revolutionary step forward for DC Comics. It bor- 
rowed from Marvel Comics' propensity toward argu- 
mentative superheroes, but with "GL" and "GA," 
their struggles were ideological debates. GL, a 
power-ring-wielding intergalactic cop, represented 
the conservative right, while "GA was the voice of 
the streets, of the left," writer Denny O'Neil 
declared on the 2003 History Channel documentary 
Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked. With artist 
Neal Adams, O'Neil took this groundbreaking series 
into realms political, radical, and racial, but the mar- 
ket was unprepared for its level of sophistication 
and Green Lantern/Green Arrow was canceled with 
issue #89 (1972). Green Lantern/Green Arrow put 
the industry on notice, however, proving that super- 
heroes' exploits could involve matters beyond skir- 
mishes with supervillains. 

For the first few years of the 1970s, contempo- 
rary thematic material — dubbed "relevance" by 
those in the biz — became common in many DC 
books: Robin the Teen (formerly "Boy") Wonder left 
Batman for college and took on campus unrest, Bar- 
bara (Batgirl) Gordon went to Washington, D.C., to 
tackle crime as a congresswoman, and the Justice 
League of America battled polluters. Even the stilt- 
ed Man of Steel got hip. Superman #233 (1971) 
started a new era for DCs flagship hero, updating 
his alter ego Clark Kent to a television reporter and 
eliminating his weakness kryptonite, but those 
changes were short-lived. Batman's tales, in his 
own series and in Detective Comics, shied away 



qMt 



from this relevance trend and veered more into 
gothic terrain, returning the hero to his original, 
baleful nature. "Batman is a loner who never shows 
his face in the light," stated O'Neil, the chief Bat- 
man writer of the 1970s, on the Comic Book 
Heroes: Unmasked program. 

MARVZL BRBAK.S NSW GR0I4N1? 

A three-issue anti-drug story Stan Lee penned 
for The Amazing Spider-Man #96 through #98 
(1971) was rejected by the industry's censorship 
board, the Comics Code Authority (CCA). Lee lobbied 
Marvel publisher Martin Goodman to resist the CCA 
and print the issues, which Marvel did — without the 
Code's seal of approval, the first time a major comic- 
book publisher had exercised such defiance. The 
CCA, in response, relaxed some of its requirements 
to more adequately address societal changes. 

One of those liberalizations permitted the 
depiction of the undead, which had been taboo 
since the implementation of the CCA in the mid- 
1950s. Marvel took full advantage of this, fostering 
a 1970s horror-comics fad with titles including 
Ghost Rider, The Son of Satan, Man-Thing, The 
Tomb of Dracula, and Werewolf by Night— series 
that occurred inside the workings of the Marvel 
superhero continuity (DC published its applauded 
Swamp Thing series during this period). Marvel 
steered two other Bronze Age industry movements: 
"sword and sorcery," beginning in 1970 with its 
adaptations and continuations of Robert E. 
Howard's fantasy hero Conan the Barbarian; and 
kung fu, through Master of Kung Fu, Iron Fist and 
others. And a cinema trend — "blaxploitation," low- 
budget action films starring black actors — inspired 
Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972), the first comic 
book to headline an African-American superhero. 

Marvel continued to build upon its Silver Age 
foundation of human heroes with "real" problems. 
Mr. Fantastic and his wife Invisible Girl of the Fan- 
tastic Four suffered marital strains. In the controver- 
sial The Amazing Spider-Man #121 (1973), the hero 



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Bronze Age of Superheroes (1970-1979) 



did not save the day, as Gwen Stacy, girlfriend of 
Spidey's alter ego Peter Parker, died at the hands of 
the villainous Green Goblin. Just eight issues later, 
in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974), the belea- 
guered wall-crawler was targeted by the assassin- 
for-hire called the Punisher, and later that year, in 
The Incredible Hulk #181, the Green Goliath battled 
the feral Canadian superhero Wolverine. The Pun- 
isher and Wolverine were anti-heroes for a cynical 
generation, and would grow into superstardom. 

WHAVS OLP IS NBW AGAIN 

The Bronze Age re-popularized heroes of yes- 
terday. DCs critically acclaimed Tarzan comic, writ- 
ten, drawn, and edited by Joe Kubert for most of 
its run, was a minor hit, as was DCs noir interpre- 
tation of The Shadow. DC also obtained publishing 
rights for superheroes previously under the juris- 
diction of Fawcett Publications and Quality 
Comics, the results being its Shazam! series (star- 
ring the original Captain Marvel) and its 
superteam title, The Freedom Fighters (with Uncle 
Sam, the Phantom Lady, and others). Marvel pub- 
lished Doc Savage and ultimately picked up the 
Tarzan license after DC. 

One 1975 Marvel Comics revival produced 
unparalleled results. Giant-Size X-Men #1 intro- 
duced a new team of offbeat superheroes — multi- 
cultural mutants including Storm (African), Colossus 
(Russian), Nightcrawler (German), Sunfire (Japan- 
ese), and Wolverine (Canadian) — and began its trek 
toward becoming Marvel's number-one series. 

Lackluster sales did not encourage many pub- 
lishers to attempt superhero comics during the 
Bronze Age, but a few gave it the old college try: 
Atlas Comics produced a diverse but short-lived 
comics line in the mid-1970s, including super- 
heroes Tiger-Man and the Destructor, as well as 
Howard Chaykin's pulpish Scorpion; and longtime 
player Charlton Comics published King Features' 
jungle hero The Phantom and introduced a wry 
superhero parody, E-Man. 



MMVE. 



THE GREATEST SUPERHERO TEAM-UP UF ALL TIME! 

wmmfmmnm 



@ 








Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man © 1976 
DC/Marvel. 

COVER ART BY ROSS ANDRU AND DICK GIORDANO. 



PC VS. MABVU 

DCs Infantino-steered accomplishments nar- 
rowed the sales gap between his company and its 
competitor. Still, Marvel largely dominated the entire 
decade, although a 1976 project would unite the 
publishers on equal ground. Superman vs. The 
Amazing Spider-Man, a one-hundred-page, tabloid- 
sized special edition by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, 
and Dick Giordano, mixed up DCs and Marvel's top 
superheroes in a momentous clash followed by "the 
greatest team-up of all time." Infantino worked with 
Marvel's Lee to nurture the bestseller, but before a 
sequel could be brokered, Infantino and DC parted 
company. Children's magazine publisher Jenette 
Kahn replaced him as DCs head, but her long, 
impressive tenure would begin on a bumpy path. The 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Buffy the Vampire Slayer 



quality of DCs titles suffered later in the decade, 
and the company's content expansion — the highly 
promoted "DC Explosion" in 1977 — led to a market 
glut and a devastating "DC Implosion" in 1978. 

Both DC and Marvel benefited from multimedia 
visibility of their superheroes during the Bronze Age. 
Mego Toys' "World's Greatest Super-Heroes" eight- 
inch action figures tunneled icons as diverse as 
Superman, Spider-Man, Conan, Wonder Girl, and 
Tarzan into a shared commercial line. Hostess 
Twinkies sponsored a popular series of one-page 
comics that appeared as house ads in Marvel and 
DC comics, featuring famous superheroes as product 
pitchmen. The Justice League ventured to animated 
television in ABC's Super Friends, and live-action 
superheroes Captain Marvel (in Shazam!), Isis, and 
ElectraWoman and DynaGirl starred on Saturday- 
morning TV. The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, 
The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man 
were weekly CBS dramatic series (CBS's telemovies 
starring Captain America and Doctor Strange did not 
warrant ongoing shows), and the multi-million-dollar 
theatrical blockbuster Superman: The Movie (1978) 
set box-office records (for the time). Spider-Man and 
Superman both appeared in newspaper comic strips, 
and paperback novels and comics reprint editions 
starring DC and Marvel superheroes saw print. The 
merchandising of superheroes became big business, 
though readership of the comic books themselves 
continued a gradual decline. 

By the end of the 1970s, most traditional out- 
lets for comics like newsstands and drug stores 
stopped carrying comic books, since their low profit 
margin offered little incentive for shelf display. Print 
runs of individual titles, in many cases exceeding 1 
million copies per issue during the 1940s, had 
slipped to several hundred thousand, at best. Tele- 
vision (broadcast and cable), special effects-laden 
movies, and the emerging video game and comput- 
er technologies now competed with comics for the 
young consumer's interest. Yet this most persistent 
of art forms, comics, stood poised to begin a path 
of rediscovery as the new decade dawned. — ME 



Qb 



toffytihe 
Vampire Slayev 

Mix in equal parts sardonic humor, martial arts 
action, attractive cast members, monsters as 
metaphor, doomed romance, and feminism. Heat 
for seven years. Serve garnished with a stake 
through the undead heart, and you have the main 
course that was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created 
by Joss Whedon, the title heroine was first seen in 
a 1992 feature film of the same name, embodied 
by Kristy Swanson. Buffy was a popular cheerleader 
who discovered she was part of a historical line 
chosen to fight vampires and other spawns of evil. 
Trained under the eye of a Watcher (Donald Suther- 
land), Swanson still found time to romance bad boy 
Pike (Luke Perry), even as she faced down the twin 
perils of the school dance and the vampiric overlord 
Lothos (Rutger Hauer). The movie was not much of 
a hit, but Whedon wasn't quite willing to let his 
brainchild stay in the dark forever. 

In March 1997, a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer 
debuted on the WB network as a limited-run series. 
This time, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) 
has moved to Sunnydale with her divorced mother, 
Joyce (Kristine Sutherland), and tried to forget the 
past. That would be fine, except that Sunnydale is 
located on the Hellmouth, an evil portal that makes 
the California town a haven for vampires, demons, 
and other creepy things. It just so happens that the 
high school librarian is also a Watcher named 
Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), and he is as 
stuffy as any British librarian ever committed to cel- 
luloid. As she begins to face the terrors of school, 
Buffy also fights monsters ranging from demon 
teachers to invisible girls to the Master (Mark Met- 
calf), a powerful vampire. It's a good thing that her 
Slayer powers give her immense strength, fighting 
skills, and healing factors, because Buffy's battles 
are just beginning. 



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Buffy the Vampire Slayer 



Luckily, Buffy has friends to help her. Xander 
Harris (Nicholas Brendon) is a good-natured nerd 
who is helpful despite his unfortunate crushes on 
women who turn out to be evil. Willow Rosenberg 
(Alyson Hannigan) is a brilliant computer geek with a 
penchant for magic and shyness. Rounding out the 
group of sidekicks is Cordelia Chase (Charisma Car- 
penter), a bitchy fashion-plate who resents helping 
the geeks, but is drawn into the good fight time and 
again. When not in the graveyard or alleys fighting 
ghouls, the group mostly hangs out at the underage 
nightclub the Bronze, where live music — and the 
occasional fracas against the undead — are a staple. 
By the end of the first mini-season, Buffy had estab- 
lished itself as a ratings hit and a critical darling. 
Even as hundreds of websites sprang into life on the 
Internet, work began on a second season. 

Throughout her tenure on the show, Buffy is 
portrayed as an archetypal heroine with a less-than- 
archetypal personality. Though she has no costume, 
she has a distinct alter ego as a student and 
daughter, as well as a heroic identity as a Slayer 
(the name most of the monsters call her). And while 
her Slayer's mission is to defeat vampires specifi- 
cally, and evil generally, she uses her superpowers 
to make sure that her mission as a teenager — 
shopping, dating, hanging out with friends — is pro- 
tected. While her secret is unknown to her mother 
initially, it eventually becomes evident to most of 
Sunnydale High's student body that Buffy is their 
protector (they eventually honor her as such at the 
senior prom in season three). 

The first year had introduced into the mix a 
character named Angel (David Boreanaz), a brood- 
ing black-clad loner who was really a vampire 
"cursed" with a soul. As season two began, Angel 
was both aiding Buffy and falling in love with her. 
Complications arose when they slept together, and 
his moment of true happiness forced Angel to 
revert to his evil vampiric self. Angel killed Giles' 
girlfriend, Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), showing 
that even series semi-regulars were not immune 
from sudden death. Even as Buffy and the so-called 



"Scooby Gang" tried to cope with Angel's bad side, 
they also faced fellow vamps Spike (James 
Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), whose past 
intertwined with Angel's in the 1800s. Luckily, the 
heroes were regularly aided by Oz (Seth Green), a 
sarcastic teen rock-and-roller who was also a were- 
wolf and Willow's love interest. 

Season three (1998-1999) featured the 
redemption of Angel, even as the town's demonic 
Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener) planned to sacrifice 
Buffy's senior class of Sunnydale High in a bid to 
gain ultimate power. To do this, Wilkins seduced new 
Vampire Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) to the dark side. 
Faith was an anomaly; although only one Slayer was 
"called" per generation, a brief death (and resurrec- 
tion) for Buffy in season one had resulted in another 
being called. Slayer vs. Slayer was soon set into 
motion, but as the season ended, controversy erupt- 
ed. An episode about a teen bringing a gun to 
school — and the season finale about the mayor 
attacking the graduation ceremonies — were delayed 
in airing, following the Columbine school shootings. 

The following year featured the cast relocating 
to college, while Angel, Cordelia, and Faith's Watch- 
er Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) relocated 
to a spin-off series called Angel. Buffy found the bal- 
ance of classes and creature-fighting difficult, espe- 
cially once she began to fall for muscular stud Riley 
Finn (Marc Blucas). Too bad then that Riley was part 
of the secret government group the Initiative, which 
was capturing and studying monsters in laborato- 
ries underneath the university! Once Riley and Buffy 
found out each others' secret identities, they 
helped each other in battle, especially against 
Frankenstein-like creation Adam (George Hertzberg). 
Also notable this season were the additions of the 
characters Anya (Emma Caulfield), a whiny ex- 
vengeance demon falling for Xander, and Tara 
(Amber Benson), a shy lesbian witch whose interac- 
tion with the magic-wielding Willow would intensify 
over time. One episode written and directed by Whe- 
don — "Hush" — was mostly in silence, and earned 
the series one of its few Emmy Award nominations. 



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Buffy the Vampire Slayer 



By now the public and the critics alike were aware 
that Emmy was not going to reward Buffy no matter 
how good it was, but at least the show won in both 
ratings and sales of licensed merchandise, includ- 
ing an ongoing Dark Horse comic-book series and 
spin-offs; tie-in books; calendars; apparel, action 
figures; and Christmas ornaments. 

In its fifth season (2000-2001), Buffy intro- 
duced a bizarre new wrinkle with younger sister 
Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg), whom 
everyone remembered, even though viewers had 
never seen her before. As the season-long story arc 
progressed, the secret of Dawn's existence played in 
heavily to the evil plans of sexy villainess Glory 
(Clare Kramer). Relationships progressed as well: 
after Riley left, Buffy and Spike began a dangerous 
romance (he now had a microchip in his head stop- 
ping him from harming humans so he joined the 
fight against evil); Willow and Tara became an openly 
lesbian couple; and Xander and Anya planned mar- 
riage. But the show's most shocking moment came 
when Buffy returned home to find her mother dead. 
In the season's ender, Buffy would sacrifice herself 
to save the world from Glory's machinations. 

Moving from WB to UPN after contract renegoti- 
ations, Buffy's darkest and most controversial year 
was in 2001-2002, wherein everything good began 
to go bad. Willow's dark magic resurrected Buffy, 
but her friend was less than grateful to be pulled 
from heaven back to hell on Earth. Buffy and 
Spike's relationship grew ever more destructive. 
Three geeks — Jonathan (Danny Strong), Warren 
(Adam Busch), and Andrew (Tom Lenk) — planned to 
use their magical and scientific knowledge to 
become supervillains. The eventual result of their 
actions was the accidental death of Tara, a storyline 
that proved incredibly controversial in the press and 
on the Internet; Whedon and producer Marti Noxon 
spent much time defending themselves from 
charges of homophobia for killing one of the two 
lesbian characters. Another episode, written and 
directed by Whedon, was a musical, with the entire 
cast singing and dancing under the spell of a 



<fi 



demon. The season ended with "Dark Willow" hav- 
ing a black-magic meltdown that threatened all of 
the cast, and left one villain flayed alive! 

The 2002-2003 season of Buffy was 
announced as its final one, and with rising costs, 
declining ratings, and series star Gellar chafing to 
move on to other projects, this announcement sur- 
prised few. The producers moved to lighten the 
mood, establishing a newly rebuilt Sunnydale High, 
a soul for Spike, and the return of Rupert Giles to 
semi-regular duty after his time away from the 
series. But Buffy and the Scooby Gang's troubles 
were not over, with an indestructible nasty preacher 
named Caleb (Nathan Fillion), a horde of super- 
strong uber-vampires, and the First Evil threatening 
apocalypse. "Potential" Slayers began arriving in 
Sunnydale to train, so in case Buffy fell in battle, 
they could move into her place. The series ended 
with the destruction of the Hellmouth and Sunny- 
dale, but also a gift from Buffy to the world; the 
potential in girls everywhere was magically height- 
ened, implying that every girl could be tough and 
strong like the Slayers. 

Throughout its seven years, Buffy's strength lay 
partially in clever plots that used the evils and mon- 
sters as metaphors for problems faced by the char- 
acters — and implicitly, the viewers. The dialogue 
and direction of the series were almost always top- 
notch, the "girl power" message was both constant 
and consistent, and the actors were likable and 
believable in their roles. Buffy became a cottage 
industry for its stars, who would appear at conven- 
tions and parlay their popularity into further roles 
once the series ended. 

Spin-off series Angel continued on the WB, with 
Spike added as a series regular for the 2003-2004 
season, the show's last. A Buffy animated series 
was in development for more than a year, but 
despite extensive script-writing, voice work, and 
design, the show was not picked up by a network. 
Rumors of a Buffy spin-off for Giles, Faith, or Willow 
swirled in the Hollywood hype machine, but momen- 
tum seemingly stalled on the Giles series (alter- 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Bulletman 



nately called Watcher or Rippe), Dushku got her own 
Fox drama series, and Hannigan signed for a 2004 
sitcom. Still, Buffy fans remain committed to a 
future for their heroines and heroes. New adven- 
tures still appear in comic book and novel form, and 
with the Slayer line opened for a broader group, it 
seems unlikely that Buffy the Vampire Slayer won't 
rise from the grave on television or film some time 
in the future. — AM 

Bulletgirl: See Bulletman; Superheroines 



Sensing that it had a hit on its hands with Captain 
Marvel, Fawcett Comics rushed out three other 
comics in early 1940 to capitalize on the super- 
hero's success, but the company soon discovered 
that launching successful characters was not as 
easy as it thought. The three comics were: Slam 
Bang, starring a no-hoper called Diamond Jack; 
Master Comics, starring (appropriately enough) 
Master Man; and Nickel Comics, starring Bullet- 
man. Fawcett soon realized that it was in trouble 
with these titles. Nickel Comics was half the price 
of other comics but only offered half the page 
count of its rivals (and, what's more, only gave the 
newsstand owners a tiny profit). Master Comics 
was launched as an oversized comic so that it 
would stand out from its competitors, but both it 
and Slam Bang were filled with second-rate strips 
that failed to excite their readers. So Fawcett 
decided to cut its losses and merged the three 
titles into Master Comics with its seventh issue 
(October 1940). This version finally went on to 
enjoy the success that the publisher had hoped for, 
thanks to Bulletman and Captain Marvel Junior (a 
late arrival, in issue #22). 

Bulletman's origin, recounted in Nickel Comics 
#1, details how Jim Barr attempts to join the police 
force after seeing his father — a cop — gunned down 



by gangsters. Vowing to carry on his father's crusade 
against crime, Barr becomes a scientist devoted to 
somehow "curing" the desire for crime. Sadly, years 
in the laboratory weaken him and, after the inevitable 
rejection by the police force, it seems as if Barr will 
have to settle for a career in the police labs. Instead, 
he works up a new concoction that magically increas- 
es his physical and mental abilities, creating an Ado- 
nis-like physique and vastly amplified intelligence. 
Armed with this new brainpower, he creates the Gravi- 
ty Regulator Helmet, a bullet-shaped, chrome head- 
piece that allows him to fly at great speed and also 
magnetically repels bullets away from him. Donning a 
red shirt open to the waist, yellow tights, and boots, 
he now adapts his nickname "Bullet" Barr to become 
Bulletman. In addition to being able to fly, he pos- 
sesses telescopic vision. 

Fawcett had a small army of second-division 
heroes, such as Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible, 
Minute Man, Mr. Scarlet and Pinky, Commando 
Yank, and Golden Arrow. While Bulletman never 
rose to the exalted status of Captain Marvel, he 
was probably the star act of these lesser-known 
characters. His principal writer was Fawcett's inven- 
tive workhorse Otto Binder and, with art from tal- 
ents such as Jon Small, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry, Bill 
Ward, and Charles Sultan, the strip was an attrac- 
tive feature. It came to life in April 1941 with the 
introduction of Bulletgirl, created (in the fine tradi- 
tion of Robin, Bucky, and other sidekicks) so that 
Bulletman would have someone to talk to and, of 
course, to add a little glamour to the feature. Bullet- 
girl was Susan Kent, the inquisitive daughter and 
secretary of Police Chief Kent, and when she stum- 
bles upon Barr's amazing alter ego, he bows to the 
inevitable, giving her a hit of his secret elixir and 
building a second bullet helmet. In 1944, the team 
was accompanied by Bulletboy and a dog called — 
you guessed it — Bulletdog, who flies thanks to the 
invention of an anti-gravity collar. 

As the "Flying Detectives," Bulletman and Bullet- 
girl enjoyed a lengthy run in Master Comics (until 
issue #106, in 1949), and starred in sixteen issues 



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Bulletman 



of Bulletman (from 1941 to 1946) as well as appear- 
ing in America's Greatest Comics, X-Mas Comics, 
Fawcett Miniatures, and Mighty Midget Comics — a 
total of around 150 yarns in all. One of the first man- 
and-woman superhero duos, predating Hawkman and 
Hawkgirl, Flame and Flame Girl, and Lash Lightning 
and Lightning Girl, their adventures tended to be fast- 
moving tales with little scope for introspection or 
characterization. These short stories were frequently 
peppered with bizarre and macabre foes, including 
Black Mask, Dr. Weird, Mr. Murder, the Gorgon, the 
Black Rat, the Invisible Man, and the Black Spider. 
Later adventures featured a one-off team-up with 
Captain Marvel Junior and Minute Man as the Crime 
Crusaders Club. However, the strip's status was most 
convincingly shown with a visit from Captain Marvel 



himself during the lengthy fight with Captain Nazi in 
Master Comics #21 and #22. 

With the cancellation of their feature in Master 
Comics #106, the pair mostly faded from view until 
the late 1990s, when Jerry Ordway reintroduced the 
Flying Detectives in The Power ofShazam #8 in 
1995. A further appearance in issue #43, when they 
came out of retirement to cover for a temporarily 
missing Captain Marvel, has been their last appear- 
ance as of 2004. However, the Bulletman strip's 
legacy is more than being just one of many largely 
forgotten Golden Age features, since Bulletgirl was 
in fact one of the first superheroines in comics his- 
tory, predating Wonder Woman's, Mary Marvel's, and 
even the Black Cat's first appearances. — DAR 



\00 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 




Camp and 
Comedy Heroes 



The earliest costumed crime fighters of comics' Gold- 
en Age (1938-1954) were dreadfully somber, not sur- 
prising given America's bleak mood during the Great 
Depression and World War II. It was only a matter of 
time, however, before someone realized that the sep- 
aration of heroes and humor was unnecessary. 

THB B£1? "TOMATO" 

That someone was Sheldon Mayer. In 1940 
Mayer created the Red Tornado (not to be confused 
with the solemn android character of the same 
name who appeared decades later in DC Comics' 
Justice League of America), introduced as a sup- 
porting-cast member in the "Scribbly" series in DCs 
All-American Comics. The Red Tornado was clearly 
not intended to be taken seriously — a running gag 
featured the hero being called the Red "Tomato." 
The Red Tornado bore another rather surprising dis- 
tinction: He was secretly a she. Husky Ma Hunkle 
righted wrongs in a cobbled-together guise of red 
long Johns, a towel as a cape, and a helmet that 
was once a cooking pot. 



While the Red Tornado didn't pave the 
way for cross-dressing superheroes, Ma Hunkle 
leveraged an acceptance of humorous characters in 
other "straight" superhero comics: Fawcett's Captain 
Marvel franchise featured Mr. Tawky Tawny, a talking 
anthropomorphic tiger, and Green Lantern gained a 
portly comic-relief sidekick (Doiby Dickies). In August 
1941 Quality Comics' wacky Plastic Man, a malleable 
FBI agent, bounced into Police Comics #1, joined by 
his portly comic-relief sidekick (Woozy Winks). 

George Marcoux's Supersnipe, "The Boy with 
the Most Comic Books in America," was published 
by Street & Smith from 1942 through 1949. Super- 
snipe was actually shrimpy Koppy McFad, a kid so 
thoroughly obsessed with superheroes he pretend- 
ed to be one himself. Hopping into red long under- 
wear (did he have the same tailor as Red Tornado?) 
and sporting a mask and blue cape, this neighbor- 
hood protector imagined himself a strapping mus- 
cleman (McFad's tiny, child-size head was drawn 
onto Supersnipe's brutish body). Supersnipe was 
also the first comic book to deal with comics them- 
selves as subject matter. 

The year 1942 marked the debut of funny ani- 
mal heroes, mirthful mergers of superheroes and 
cartoon critters. Terrytoons' Mighty Mouse and Mar- 
vel (then known as Timely) Comics' Supermouse 



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loj 



Camp and Comedy Heroes 



were the first big cheeses, soon joined by Fawcett's 
Hoppy the Marvel Bunny (Captain Marvel as a rab- 
bit) and Marvel's copycat Super Rabbit, plus DCs 
Terrific Whatzit (a takeoff of the Flash in the unlikely 
form of a superfast turtle). 

In 1947 Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and 
Joe Shuster introduced Funnyman, a Danny Kaye- 
inspired TV comedian named Larry Davis who fought 
crime in a clown suit. Siegel and Shuster were pro- 
hibited from using Superman's famous name in pro- 
moting their new character, and thus Funnyman, who 
appeared in a comic book and a syndicated newspa- 
per strip, laughed his last in 1949. 

Without the war effort to sustain their adven- 
tures, most superheroes disappeared from the 
comics stands during the late 1940s, their titles 
replaced by a host of other genres that dominated 
the marketplace throughout the 1950s. Humor was 
one of those genres, and in 1952 publisher E.C. 
Comics launched its trailblazing AMD title (which 
originated as a color comic book before changing to 
a black-and-white magazine format in 1955). MAD 
skewered a handful of superheroes in send-ups 
including "Superduperman" (which mocked the real- 
life lawsuit between DC Comics and Fawcett Comics 
over Captain Marvel's supposed similarities to 
Superman), "Plastic Sam," "Bat Boy and Rubin," 
and "Woman Wonder." Also premiering in the 1950s 
were Charlton Comics' Atomic Mouse and its spin- 
offs, and the Super Turtle half-page fillers that ran 
in a host of DC Comics titles. 

Two significant comedic superheroes pre- 
miered in the 1950s. The first was the Fighting 
American, Prize Comics' patriotic hero from writer 
Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby. Fighting American 
is acknowledged by many comics historians as the 
first superhero satire: Its target was obvious — Mar- 
vel's Captain America, whom Simon and Kirby them- 
selves created in 1941 — and its tone was irrever- 
ent, with Communist menaces like Poison Ivan and 
Hotsky Trotsky plaguing the flag-clad hero and his 
boisterous sidekick Speedboy. The strip's flippancy 



yQ% 



with the cold war chilled most readers, and the 
series ended after a mere seven issues. Revival 
attempts in later decades similarly failed. The sec- 
ond significant 1950s spoof was Herbie Popnecker, 
an improbable superhero first seen in ACG's Forbid- 
den Worlds #73 (1958). The creation of writer 
Richard E. Hughes (using the pen name Shane 
O'Shea) and artist Ogden Whitney, Herbie was more 
like the stereotypical comics readerthan a comics 
hero: He was comically corpulent, hopelessly bor- 
ing, and universally disliked. Herbie had one thing 
going for him (other than his trademark lollipops, 
that is): secret superpowers. He embarked on a 
series of novel adventures, taking place everywhere 
from the Wild West to the depths of space. In 1965 
Herbie waddled into long underwear and placed a 
plunger on his head as the Fat Fury. 

me camp czazz 

There was no decade with more superhero par- 
odies and comedy crime fighters than the 1960s. 
Politically and culturally, Americans were burdened 
by an unpopular war and social strife, and virtually 
every facet of entertainment reflected the nation's 
desire to escape from these dark realities. The 
movies and television were filled with spy spoofs, 
mindless farces, silly sitcoms ... and Batman. 

DC Comics' former creature of the night 
became a campy caped crusader in producer 
William Dozier's live-action ABC series Batman 
(1966-1968), starring Adam West as a know-it-all 
crime fighter who would go to any tongue-in-cheek 
length to trap his foes, including dancing the Batusi 
with gun molls. Batman was an instant ratings 
smash, and inspired a theatrical movie in the sum- 
mer of 1966, a bonanza of merchandising, and a 
national superhero craze. 

1960s television was overrun with funny crime 
fighters. Mighty Mouse was joined on TV by other 
animated superhero series like Courageous Cat and 
Minute Mouse (a Batman lampoon by the hero's cre- 
ator Bob Kane), The Mighty Heroes (a fondly remem- 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Camp and Comedy Heroes 



bered super-spoof light-years from director Ralph 
Bakshi's edgy later work), Atom Ant, Frankenstein Jr. 
and the Impossibles, and Underdog. TV sitcoms fea- 
tured superhero parodies — the Monkees took to the 
air in tights and capes in a musical fantasy 
sequence, and Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur wore a 
Superman suit for laughs on Bewitched. ABC's suc- 
cess with Batman led its competitors to launch their 
own live-action superhero spoofs. NBC's effort was 
Captain Nice, created by Buck Henry, about a neb- 
bish mother's boy who paled in comparison to the 
menaces in his home turf of Bigtown. CBS jumped 
into the fray with Mr. Terrific, featuring a gullible geek 
named Stanley Beamish who transformed into a 
superhero by popping "power pills" — the effects of 
which would usually wear off just when Mr. Terrific 
needed his abilities most. Both series debuted as 
mid-season replacements in January 1967, and 
were canceled by the end of that summer, although 
Captain Nice spun off into a one-shot comic book 
from Gold Key and a paperback novel written by 
William Johnston and published by Tempo Books. 

Nowhere were superhero send-ups more com- 
mon than in the comics. Many of DCs mainstream 
heroes had their moments of merriment. Adventure 
Comics featured "Tales of the Bizarro World," with 
hundreds of oddball Superman duplicates on a 
square-shaped planet where inhabitants did every- 
thing exactly opposite from Earthlings. DCs Metal 
Men, Wonder Woman, and Teen Titans comics were 
wildly campy, as were its eccentric new series Meta- 
morpho the Element Man, "Dial 'H' for Hero" (in 
The House of Mystery), and "Ultra the Multi-Alien" 
(in Mystery in Space). DC revived the Golden Age 
great Plastic Man for a stretch, and its Batman 
comic books parroted the lunacy of the successful 
TV show. One of DCs most peculiar moments tran- 
spired in its team-up comic The Brave and the Bold 
#68 (1966), in which Batman momentarily trans- 
formed into Bat-Hulk, a take-off on Marvel's charac- 
ter (minus any lawsuit-risking green pigmentation). 

DC didn't stop there. The mod teenager called 
Super-Hip made the scene in 1965 in The Adven- 




Fatman the Human Flying Saucer #3 © 1967 
Lightning Comics. 

COVER ART BY C. C. BECK. 



tures of Bob Hope (a licensed title starring the pop- 
ular comedian). No DC superhero parody is better 
remembered than the Inferior Five, first seen in 
Showcase #62 (1966). This quintet of second-gen- 
eration superheroes — Merryman, Awkwardman, 
Dumb Bunny, White Feather, and the Blimp — was 
also second-string, failing as freedom fighters in 
pun-filled satires of everything from serious litera- 
ture to Marvel's superheroes. 

DC wasn't alone in the comedy hero game. 
From 1966 to 1967, the teens of Archie Comics' 
Riverdale would temporarily gain superpowers—just 
long enough to ride the wave of superhero populari- 
ty — in the farcical Archie as Pureheart the Powerful 



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Camp and Comedy Heroes 



(with Reggie as Evilheart) and Jughead as Captain 
Hero, superhero comics that the publisher has 
repeatedly recycled and revived in subsequent 
decades. In 1967 writer Otto Binder and artist C. C. 
Beck, renowned for their Golden Age work on Cap- 
tain Marvel Adventures, created Fatman, The 
Human Flying Saucer for Lightning Comics. As his 
name suggests, Fatman was, well, fat, and could 
transform into a flying saucer. Fatman's adventures 
mimicked the gentle whimsy of Captain Marvel's 
two decades earlier, a flavor that had grown stale by 
the 1960s. Fatman was sent to the fat farm after 
three issues. Walt Disney's Goofy sported red long 
Johns (what else?) and gulped "super goobers" 
(which were, in actuality, peanuts) in Gold Key 
Comics' long-running Super Goof. Protecting the 
town of Duckberg, Super Goof's abilities — which 
included X-ray vision, flight, superstrength, super- 
hearing, super-smell, and super-suction by spinning 
his hands — lasted only a few minutes per peanut, 
forcing him to carry a constant supply. Wonder 
Warthog appeared throughout the 1960s in a 
series of underground comics, and even Harvey 
Comics, best known for its entry-level Casper and 
Richie Rich titles, tried its hand at superhero parody 
in 1969 with Fruitman. 

MAD lampooned TV's Batman as "Bats-Man" in 
its "Special Summer 'Camp' Issue," #105 (1966), 
featuring a cover with Batman repulsed by the mag- 
azine's mascot Alfred E. Newman as Robin the Boy 
Wonder. The following year MAD also offered its 
own original superhero, Captain Klutz, in an all-new 
paperback from Signet Books, The MAD Adventures 
of Captain Klutz. Illustrated by Don Martin, Captain 
Klutz, secretly Ringo Fonebone, wore red long under- 
wear (!) and became a crime fighter after reading 
too many comic books left him unable to do any- 
thing else. Martin brought back Captain Klutz on 
several occasions, his last outing being in 1983. 

Marvel Comics premiered its M4/>like Not 
Brand Ech/? title in 1967, poking fun at its "Marble" 
Comics characters (some examples: the Mighty 
Thor was the "Mighty Sore," and the Silver Surfer, 



\0** 



the "Silver Burper"), pop culture, and its "Distin- 
guished Competition" (including a Superman bur- 
lesque called "Stupor-Man"). Not Brand Echh was 
also the home of Forbush-Man, yet another comedy 
hero in red flannel underwear — and, like the Red 
Tornado, he wore a pot over his head! Irving For- 
bush was originally an unseen character mentioned 
jokingly in Marvel letters columns, but was first 
depicted in Not Brand Echh #1 as a janitor whose 
goal was to collect autographs from all of the Mar- 
ble superheroes. Forbush-Man became Not Brand 
Echh's answer to MAD's Alfred E. Newman. Mean- 
while, Topps, the premier producer of bubble-gum 
trading cards, published a series of mini-comics in 
1967 parodying popular comics superheroes; 
included in this madcap mix were Fantastic Fear 
("The World's Greatest Scaredy-Cats"), The Incredi- 
ble Hunk (son of the Jolly Green Giant), Jester's 
League of America (the Justice League as practical 
jokers), and The Flush (a Flash take-off with the 
fleet-footed hero being outrun by Looney Tunes' 
Road Runner). In an even more comedic footnote to 
comics history, these spoofs bear the design work 
of Art Spiegelman, later a Pulitzer Prize winner for 
the Holocaust fable Maus. 



NOT AS GOOPAS ZeGULAZ 

SUPZZHZZOeS, BUT SLIGHTLY 

B£TT£12 THAN YOU 

When the superhero craze died in the late 
1960s, so did the parodies and campy heroes. But 
not for long. In the early to mid-1970s National 
Lampoon magazine frequently spoofed comic 
books. Their best-remembered (and most controver- 
sial) superhero burlesque was Son-O'-God — Jesus 
as a superhero — divinely rendered by legendary Bat- 
man artist Neal Adams. Son-O'-God fought Bible- 
based adversaries like Antichrist, the Scarlet 
Woman of Babylon, and even Satan himself. Nation- 
al Lampoon also poked fun at Batman (as senior- 
citizen Batfart in Decrepit Comics), Nick Fury, Agent 
of S.H.I. E.L.D. (as Gordon Liddy, Agent of 



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Camp and Comedy Heroes 



C.R.E.E.R), and other superheroes. Saturday Night 
Live(SNL) sometimes ridiculed superheroes, includ- 
ing a late 1970s skit set at a party thrown by Lois 
Lane (guest host Margot Kidder, who played Lane in 
the four theatrical Superman movies from 1978 to 
1987), with SNL cast members Bill Murray as 
Superman, Dan Aykroyd as a stocky Flash, and John 
Belushi as a boisterous Incredible Hulk. A few 
1970s Saturday morning TV cartoons featured 
funny heroes, including Dynomutt, Dog Wonder 
(1976), a robotic superdog partnered with the Bat- 
man takeoff Blue Falcon, and the short-lived The 
Super Globetrotters (1979), featuring basketball 
starts the Harlem Globetrotters as superheroes 
(including Meadowlark Lemon as Fluid Man and 
Curly Neal as Sphere Man). 

Lighthearted heroes were rare on TV in the 
1980s (exceptions being The Greatest American 
Hero, which debuted in 1981, and Misfits of Sci- 
ence, which debuted a few years later on NBC but 
only lasted fifteen episodes), but comic books were 
full of them. Bob Burden's eccentric Flaming Carrot 
Comics, first seen in 1979, featured a peculiar pro- 
tagonist, brain-addled from reading too many 
comics (a recurring theme in these parodies, per- 
haps a cryptic warning to readers?), who wore swim 
flippers and a six-feet-tall carrot mask (with a flam- 
ing top!). Flaming Carrot Comics has continued in 
print, albeit sporadically, through the 2000s. In 
1987 it produced a spinoff, Mysterymen Stories, 
interpreted into a live-action film in 1999 as Mys- 
tery Men, spotlighting a band of low-rent super- 
heroes: Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), the Bowler 
(Janeane Garofalo), and Captain Amazing (Greg Kin- 
near), among others. A similar film, The Specials 
(2000), featured the Weevil (Rob Lowe), the Strobe 
(Thomas Haden Church), and Amok (Jamie 
Kennedy), as well as the tagline, "Not as good as 
regular superheroes, but slightly better than you." 

Other 1980s superspoofs: DCs Captain Carrot 
and His Amazing Zoo Crew, a superteam of funny 
animals, and Marvel's Peter Porker, The Spectacular 
Spider-Ham, a kid-friendly concept with Spider-Man 



as a cartoon pig (it also included Captain Americat, 
Goose Rider, and other anthropomorphic farces on 
Marvel heroes). The biggest 1980s success among 
cartoon heroes was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
(TMNT), a black-and-white comic book by Kevin East- 
man and Peter Laird published by Mirage Press in 
1984. Its marriage of martial arts, humor, and ami- 
able characters was instantly successful, sparking 
sold-out print runs and counterfeit editions. TMNT 
single-handedly incited an explosion of small-press 
imitators, all of which promptly disappeared. The 
"heroes in a half-shell" expanded beyond their 
comics roots into a line of perennially popular TMNT 
action figures, several animated television series, 
and a live-action movie franchise. 

Writer/artist Keith Giffen's Ambush Bug first 
popped up in the Superman/Doom Patrol story in 
DC Comics Presents #52 (1982). This wiry, green- 
clad, antenna-wearing fruitcake — whose real name 
is Irwin Schwab — was conceived as an irritant to 
Superman. Soon the Bug, enchanted by the idea 
that he existed "inside" a comic book, starred in a 
number of miniseries and specials where he 
pestered other DC superheroes, lampooning their 
origins, their powers, and sometimes their creators. 
The in-jokes of the various Ambush Bug series were 
an annoyance to some members of DCs editorial 
staff as well. Ambush Bug made a return appear- 
ance in Lobo Unbound #3 (2003). 

In 1989 a second-string Marvel Comics charac- 
ter was revitalized with humor in The Sensational 
She-Hulk. Writer/artist John Byrne had used the 
Incredible Hulk's cousin during his Fantastic Four 
stint a few years prior, then segued her to solo 
adventures. She-Hulk, like Ambush Bug, acknowl- 
edged her existence inside her comic-book reality, 
frequently breaking the "fourth wall" by addressing 
Byrne, usually in frustration over the ludicrous situa- 
tions he placed her in. 

Creator Jim Valentino's normalman enjoyed a 
twelve-issue run in 1984-1985 in a black-and-white 
series from publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim. normal- 
man reversed the Superman legend by stranding its 



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Camp and Comedy Heroes 



star — Norm, an average, nerdy guy — on Levram 
(read that name backwards), a planet exclusively 
populated with superheroes. Also in 1984 
writer/artist Don Simpson skewered the folklore of 
Superman, the Fantastic Four, Tarzan, Spider-Man, 
and Captain America with his madcap origin of 
Megaton Man. Sent to Earth as the only survivor of 
his planet, Megaton Man was bombarded by "cata- 
clysmic" radiation, reared by gifted kangaroos, 
gnawed by a radioactive frog, and empowered by 
"solider syrup." This ridiculously proportioned hero 
(gigantically broad shoulders tapering into a tiny 
waist) debuted in Kitchen Sink Press' Megaton Man 
#1 (1984) and appeared for a brief run, with one- 
shots and an online version (www.megatonman. 
com) following. Ben Edlund's The Tick appeared two 
years after Megaton Man's debut, spinning out of 
comic shop New England Comics' newsletter into 
his own series. An oafish powerhouse, the bulky 
Tick was paired with mousy Arthur, comics' only 
sidekick in a moth suit. Edlund sharply satirized 
superheroes with original characters like American 
Maid and the Man-Eating Cow. The character has 
appeared on TV in an animated series 
(1994-1997) and a live-action show (2001). 

The diminutive do-gooder called 'Mazing Man 
strolled into comics with a critically acclaimed 
twelve-issue run beginning in January 1986. Written 
by Bob Rozakis and illustrated by Stephen DeSte- 
fano, 'Mazing Man's protagonist was a docile mental 
patient who performed good deeds for his neighbors 
while wearing a gold helmet and a cape. His subur- 
ban stories were quiet, slice-of-life fables with a live- 
ly supporting cast including the cynical Denton Fixx, 
a walking dog. Radioactive Man is a much noisier 
parody of superheroes from Bongo Comics, the pub- 
lisher of a line of titles based on Matt Groening's 
popular animated TV series The Simpsons. First 
seen in 1994, Radioactive Man, an orange-clad, 
camp-inspired superhero with a lightning bolt pro- 
truding from his skull, is joined by sidekick Fallout 
Boy in an irregularly published series of comics that 
presupposes publication through the decades and 



\0^ 



parodies the pop-culture of different times. Radioac- 
tive Man continues to appear in the 2000s. 

COMBPY HZZOBS 2K 

For decades MAD magazine and its chief com- 
petitor CRACKED have relentlessly ridiculed super- 
hero TV shows, movies, and comic books (and their 
fans). In 2002 MAD Books published the trade 
paperback MAD About Super Heroes, compiling all 
of MAD's superhero parodies to that time including 
"Don Martin Looks at the Hulk," "Stuporman ZZZ" (a 
Superman ///takeoff), "$-Men" (a 2001 X-Men movie 
parody), and "What if Superman Were Raised by Jew- 
ish Parents?" (In February 2004 the magazine con- 
vened some of the hottest talents in serious super- 
hero art, from Frank Miller to Jim Lee, to illustrate 
"The League of Rejected Superheroes," the cover 
story of issue #438.) Saturday Night Live superhero 
skits have continued sporadically into the 2000s, 
with comedian Sinbad as DCs Black Lightning, pro 
wrestler the Rock as Clark Kent with a not-so-secret 
identity (his blue-and-red Superman uniform was 
clearly visible through his white dress shirt), and the 
animated shorts X-Presidents (former U.S. presi- 
dents as superheroes) and The Ambiguously Gay 
Duo among their number. Fox-TV's In Living Color 
(1990-1994) featured a recurring superhero parody: 
the physically challenged champion Handi-Man, por- 
trayed by Damon Wayans. Often aided by a midget 
superheroine known as the Tiny Avenger, Handi-Man, 
whose chest insignia was a wheelchair icon, stood 
up for the rights of the disabled, concluding his 
adventures by reciting his motto, "Never underesti- 
mate the powers of the handicapped." 

Comic books' content grew grimmer in the 
1990s and the 2000s, with violent anti-heroes 
abounding, and superhero parodies largely drifted 
by the wayside. As a result, humor has become a 
subgenre in the comics medium, with small-press 
titles like Evan Dorkin's Milk and Cheese, Tony Mil- 
lionaire's The Adventures of Sock Monkey, and 
Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffee Man earning 



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Camp Heroes in the Media 



loyal cult audiences. During this period, a few super- 
hero series have premiered appropriate satirical 
elements without being actual lampoons: Mike 
Allred's Madman and Arthur Adams' Monkeyman 
and O'Brien, for example. While out-and-out super- 
hero parodies may be rare, they do occasionally 
occur, in odd outings like Archie Meets the Punisher 
(1994), an anomalous crossover between Archie 
and Marvel Comics' death-dealing vigilante; DCs 
Sergio Destroys DC and its chief competitor's Ser- 
gio Massacres Marvel, both by MAD's Sergio 
Aragones and both published in June 1996; Alan 
Moore's evil twin to early Marvel, 1963 (Image, 
1993); DC Comics' comic-shop satire Fanboy 
(1999); filmmaker Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob 
as Bluntman and Chronic, from Oni Press (1999); 
Image Comics' The Pro (2002), a super-prostitute 
among straight-laced Justice League send-ups; 
Bongo Comics' Heroes Anonymous (2003-2004), a 
superhero self-help saga; the super-workplace farce 
Capes (Image, 2003); The B-Sides, New Jersey's 
best — and only — superteam (Marvel, 2002); the 
irony-era Batman and Robin, "Hawk-Owl and 
Woody," of Marvel's Ultimate Adventures 
(2002-2004); and DCs Bizarro Comics! (2001), a 
240-page hardcover featuring a host of avant-garde 
cartoonists and their twisted takes on traditional 
DC superheroes. Whether or not the superhero par- 
ody and comedy heroes will survive in the future 
depends upon the audience's ability to laugh at the 
material, and by extension laugh at itself. — ME 



Camp Heroes in 
the Media 

0, Batman, what hath thou wrought? Debuting in 
January 1966, ABC's goofy live-action Batman tele- 
vision series was quickly labeled "camp." When rat- 
ings exploded and Batman became a public dar- 
ling, both networks and movie studios looked to 



see what they could do to tie in to the camp super- 
hero craze. 

First out of the gate were Rat Pfink and Boo- 
Boo (1966) and The Wild World ofBatwoman 
(1966), two micro-budget live-action feature films 
that specifically made fun of Batman. In Rat Pfink, 
inept rockabilly heroes Rat Pfink (Ron Haydock, 
credited as Vin Saxon) and sidekick Boo Boo (Titus 
Moede) must rescue the curvaceous Ceebee Beau- 
mont (Carolyn Brandt) from the evil Chain Gang and 
Kogar the Swinging Ape. The inept hero and his 
sidekick race to save Beaumont on their (what 
else?) Pfinkcycle, their mouths uttering inept super- 
hero slogans like "Fight crime!" The story behind 
the movie title is well known in fan circles; it was 
accidentally misspelled and director Ray Dennis 
Steckler didn't have the money to correct it. The 
scantily clad femme cast of Wild World face mad 
scientist Professor Neon (George Mitchell, credited 
as George Andre) and his assistant Rat Fink 
(Richard Banks, no relation to Rat Pfink) as they 
plot dastardly evil with hallucinatory Happy Pills and 
an atomic-powered explosive hearing aid! 

On January 9, 1967, one year after Batman 
debuted, NBC unveiled Captain Nice and CBS 
debuted Mr. Terrific, two half-hour camp superhero 
shows. Created by Buck Henry (co-creator of Get 
Smart), Captain Nice starred William Daniels as 
police chemist Carter Nash, who discovers Super 
Juice, an extract that gives him temporary super- 
powers. Wearing a red-white-and-blue outfit sewn by 
his mother, Captain Nice ineptly tries to stop thugs 
and villains, all while failing to notice the wily seduc- 
tive nature of female co-worker Sgt. Candy Crane. 
Meanwhile, Mr. Terrific was really Stanley Beamish 
(Stephen Strimpell), a gas station attendant who 
could take super pills to gain powers for an hour, 
including the power of flight (if he flapped his arms). 
Beamish worked with the government agency 
Bureau of Secret Projects, while wearing a silver 
lame suit and goggles. Captain Nice lasted fifteen 
episodes, while Mr. Terrific limped on to sixteen 
shows total. 



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While Saturday morning cartoons continued to 
include a wide range of humorous heroes through- 
out the late 1960s and 1970s, live-action counter- 
parts were few on television or in theaters. Some 
movies, like Superchick (1971), Infra-Man (1976), 
Supersonic Man (1978), The Puma Man (1980), 
and Super Fuzz (1980), were simply inept feature 
films that were only "campy" because their budgets 
could not have fed a small family for more than a 
week. Featuring little-known directors with little- 
known actors, these films rarely applied the "super" 
to the concept of superhero. 

Other features attempted to update the formu- 
la, diluting the camp and injecting real comedy 
instead. Hero At Large (1980) saw John Ritter por- 
traying an actor slumming in the role of Captain 
Avenger to promote a film, until he actually per- 
forms heroic deeds while in costume and learns he 
likes it. Disney's Condorman (1981) followed a simi- 
lar storyline, finding a cartoonist (played by later 
Broadway Phantom of the Opera star Michael Craw- 
ford) forced to become his supercharacter to help 
save a beautiful Russian spy. The Return of Captain 
Invincible (1983) offered Alan Arkin in the title role 
as a hero who was famous in the 1940s but is now 
an alcoholic outcast. Can he redeem himself when 
the world needs him, fighting Mr. Midnight and 
enduring the musical song-and-dance interludes? 

Television once again saw the rise of a humor- 
ous live-action hero with The Greatest American 
Hero (1981-1983), in which a school teacher is 
given an alien supersuit to fight crime, but he loses 
the instruction booklet. A few years later, NBC 
debuted Misfits of Science, a funny hour-long show 
that found a group of superpowered young adults 
gathered together to fight crime at the Humanidyne 
science institute. The group included a tall black 
man who could shrink (Kevin Peter Hall), a hipster 
who could shoot lightning from his hands (Mark 
Thomas Miller), a recurring character who could 
freeze things (Mickey Jones), and a girl with psychic 
powers (the breakout star of the series, Courteney 



V>* 



Cox). After fifteen episodes garnered low ratings, 
NBC yanked the series. 

Troma Studios debuted the feature film The 
Toxic Avenger In 1986. After a geek (Melvin Junko) is 
exposed to toxic waste, he is mutated into the mon- 
strous superhero (Mitchell Cohen) who wears a 
burned tutu and wields a mop. A return to camp in a 
storytelling sense, Toxic Avenger had a low budget, 
but directors Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman made 
the most of everything they had. "Toxie" became a 
cult phenomenon, and sequels were made: The 
Toxic Avenger, Part 2 (1989); The Toxic Avenger, Part 
3: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989); and Citizen 
Toxie: The Toxic Avenger, Part 4 (2000). An animated 
TV series, The Toxic Crusaders, ran for thirteen 
episodes in 1991, and a spin-off film, Sgt. Kabuki- 
man N.Y.PD., was released that same year. Both 
Toxie and Kabukiman are familiar sights at both the 
Cannes Film Festival and the San Diego Comic-Con 
International, where Troma hosts presentations for 
fans and industry insiders. 

The 1990s saw a handful of superhero comedy 
films released that tried to make hip their camp quali- 
ties. The Meteor Man (1993) was written and directed 
by Robert Townsend, who also starred. Hit by a mete- 
or, schoolteacher Townsend gains superpowers and 
tries to defend his neighborhood from the gang known 
as the Golden Lords. Because he is afraid of heights, 
Meteor Man flies only four feet off the ground, and he 
wears costumes created by his mother. The film 
includes cameos by Bill Cosby, Sinbad, Luther Van- 
dross, and LaWanda Page — and Batman TV show Rid- 
dler Frank Gorshin shows up as a mobster named 
Byers. 1994's Blankman, written by and starring 
comedian Damon Wayans, attempted to be funnier, 
giving a nerd superpowered gadgets and a literal long- 
underwear costume (bullet-proof), accented with a 
cape made from his grandmother's bathrobe. As a 
self-appointed superhero Wayans battles thugs and 
robbers to keep his city safe, and awaits his first kiss 
from pretty Kimberly (Robin Givens). 

Several more recent films have been an odd 
mixture of camp, irony, and superhero deconstruc- 



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Camp Heroes in the Media 




Stephen Strimpell poses as camp hero Mr. Terrific. 



tionism. Mystery Men (1999) was based on Bob Bur- 
den's strange superheroes from the cult series Flam- 
ing Carrot Comics published by Dark Horse Comics. 
Directed by Kinka Usher, the movie teamed a group 
of amateur, second-string heroes against a nemesis 
from their past. The all-star cast featured Ben Stiller 
as the very angry Mr. Furious, Janeane Garofalo as 
the second-generation heroine the Bowler, Hank 
Azaria as the silverware-wielding Blue Raja, Paul 
Reubens as the gas-filled Spleen, William H. Macy as 
the Shoveller, Kel Mitchell as the too-visible Invisible 
Boy, and Wes Studi as the inscrutable Sphinx, all 
working to stop Geoffrey Rush's Casanova Franken- 
stein and his goons from destroying Champion City. 

The Specials (2000) followed a similar formu- 
la, though it went straight-to-video. Headquartered 



in a suburban house in Silver Lake, California, the 
world's seventh best superhero team, the Specials, 
include Power Chick (Kelly Coffield), Minute Man 
(James Gunn), and blue-skinned Amok (Jamie 
Kennedy). They must cope as action figure deals 
fall through, as well as the fallout when the Strobe 
(Thomas Haden Church) disbands the group after 
discovering that his wife, Ms. Indestructible (Paget 
Brewster), is having an affair with fellow hero the 
Weevil (Rob Lowe). Directed by Craig Maizen, the 
film was well received — by those few who saw it — 
for its smart dialogue and silly cast. 

The Duo (2001) is a direct-to-video "mockumen- 
tary" in which a reporter (Marie Black) tries to make 
a film about two masked Texas twenty-somethings 
who think they're superheroes. Best Man (Bill Wise) 



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?o 9 



Captain Action 



is vaguely gayesque and wears parts of a tuxedo, 
while sidekick Buddy Boy (Ryan Wickerham) can use 
his staring powers to warp minds and force people 
to incessantly hula hoop. Sure to maintain a higher 
profile is The Incredibles, a 2004 animated film 
from Disney about a suburban superhero family. 

Although the age of camp superheroes is defi- 
nitely a thing of the past, making fun of the campy 
superhero concept is definitely part of the appeal of 
Comic Book: The Movie. Directed by and starring 
Star Wars' Mark Hamill, the direct-to-video 
film (2003) follows the travails of Donald 
Swann, #1 fan of popular 1940s hero 
Commander Courage, as he 
attempts to film a documen- 
tary at the San Diego Comic- 
Con International. Real-world 
comic-book creators make 
cameos in the film, including 
Paul Dini, Peter David, Scott 
Shaw, Mark Evanier, and 
someone whose initials fol- 
low the dash. — AM 



Captain 
Action 



Captain Action, the original superhero 
action figure, owes his existence to Bar- 
bie. When Mattel premiered its dress-up 
doll in 1959, it also launched the 
"razor/razor blade" concept: marketing a 
host item (the "razor," or the Barbie doll), 
with supplemental accessories (the "razor 
blades," or Barbie's clothing). Barbie's ram- 
pant success inspired toy makers Stanley 
Weston and Larry Reiner to attempt a similar 
product for boys, the result being Hasbro's Gl 
Joe, a generic military fig- 
ure complemented by an 



Captain Action (circa 1966) © 

ART BY MURPHY ANDERSON, INKED 
PENCILS. 



escalating line of combat garb and gear. Gl Joe so 
took the nation by storm in 1964 that Weston and 
Reiner repackaged their idea in a superhero con- 
text, knocking on the door of Reiner's employer, 
Ideal Toys. And so Captain Action, a twelve-inch 
superhero figure with additional crime-fighting cos- 
tumes (all sold separately), was 
launched in 1966. 

The original line of Captain 
Action uniforms consisted of 
Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Cap- 
tain America, Sgt. Fury, Flash Gordon, 
the Phantom, Steve 
g Canyon, and the Lone 
Ranger, popular charac- 
ters representing five dif- 
ferent licensors, a concerted 
effort that now seems impossi- 
ble in today's competitive mar- 
ket. Solid sales, bolstered by a 
ubiquitous advertising cam- 
paign on television and in comic 
books, sparked an increase of product in 
1967, including more costumes (with the 
popular Spider-Man joining the line, along 
with other heroes), play sets, and acces- 
sories, plus the sidekick Action Boy, also 
marketed with additional uniforms (Robin, 
Superboy, and Aqualad). Captain Action 
was merchandized outside of Ideal's figure 
ne, with a card game, inflatable swim ring, and 
Halloween costume released. 

Captain Action sales began to shrink in 1967, 
but not so much that Ideal abandoned the concept. 
In 1968, the company issued Captain Action and 
Action Boy in redesigned packaging and added a vil- 
lain, the blue-skinned alien Dr. Evil (not to be con- 
fused with the character from the Austin Powers 
movies). DC Comics published five issues of a 
Captain Action comic book beginning in 1968, 
illustrated by Wally 

& ™ Karl Art Publishing, Inc. Wood and Gil Kane, 

IN 2002 OVER UNUSED 1966 




marking the first toy- 



tvo 



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Captain America 



inspired comic book (over time, Hot Wheels, The 
Micronauts, Rom: Spaceknight, and others would 
follow, including, coincidentally, Barbie and GUoe). 
Writer Jim Shooter, in Captain Action #1, created a 
true identity for Captain Action — Clive Arno (note 
the initials) — and provided him with a host of pow- 
ers from coins imbued with the abilities of ancient 
gods. These efforts came too late: Captain Action 
toys and comics disappeared in 1969. 

Yet Captain Action maintained a loyal collec- 
tors' audience. In 1995, Karl Art Publishing 
obtained the Captain Action copyright through the 
publication of a one-shot comic book. Playing Man- 
tis, a producer of reissued baby-boomer toys, 
acquired the action-figure license in 1998. Captain 
Action and Dr. Evil reappeared, along with costumes 
of classic heroes and villains. Even Action Boy 
returned, renamed "Kid Action" due to copyright 
restrictions. But publishers DC and Marvel refused 
to grant licenses for their characters, and without 
the identifiable Batman, Spider-Man, and the like to 
support the line, Captain Action was canceled once 
again in 2000. While his two leases on life have 
failed to make him famous, Captain Action remains 
a nostalgic favorite, and a book celebrating his his- 
tory, Captain Action: The Original Super-Hero Action 
Figure, was published in 2002. — ME 

Captain America 

Captain America may not be the first patriotic 
superhero — that title belongs to the Shield — but he 
is by far the most enduring and most widely recog- 
nized of those wrapped in the red, white, and blue. 
Probably more than any other character of the last 
sixty years, the good Captain has been rendered by 
artists and writers to reflect the mood of the nation. 
In March 1941, Captain America's creators, Joe 
Simon and Jack Kirby, fashioned his origin after the 
simplicity of a prewar America: Having been rejected 
by the army, effete beanpole Steve Rogers volun- 
teers to be a guinea pig for the government's top- 



secret super soldier serum. One injection from the 
brilliant Professor Reinstein and the pale army 
reject is transformed into the steel-jawed, muscle- 
rippling Captain America, complete with red-white- 
and-blue costume, winged mask, chain mail shirt, 
and stars-and-stripes shield. His mission is clear: 
"We shall call you Captain America, Son! Because 
like you — America shall gain the strength and will to 
safeguard our shores!" Reinstein gets shot and his 
Nazi assassins soon taste the swift, hard knuckles 
of the nation's newest hero. In due course, Rogers 
joins the army, acquires a kid sidekick — plucky regi- 
mental mascot Bucky Barnes — and embarks on a 
career of enthusiastic Nazi-bashing. 

Simon and Kirby clearly established Captain 
America's identity from the very first issue they creat- 
ed for Marvel (then Timely) Comics, audaciously 
showing Cap landing a righteous haymaker on the 
Fuhrer's chin — on the cover itself! Here was a hero 
who could protect the free world almost a year before 
the United States would enter World War II. And if 
Cap was our hero, then Rogers represented every 
American soldier who would soon fight for his coun- 
try. The early stories were simple, straightforward 
tales peopled with bizarre villains such as the Hunch- 
back of Hollywood, the Black Toad, Ivan the Terrible, 
and assorted fifth columnists. Chief among the bad 
guys was the Red Skull, a seemingly invincible Nazi 
whose face literally was a crimson skull, and who 
would return again and again. As straightforward as 
all that derring-do was, it was also gripping, exciting, 
and fast-moving, and with Kirby's dramatic art the 
comic was one of the most widely read titles of the 
Golden Age era (1938-1954). 

From Captain America's beginning, audience 
identification and participation were central to his 
success. The first issue announced the creation of 
"The Sentinels of Liberty" Fan Club, which eager 
young fans could join for a modest dime, entitling 
them to a membership card and metal badge. The 
club proved so popular that the government plead- 
ed with Marvel to wind it down; the badges were 
eating up too much precious metal, which could be 



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Captain America 



better used in the imminent war. More significantly, 
in Bucky readers had a role model they could identi- 
fy with: a boy much like themselves who bravely 
fought beside their idol with only his two sharp fists 
to defend himself. It wasn't long before he was 
given his own strip as leader of the Young Allies kid 
gang, who would be featured in more than forty sto- 
ries in titles such as Kid Komics and Marvel Mys- 
tery, as well as in their own eponymous comic book. 

By the time of Pearl Harbor, Captain America 
had become Marvel's top-selling title (at almost 1 
million copies a month), and over the course of the 
war Cap and Bucky fought the Axis Powers on both 
fronts. After ten wonderful issues, the comic's cre- 
ators were enticed away to rival company DC 
Comics, but their replacements — tyro writer/editor 
Stan Lee and various artists including Syd 
Shores — handled things well in their absence. In 
1943 the character received the honor of his own 
Republic Pictures serial, The Adventures of Captain 
America — confirmation (if any were needed) of his 
potent iconic status. Then, at the height of Cap's 
popularity, disaster struck: the war ended. 

After military discharge, Cap and Bucky set- 
tled into life as teacher and pupil at a New York 
slum school, and took the good fight to home- 
grown mobsters, miscreants, and monsters. But 
while the country had embraced superheroes in 
wartime, peace brought an upsurge in crime, funny 
animal, Western, and romance comics — every- 
thing, in fact, except superheroes. In an effort to 
broaden their dwindling readership, Marvel stuck a 
conveniently wounded Bucky into the hospital and 
replaced him with Cap's longtime squeeze, Betty 
(or Betsy, depending on the writer's mood) Ross, 
a.k.a. Golden Girl. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the gun- 
toting, high-heeled, evening gown-wearing Golden 
Girl failed to resonate with the stalwart Sentinels 
of Liberty club members, and in 1950 the comic 
was canceled. 

Barely four years later, a very different Cap 
returned. Stan Lee sensed that the country, rocked 
by the Korean War, was in need of heroes again, 



and so he reintroduced Captain America, Human 
Torch, and Sub-Mariner in the dubiously titled Young 
Men #24. Steve and Bucky were still at school (and 
still fighting the Red Skull) but the comic's subtitle 
said it all: This was "Captain America, Commie 
Smasher" — a hero for the McCarthy era. Over the 
course of sixteen stories, the intrepid pair beat the 
stuffing out of reds from Eastern Europe to Egypt 
and from China to Vietnam. But the public simply 
did not warm to them as they once had. Lee's 
instincts were right but he was just a little too early; 
a mere two years later, DCs revival of the Flash 
sparked off the great superhero revival of comics' 
Silver Age (1956-1969). 

By late 1963, Marvel's own Silver Age heroes 
were beginning to find a large and enthusiastic 
audience, and with both the Torch and Sub-Mariner 
successfully given new life (in a revised version as 
a member of Lee & Kirby's Fantastic Four and as a 
guest-star in the same team's book, respectively), 
surely the time was ripe for the good Captain once 
more. Lee was cautious at first, starring Cap in a 
Human Torch story and having him turn out to be an 
impostor, and then reintroducing him properly in 
Avengers #4 (1964). It seems that, following a 
pitched battle in the dying days of World War II with 
the hooded Baron Zemo, in which the pair try to 
defuse a deadly drone aircraft, Bucky bit the dust 
and Cap ended up floating in the ocean in ice- 
induced suspended animation. (Why Cap and Bucky 
had seemed to still be alive in the 1950s would be 
explained a bit later on.) The Rip Van Winkle of 
comics immediately joined the Avengers, gained an 
ersatz Bucky in Rick Jones (with his own would-be 
young allies, a group of intrepid wireless hams 
called the Teen Brigade), fought copious colorful vil- 
lains, and started brooding about the past. Within a 
year of his revival, he had graduated to his own 
strip in 7a/es of Suspense, a title he shared with 
Iron Man, and was well on his way to becoming an 
icon all over again. 

However, despite all manner of merchandise 
and deliriously exciting art from the returning Jack 



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Captain America 



Kirby, the character would never be as popular as 
Marvel's powerhouse headliners Spider-Man, the 
Fantastic Four, or the Hulk. As an admission that 
the strip was at its most potent in World War II, this 
revival almost immediately resorted to "untold 
tales" of the war, and when that did not quite work 
Lee brought back the Red Skull and various ex- 
Nazis. But if it never again hit the commercial 
heights of the past, the strip was nevertheless a 
cornerstone of the "Marvel Universe" and, with Lee 
and Kirby at the peak of their powers, the late 
1960s stories were a compelling read. In 1968 Cap 
graduated to his own solo comic and, despite Kirby 
defecting to DC (once again), the character has 
been published continuously ever since. 

Very much a man out of time and something of 
an elder statesman among superheroes, the 1960s 
Cap was essentially an establishment figure who 
became the de facto leader of the Avengers, a part- 
time agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Marvel's James Bond-ian 
take on the FBI), and a father figure to Rick Jones. 
Indeed, for a short period in the early 1970s, Rick 
actually donned Bucky's costume and, although that 
did not quite work out, it was clear that Cap worked 
best with a partner. That troubled decade saw the 
rise of women's lib, black power, and introspection, 
and the strip reflected America's sense of change 
and uncertainty. Cap's girlfriend Sharon Carter pre- 
ferred life as a jump-suited agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to 
the "domestic bliss" of a married life tied to the 
kitchen and kids. In 1971, Captain America gained 
a new partner in black social worker Sam Wilson, 
a.k.a. the Falcon, and for a short time became an 
NYPD cop on the beat in Harlem's ghettoes. Per- 
haps most tellingly, one storyline had the Captain 
doing that most 1970s of things, getting on his 
motorcycle and heading out into the country in 
search of the "real" America. 

By the mid-1970s, Stan Lee had left the comic, 
and young scripter Steve Englehart took Cap into 
deeper, darker waters. The 1950s Captain America 
and Bucky were revived (literally!) and revealed to 
have been government doppelgangers who had 




Captain America #106 © 1968 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JACK KIRBY AND FRANK GIACOIA. 



themselves been put into suspended animation 
after their overzealous red-baiting got completely 
out of hand. In a lengthy tale that cleverly echoed 
Watergate, the "Campaign to Rejoin America's Prin- 
ciples" was revealed to be a cover for the evil 
"Secret Empire" and the government's insidious 
corruption horrified our hero. Sickened at what he 
saw as the betrayal of his country, Cap quit in dis- 
gust, briefly becoming a character called Nomad 
("The Man without a Country," get it?) before his 
innate patriotism got the better of him. 1976 was 
the year of the Bicentennial, and of course Cap had 
to have his own take on the celebrations, fighting 
an underground band of neo-royalists (courtesy of 
Jack Kirby on his third tour of duty at Marvel). 



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Captain America in the Media 



Throughout this period, the character was a con- 
sistently merchandised property, from dolls and 
posters to toy cars and clothes. The Reagan years 
were similarly something of a disappointment for the 
strip. Kirby had not handled the Falcon well and, 
despite his potential as a counterpoint to Cap's con- 
servatism, he was rarely more than a second stringer. 
After almost ninety issues as co-star, Sam Wilson was 
written out of the comic and faded into obscurity. Soon 
after that, Sharon Carter was ignominiously killed, 
which was a cue for the perpetually morose Captain to 
become ever more introspective. This search for 
meaning in his life culminated in Cap considering a 
presidential bid — perhaps the logical conclusion to a 
lifetime wrapped in the flag. (The Falcon entered poli- 
tics a few years later, trading in his costume for life as 
a congressman.) 

The 1980s came to be dominated by the writing 
of Mark Gruenwald, who stayed on the strip for an 
astonishing ten years and adopted a more lightheart- 
ed approach as a counterpoint to the previous 
decade's upheavals. The strip had always featured a 
number of recurring villains, including the outrageous- 
ly camp French martial arts expert Batroc the Leaper, 
the large-headed Modok, insidious crime cartels 
A.I.M. and H.Y.D.R.A., and of course the ever-present 
Red Skull. Under Gruenwald, the villains expanded 
exponentially but the comic perhaps lost some of its 
individuality in the process. One exception to this 
was a witty response to recession-era cutbacks, in 
which the government stripped Steve Rogers of his 
costume, claiming that they were no longer getting 
their money's worth. His replacement, the Super- 
Patriot (later known as USAgent), soon discovered 
that, like the similarly ill-conceived new Coca-Cola, 
life as a living legend is far from easy. Inevitably, the 
original Cap ("Classic Cap," anyone?) returned, but 
the departing Gruenwald handed his successors the 
most poisoned of chalices by killing the character off; 
it seems that the super serum that had kept him 
going all those years had finally run out. 

But there are always more comics to be print- 
ed, more movies to be made, and more merchan- 



dise to sell. It is an accepted fact, of course, that 
no one stays dead in comics for very long. One 
blood transfusion — from the Red Skull, no less — 
and Cap was back as good as new. So, too, was 
Sharon Carter, and in fact the 1990s and 2000s 
saw an endless series of new directions, relaunch- 
es, returns to basics, and yet more relaunches. 
Longtime readers have now learned to expect sever- 
al inviolable certainties: that Cap will regularly pine 
for the dear, departed Bucky; that no matter how 
many painful deaths he may suffer, the Red Skull 
will always come back for more; that you are never 
more than a few issues away from a World War II 
flashback; and that a new direction is always 
around the corner. These have included the revela- 
tion that the super soldier serum was originally test- 
ed on black GIs, one of whom briefly adventured 
before Steve Rogers; hints that Cap was frozen on 
purpose by a government that feared he would 
oppose the bombing of Hiroshima; yet another 
death (in Captain America vol. 3 #50), his resurrec- 
tion from which remains unexplained; and a new 
2004 Captain America and the Falcon comic by 
acclaimed writer Christopher Priest. 

Cap's current incarnation, which again unerring- 
ly taps into the Zeitgeist, sees the character rein- 
vented as a four-color foot-soldier in the fight 
against terrorism — albeit one facing serious moral 
quandaries — which only goes to show his longevity 
as a symbol of America itself. This superhero, who 
is literally wrapped in the flag, proudly symbolizes 
his country and will no doubt continue to do so for 
as long as comics are published. — DAR 



Captain America 
in the Media 

As war loomed in 1941, the citizens of the United 
States were caught in a maelstrom of patriotism. 
Comics creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby wanted 



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Captain America in the Media 



to translate those patriotic ideals into a superhero 
for Timely (later Marvel) Comics, so they created 
Captain America, a supersoldier dressed in the red, 
white, and blue of the country's flag. The shield- 
slinging hero was a hit, whether he was combating 
saboteurs and spies, or villains such as the Red 
Skull. It was only natural that Hollywood was set on 
taking its own swing at bringing Captain America to 
the masses. 

Republic Pictures was famous for its film seri- 
als, a series of short fifteen- to twenty-minute films 
that played every week (usually Saturdays) in the- 
aters. Since each chapter of the serial ended in a 
nail-biting cliff-hanger, children and adults alike 
would return each week to see how their hero 
escaped to triumph over evil. Since Captain Ameri- 
ca didn't fly or have any otherworldly powers, Repub- 
lic knew that not only would the character be popu- 
lar with the public, but a Captain America serial 
would be cheap to film as well. 

Republic optioned the rights to Captain Ameri- 
ca in 1943. Incredibly, Timely didn't charge Republic 
any money for the film rights, thinking of the serial 
as a promotional tool rather than as merchandising! 
Republic filmed the fifteen-part Captain America 
serial in the fall of 1943, and debuted the first 
chapter on December 31 of that same year. Dick 
Purcell played Cap, but the script was anything but 
true to the comics. Instead of soldier Steve Rogers, 
our hero was secretly District Attorney Grant Gard- 
ner. Instead of wielding a shield against Nazis, Cap 
fought criminals with a gun and his fists. At least 
the costume was reasonably similar to its four-color 
counterpart, though it lacked the wings on its cowl, 
and the tall buccaneer-style boots. 

The ultra-violent serial found Captain America 
fighting against the deadly Scarab, his Purple Death 
poison, his experimental "dynamic vibrator," and his 
plans to use a serum that brought the dead back to 
life. Seen today as one of the better superhero seri- 
als ever produced, Captain America did well in the 
theaters, but Republic had already decided to stop 
making superhero serials. The death of Purcell 



shortly after filming sealed their decision. A few 
years later the serial was released, unchanged, as 
The Return of Captain America. 

Captain America didn't resurface in Hollywood 
until 1965, when animators and producers Robert 
Lawrence, Grant Simmons, and Ray Patterson 
founded the animation company Grantray-Lawrence. 
They created a syndicated daily animated program 
for television called The Marvel Super-Heroes; each 
day spotlit a different hero with a three-part adven- 
ture. Captain America was Monday, The Incredible 
Hulk was Tuesday, Iron Man was Wednesday, Mighty 
Thorwas Thursday (naturally), and Sub-Mariner was 
Friday. The Captain America theme song was incred- 
ibly catchy, with its lyrics that proclaimed, "When 
Captain America throws his mighty shield, all those 
who chose to oppose his shield must yield! If he's 
led to a fight, and the duel is due, then the red and 
the white and the blue will come through. When 
Captain America throws his mighty shield!" 

To call the animation acceptable would be char- 
itable. Through a process called Xerography, art- 
work was transferred directly from Marvel comic 
books onto animation eels. It was then given a 
slight movement by jiggling the eel or sliding it 
across a background. Occasionally, blinking eyes or 
moving hands would give the illusion of movement. 
The stories were taken from issues of Tales of Sus- 
pense and The Avengers, and were thus very faith- 
ful to their origins. Despite only one season of pro- 
duction, The Marvel Super-Heroes show was popu- 
lar enough to remain in syndication for many years, 
and still resurfaces on the video market today. 

Following the success of The Incredible Hulk 
television series in 1977, Universal optioned several 
Marvel superheroes for CBS telefilms. If successful, 
they would be used as pilots for a series. Following a 
Dr. Strange flop, Universal released a two-hour Cap- 
tain America TV movie on January 19, 1979. The film 
was dreadfully slow, with many alterations from Cap's 
comic book origins. Now, Captain America was Steve 
Rogers Jr., the son of the original. Rogers Jr. (actor 
Reb Brown) wanted to be an artist, but when he was 



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Captain Atom 



given the F.L.A.G. (Full Latent Ability Gain) serum 
developed by his late father, he became a motorcy- 
cle-riding hero for the government. His costume was 
radically different from the comic book outfit, and his 
shield was clear Plexiglas (doubling as a motorcycle 
windshield) with some stripes and a star. 

With a plot that included a criminal master- 
mind who planned to blow up Phoenix, Arizona, with 
a neutron bomb, Captain America bored viewers 
and received low ratings, but CBS wasn't ready to 
give up yet. A second pilot aired in two parts, on 
November 23 and 24, 1979. This was alternately 
called Captain America //and Captain America: 
Death Too Soon, and featured the comic book cos- 
tume and noted horror actor Christopher Lee as the 
mad scientist villain, Miguel. Ratings weren't 
enough to start a franchise, however. 

Captain America next guest-starred in two 
episodes of the animated Spider-Man and His 
Amazing Friends show (1981-1983), teaming up 
with Spider-Man and other heroes to battle Kingpin, 
Dr. Faustus, and the Chameleon. He also appeared 
in the syndicated Spider-Man animated series dur- 
ing the 1981-1982 season. 

Several announcements in Hollywood industry 
trade papers saw Captain America promised for 
more feature film action in 1984 and 1986, but it 
wasn't until 1989 that a new live-action film went 
into production from Menachem Golan's 21st Cen- 
tury Film Corporation. Shot in Yugoslavia, the movie 
starred Matt Salinger (son of writer J. D. Salinger) 
as Steve Rogers/Cap, and Scott Paulin as the Red 
Skull. The film began with a close approximation of 
the comics' origin story, including Cap being frozen 
in a block of ice after being strapped to a rocket by 
the Red Skull. Thawed out in the 1980s, he once 
again found himself facing his ancient Nazi enemy. 

Although Columbia agreed to release Captain 
America to theaters in 1990, the feature was 
delayed for two years, eventually being sent direct- 
to-video in the United Kingdom in 1991 and the 
United States in June 1992. With a low budget and 



a rubbery costume for its hero, Captain America is 
not a perfect film, but it isn't quite as horrid as 
some reviewers have opined. 

Regardless of the low profile that movie main- 
tained, Cap has become one of those characters 
that can be seen everywhere in pop culture. Wyatt, 
one of the two counterculture heroes of the cinemat- 
ic classic Easy Rider (1969), is better known by his 
nickname of "Captain America," and Captain Ameri- 
ca's name became a synonym for an ailing super- 
power in the Kinks' 1979 song about the post-Water- 
gate USA, "Catch Me Now I'm Falling." When a later 
rock band, eventually known as Eugenius, tried to 
call itself Captain America, Marvel threw its mighty 
shield with a threatened lawsuit, though when Cap 
was hauled into court again in Joe Simon's high-pro- 
file early 2000s suit to reclaim the rights to the 
character, this superhero became one of the few to 
star in both the entertainment and the news media. 

In the years since the Captain America film, 
the patriotic hero has appeared in a handful of ani- 
mated adventures. He appeared in a flashback 
(with X-Men hero Wolverine) for the fifth and final 
season of Fox's popular X-Men series in 
1996-1997, then alongside other World War II 
heroes in a three-part adventure for Spider-Man's 
fourth season in 1997-1998. Although Fox com- 
missioned and developed a Captain America ani- 
mated pilot in 1998, plans did not proceed. As of 
2004, Captain America's final television appear- 
ance was in several episodes of Fox Kids' The 
Avengers in the 1999-2000 season. The resilient 
patriotic hero has rarely stayed on ice for very long 
though, so new Captain America adventures are 
likely to come in the future. — AM 



Captain Mom 

Captain Atom holds a special place in comics histo- 
ry — not so much as a creation himself as for one of 
his creators. The Captain was the main hero from 



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Captain Atom 



Charlton Comics, the independent-minded, eccen- 
tric, and largely unloved publishing house from 
Derby, Connecticut. Captain Atom made his first 
appearance in 1960 in the pages of one of the com- 
pany's science fiction and mystery comics, Space 
Adventures (issue #33). He preceded Marvel's more 
famous Fantastic Four by some twenty months and, 
more to the point, Steve Ditko's Spider-Man by two- 
and-a-half years. Ditko had been Charlton's star 
artist for many years and was establishing himself 
at Marvel at the same time, but Captain Atom 
marked his first significant work on a superhero and 
laid the foundations for his later success as one of 
the decade's most important artists. 

Captain Atom's opening story in Space Adven- 
tures, by editor/writer Pat Masuli and Steve Ditko, 
reveals how rocket specialist and air force captain 
Allen Adam loses a screwdriver during some last- 
minute adjustments to a missile's nuclear warhead, 
and unwisely delays his exit by looking for the tool. 
Unable to leave the rocket in time, he is accidentally 
launched into space and blown to atoms when the 
missile explodes. Incredibly, he somehow manages 
to reconstruct himself and reappear in his military 
base back on Earth, shooting off radiation from 
every pore in his body. Military scientists quickly 
devise a sparkly yellow-and-red costume (with a red 
starburst and an atomic symbol on its chest) to con- 
tain all the radiation, and thus a new superhero — 
Captain Atom — is born. Captain Atom soon discov- 
ers that he can fly as fast as a rocket (100,000 
miles per hour), adjust his molecular structure to 
walk through walls, endure temperatures as high as 
10,000 degrees Centigrade, and pack enough of a 
punch to destroy an errant missile. 

Captain Atom's origin story and powers resem- 
ble those of Doctor Solar (Gold Key Comics) and 
Nukla (Dell Comics), other atomic physicist types 
turned superheroes of the Silver Age (1956-1969). 
The early Captain Atom stories ranged between five 
and nine pages, and there were up to three adven- 
tures per issue, of three general types. In the first 
category, the hero was busy either helping small 




Space Adventures #42 © 1961 Charlton Comics. 

COVER ART BY STEVE DITKO. 



children or rescuing satellites, planes, or people in 
distress. The second story type involved some sort 
of alien menace, often an extraterrestrial invasion 
force or glamorous space sirens, usually from 
Venus. The last and most common type of tale fea- 
tured the hero foiling some sort of nuclear attack or 
sabotage attempt by an unnamed Eastern Bloc dic- 
tatorship, and indulging in the sort of violent red- 
baiting not seen since the days of Captain America, 
Commie Smasher. There was no room for character- 
ization or supporting cast, and were it not for 
Ditko's art the strip would probably have remained a 
minor footnote in the history books. 

After ten issues, Captain Atom bowed out of 
Space Adventures with issue #42, but Ditko and 



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Captain Atom 



superheroes went on to great things and, by the 
mid-1960s, Charlton decided to cash in on the pop- 
ularity of both by reprinting old Captain Atom strips 
in three issues of Strange Suspense Stories 
(#75-#77, 1965). This venture proved successful 
enough to prompt a new series of Captain Atom 
comics (carrying on the numbering from Strange 
Suspense Stories at #78) from writer Joe Gill and, 
once again, Steve Ditko — moonlighting from his Spi- 
der-Man and Dr. Strange commitments. In fact, 
Ditko gave up his duties on the Hulk series to 
return to Captain Atom. 

Initially, the new Captain Atom stories were 
much the same as the old, with the predictable 
alien invasions, but Atom did get his own supervil- 
lain at last — the brightly costumed Dr. Spectra. With 
issue #82, incoming Charlton editor Dick Giordano 
shook things up a bit by introducing a new, young 
writer (David Kaler) and a female companion (Night- 
shade), while in issue #84 Atom was given a new 
silver-and-blue costume and a regular backup fea- 
ture (the new Blue Beetle). Nightshade was, like 
Captain Atom, a government agent — in her case, as 
an expert at the martial arts — and the pair soon 
found themselves tackling industrial spies and 
supervillains such as the Ghost, Punch and Jew- 
elee, and a returning Dr. Spectra. In civilian life, 
Nightshade was wealthy heiress Eve Eden, who 
chose to fight crime secretly after her mother's 
assassination. In an unusual twist, it was later 
revealed that her mother was a princess from a 
magical dimension, who was killed by aliens. By and 
large, the new direction was a definite improve- 
ment. Giordano had created a whole superhero line 
for Charlton, spanning comics as diverse as Thun- 
derbolt, Judo-Master, The Fightin' Five, Hercules, 
and Sarge Steel, but sales were disappointing, and 
none of these comics lasted more than two years. 

Captain Atom's final issue was #89 in late 
1967, though the unpublished #90 was later serial- 
ized in the fanzine Charlton Bullseye. After a couple 
of reprint series from Charlton in the late 1970s, 
enterprising publisher Bill Black created a super- 



group out of the (by then defunct) Charlton heroes 
for a one-off adventure, in 1983. The Sentinels of 
Justice featured Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Night- 
shade, and the Question. However, when The Sen- 
tinels reappeared two years later, it was with an 
entirely new line-up. By that time, Giordano had 
become a senior executive at DC Comics and, 
remembering his fondness for the old Charlton 
heroes, persuaded the company to buy their rights. 

Consequently, in 1987 a new Captain Atom 
arrived on the shelves. This was Nathanial Adam, a 
condemned traitor who had volunteered for a mili- 
tary experiment involving his being placed near a 
detonating nuclear bomb. The explosion sent Adam 
into a quantum field, from which he returned twenty 
years later with powers and (silver) costume similar 
to those of the original Atom. This new Captain 
Atom worked covertly for Air Force intelligence 
under General Wade Eiling, who (strangely enough) 
had adopted Adam's now grown-up son at the time 
of the experiment. The strip was developed by writer 
Cary Bates and artist Pat Broderick, and it soon 
proved popular enough for its star to join the Jus- 
tice League of America. Over the course of fifty- 
seven issues, the Captain battled with such villains 
as Plastique, Major Force, and a new Dr. Spectra, 
and he rubbed shoulders with Blue Beetle and 
Nightshade once again. 

In 1991, with the series in decline, Captain 
Atom was penciled in as the hero-turned-bad for 
DCs Armageddon 2001 series, but a leak to the 
fan press saved him and he became one of the 
comic's stars instead. However, as a government 
agent with a criminal background, the new Captain 
had none of the wholesome appeal of his predeces- 
sor, and it is no surprise that he became a founding 
member of the brutal Extreme Justice Group in 
1995. Extreme Justice, which also included Maxi- 
ma, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle, was conceived 
as a home for heroes who felt that the Justice 
League was too soft on criminals, and it was a 
largely unloved example of the 1990s craze for 
darker, more violent heroes. It lasted for nineteen 



tv* 



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Captain Britain 



issues, and Captain Atom has mostly faded from 
view ever since. Even so, the earlier artwork of 
Steve Ditko will no doubt continue to create interest 
in the hero for years to come. — DAR 

Capfain 0rrfcafri 

Superheroes constantly draw upon myth and folk- 
lore as their archetypal source material, and the 
legend of King Arthur (popularized in the fifteenth 
century by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Mort D 'Arthur) is 
one of the mythic wells to which comics creators 
constantly return. Created by British-born X-Men 
writer Chris Claremont and Incredible Hulk artist 
(and Cornwall resident) Herb Trimpe as the flagship 
character for Marvel Comics' new United Kingdom 
line (and debuting in Captain Britain Weekly vol. 1 
#1, October 13, 1976), Captain Britain unambigu- 
ously draws upon the Arthurian mythos, mixed with 
a dollop of Captain America, a national symbol from 
the States (where Captain Britain would not debut 
until 1978, alongside Spider-Man in Marvel Team- 
Up #65 and #66). The Captain would then vanish 
again from the sight of American readers for anoth- 
er decade, except for the lucky few who stumbled 
across imported British comics at the local comics 
shop. While Captain Britain's popularity grew steadi- 
ly in the United Kingdom through the first half of the 
1980s (though other British heroes, such as Brian 
Bolland's tongue-in-cheekily ultraviolent Judge 
Dredd, had a decided head start), the Captain had 
scant opportunity to replicate that burgeoning suc- 
cess in America. 

Thames University graduate student Brian Brad- 
dock, already a brilliant young scientist in the mode 
of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), is working as a 
research assistant at England's Darkmoor Research 
Centre when the facility is attacked by a super-crimi- 
nal known as the Reaver. Panicked, Braddock flees 
on a motorcycle, but the attackers pursue him, caus- 
ing a fiery crash. The mortally injured Braddock then 
experiences a vision in which the sorcerer Merlin 



and the goddess Roma offer to make him Britain's 
superpowered champion. They bid him to choose 
between two mystic talismans, the Amulet of Right 
and the Sword of Might. Braddock selects the 
amulet, and is immediately infused with mystical 
energies that not only heal his injuries, but also 
enhance his strength, stamina, and agility, and give 
him the power of flight, thereby transforming him 
into Captain Britain, a red-garbed figure with a gold 
lion emblazoned across his chest (perhaps symboliz- 
ing King Richard Lion-Heart) and a Union Jack-motif 
mask which conceals his entire face (the costume 
also amplifies Braddock's physical abilities via inter- 
nal microcircuitry). In addition, the patron gods of 
the British Isles give Braddock a staff called a "star 
scepter," whose mystic properties greatly enhance 
his hand-to-hand combat abilities. 

Merlin, acting as Braddock's mentor, reveals to 
his charge that the Braddock family has a mystical 
connection to an extradimensional realm called Oth- 
erworld, located at a cosmic nexus linking every 
parallel Earth in the multiverse (known here as the 
Omniverse). Here the newly minted hero becomes 
the most powerful member of Merlin's Captain 
Britain Corps — a group charged with protecting 
Earth and all of its infinite parallel worlds from the 
forces of evil, whether magical or scientific — bring- 
ing to fruition the life's work of Braddock's late 
father, scientist James Braddock. "[Merlin and 
Roma] dipped me in magic and clothed me in sci- 
ence," Braddock tells his telepathic twin sister Eliz- 
abeth [Betsy] Braddock years later (Captain Britain 
vol. 2 #1, 1985). "They made me a hero. They 
dragged me screaming into the Omniverse ... I was 
their creation, birthed in blood. I was Captain 
Britain. They made me fight. And I liked it." 

Despite his initial enthusiasm for the nonstop 
costumed derring-do his mystic sponsors demand 
of him, Braddock finds it difficult to balance his per- 
sonal life (his desire to be a scientist) with his 
superheroic responsibilities. This conflict spurs him 
to problem drinking, gets him killed several times 
(luckily these demises prove to be only temporary), 



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Captain Britain 



and leads him to take several sabbaticals during 
the 1980s and 1990s. During his first leave of 
absence from superheroics, Braddock hands the 
mantle of Captain Britain off to his sister (who 
would years later become the X-Men's Psylocke). He 
resumes his costumed identity after the not-yet- 
ready-for-primetime Betsy is blinded by the villain 
Slaymaster, whom Brian then kills. 

Captain Britain's early adventures achieved 
only spotty success. Following the cancellation of 
the first Captain Britain series in 1977, the United 
Kingdom's homegrown superhero found himself 
wandering among the various other British Marvel 
titles (and the aforementioned two issues of Marvel 
Team-Up in the States), landing first in the weekly 
Super Spider-Man, then guest-starring in the weekly 
Hulk Comic, in that title's Black Knight feature. Lon- 
don's Financial Times characterized some of the 
early Captain Britain tales as a "farrago of illiterate 
SF nonsense." Claremont, who was succeeded in 
Captain Britain #11 (1977) by writer Gary Friedrich, 
has acknowledged that something was lacking dur- 
ing Captain Britain's early outings: "Over the years 
since his debut, the poor Captain more or less 
floundered. Costume changes, role changes — 
superhero action adventure segueing sideways into 
outright fantasy and science fiction — but nothing 
ever seemed to jell." 

Things began to turn around in the early 1980s 
when Marvel U.K. editor (later editor-in-chief) Paul 
Neary decided to hire some of England's most gifted 
young comics creators to bring Captain Britain to 
life, beginning with artist Alan Davis and writer David 
Thorpe in the U.K. monthly Marvel Superheroes 
magazine (1981). Davis not only redesigned Captain 
Britain's costume — transforming it into a more 
dynamic red, white, and blue while retaining and 
emphasizing its Union Jack aesthetic and making it 
"friendlier" by revealing part of the Captain's face — 
but also collaborated with writers such as Alan 
Moore (destined for enduring fame on DCs The 
Saga of the Swamp Thing and Watchmen) in revamp- 
ing the character's mythos by injecting a compelling 



y%0 



balance of fantasy, realism, horror, and whimsy. 
Claremont has called Moore's "Jaspers Warp" story- 
line (beginning in 1982's Marvel Superheroes maga- 
zine #387), in which a madman named Jim Jaspers 
alters all of reality to suit himself, "one of the most 
emotionally powerful stories Alan Moore has ever 
written." After the hero had migrated yet again to 
The Daredevils and Mighty World of Marvel, writer 
Jamie Delano teamed with Davis in 1985 (beginning 
with Captain Britain vol. 2 #1), building on the char- 
acter's growing success with the introduction and 
evolution-toward-humanity of Brian Braddock's 
shapeshiftingwerewoman lover, Meggan. 

In 1988 Claremont and Davis made Captain 
Britain the focus of an England-based superhero 
team known as Excalibur (Excalibur: The Sword is 
Drawn #1), published in the United States by Mar- 
vel Comics, a development that gave the character 
his greatest stateside success, thanks to the 
group's close relationship to Marvel's immensely 
popular mutant characters the X-Men. Among the 
Captain's teammates are Meggan and several expa- 
triate American X-Men, including Rachel Summers 
(the second Phoenix), Kitty Pryde (a.k.a. Shadow- 
cat, possessed of the ability to walk through walls), 
and the teleporting acrobat known as Nightcrawler. 
During the course of the series, Captain Britain 
apparently resolves the old conflict between his 
superhero duties and his desire to do science, and 
eventually loses his powers while preventing the 
Dragons of the Crimson Dawn from opening a world- 
threatening dimensional portal. 

Excalibur proved extremely popular with the 
worldwide legions of X-Men fans, though it never 
enabled Captain Britain to make the leap to televi- 
sion or film, and spawned very little in the way of 
licensed products, either in England or the States. 
Excalibur's final issue (Excalibur #125, 1998) pre- 
sents the long-awaited wedding of Brian Braddock 
and Meggan on Otherworld, after which the team 
disbands, its American members returning home. 
But the Braddocks' hopes of living a normal life 
afterward go awry when Braddock gets involved — 



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Captain Canuck 



along with the Captain Britain Corps and allies Psy- 
locke, Captain U.K., Crusader X, and the Black 
Knight — in a battle to prevent an apparently insane 
Roma from destroying Otherworld as part of an 
attempt to conquer the entire Omniverse. The Cap- 
tain frees Roma from the influence of Mastermind, 
the artificial intelligence (created, ironically, by Brad- 
dock's late father) that turns out to be the true cul- 
prit in this cosmic malfeasance. Braddock then 
accepts the Sword of Might from a grateful Roma, 
bringing the blade together with the Amulet of Right. 
Taking his place as the rightful ruler of Otherworld 
and the protector of the Omniverse, Captain Britain 
at last fulfills his Arthurian destiny, with Meggan 
(his Lady Guenivere) at his side. — MAM 

Captain Canuck 

In the near future of 1993, Tom Evans is a scout- 
master for the Boy Scouts when he has a close 
encounter with aliens. Bathed by weird alien rays, 
he develops powers of extra strength and speed. 
Already a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted 
Police, Evans leaves that organization to join the 
Canadian Intelligence Security Organization 
(C.I.S.O.). Costumed in a red-and-white outfit that 
resembles Canada's national flag, Evans is code- 
named "Captain Canuck" and dispatched on mis- 
sions throughout Canada and elsewhere. At times, 
Captain Canuck is aided by two other costumed 
agents, Kebec and Redcoat. Eventually, Evans 
resigns from the C.I.S.O., but continues doing hero- 
ic deeds as Canada's best-known superhero, fight- 
ing such villains as the manipulative George Gold, 
alien Nyro-Ka, and Canuck's traitorous ex-partner, 
Blue Fox. 

Easily the best known Canadian superhero, 
Captain Canuck was conceptualized by artist Ron 
Leishman. When he met a fellow comic-book fan, 
Richard Comely, at church in 1972, the two worked 
at developing the character for a comic book. When 
Leishman moved away, Comely continued work on 




Captain Canuck Reborn #2 © 1994 Richard Comely/Sem- 
ple Comics. 



the hero on his own, self-publishing the debut issue 
of Captain Canuck in July 1975 under the "Comely 
Comix" imprint. A second and third issue appeared 
in 1975 and 1976, respectively, but Comely Comics 
folded sometime thereafter. Captain Canuck was 
revived in 1979 with the publication of issue #4, 
and new parent company CKR Productions (though 
Comely Comics still appeared on the covers). The 
series appeared bimonthly until April 1981's issue 
#14 — including a 1980 Captain Canuck Summer 
Special in its run — and then abruptly halted again. 

Fondly remembered by many 1970s comics 
readers in the United States and Canada, Captain 



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Captain Marvel 



Canuck was extremely ahead of its time. Not only 
was it self-published and self-distributed, but it also 
featured high-quality paper, painted color, flexo- 
graphic printing, and more innovations that wouldn't 
hit the American comic market until the early 
1980s. Additionally, the series had quirky backup 
stories such as barbarian Jonn, dark hero Catman, 
and the fantasy adventurers in "Beyond." On the 
main title, Comely's art and scripts were service- 
able, but he tended to interject politics and religion 
into his stories; for example, the Captain prayed 
before missions. Better were the post-#4 issues 
produced by Comely and artists George Freeman 
(who eventually took over scripting as well) and 
Jean-Claude St. Aubin. 

The other aspect that Captain Canuck was 
known for was publicity and memorabilia. Comely 
managed to get tremendous press for his hero in 
his native Canada and in many U.S. publications 
throughout the comic's publishing run, although not 
all of it was positive. Fans could join the Captain 
Canuck Club (CCC) and get cards, newsletters, 
stickers, autographed comics, and more. For the 
general public, there were Captain Canuck T-shirts, 
metal plaques, patches ("crests" in Canada), pens, 
stickers, signed and numbered posters, and even a 
chance to become a shareholder in the Captain 
Canuck Corporation (this latter offer was 
announced in the original series' final issue, #14). 

Various Captain Canuck newspaper strips 
appeared in some Canadian papers in 1976 and 
other years, but the maple leaf-clad hero didn't 
reappear in comics until 1993 (ironic, given that 
this was when the original series was set). Richard 
Comely relaunched the series as Captain Canuck 
Reborn with issue #0, from Semple Comics, also 
based in Canada. Issues were published in both 
English-language and French-language versions. 
This new Captain Canuck was Darren Oaks, and 
despite having no superpowers, he fought against 
global conspiracies. Two more issues were pub- 
lished in 1993-1994, while the delayed issue #3 
(1996) featured reprints of the 1995-1996 syndi- 



x& 



cated newspaper strip. But the series folded with 
that issue, and Captain Canuck has once again 
been retired, but he went out on the highest of 
notes: with a national stamp! 

On October 2, 1995, the Canada Post released 
a set of five 45-cent stamps commemorating Cana- 
dian superheroes, following the stamps with T- 
shirts, mouse pads, and other merchandising. The 
five heroes chosen to represent the country were 
World War II hero Johnny Canuck, 1940s heroine 
Nelvana of the Northern Lights, 1984's Northguard 
martial artist heroine Fleur de Lyse, Superman (co- 
created by Canadian Joe Shuster), and Captain 
Canuck. Ahead of its time, Captain Canuck is still 
fondly remembered by fans and comics historians 
alike, in both the United States and Canada. — AM 



Captain Afatvef 

As of 2004, there have been five Captain Marvels, 
the first of whom was Fawcett Comics' best-selling 
character and the most popular superhero of the 
Golden Age of comics (1938-1954). In 1966, noto- 
rious schlock publisher Myron Fass published a few 
issues of his own Captain Marvel, about which the 
less said the better. Marvel Comics' hero, on whom 
this entry focuses, premiered in late 1967, and it is 
widely thought that the company primarily wanted to 
copyright the name (as the publisher's success has 
grown, it has become increasingly proprietary over 
the name Marvel). Nevertheless, that first appear- 
ance of the character in Marvel Superheroes #12 
was one of the more unusual of the 1960s. 

An earlier issue of the Fantastic Four had intro- 
duced a large robot called the Sentry, which had 
been sent to Earth by an alien race called the Kree, 
who had apparently been visiting the planet for cen- 
turies. To find out what happened to their Sentry, 
the Kree send out an espionage unit headed by the 
ambitious Colonel Yon-Rogg and including the 
romantic couple of medic Una and Captain Mar-Veil. 



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Captain Marvel 



The Captain is dispatched undercover to assume 
the role of a professor in the Cape Canaveral mis- 
sile complex, where he meets beautiful security 
chief Carol Danvers. Donning his white and green 
space suit (which looks much like a superhero cos- 
tume), he has all sorts of abilities, including flying 
and super strength, which he has much use for as 
he encounters all manner of monsters, villains, and 
alien creatures. Confusingly, in his Kree identity he 
is Mar-Veil but seemingly changes the spelling of 
his name to Marvel when indulging in superheroics. 

Much of the comic's tension issued from the 
love triangle of Mar-Veil, Una, and Yon-Rogg, whose 
ruthless attitude to the natives (us!) and designs 
on the young nurse gradually forced the pacifist 
Mar-Veil against his own people. Una was killed in 
issue #11 — an unusual event in comics at that 
time. Five issues later, an avenging Mar-Veil 
returned home, where he foiled a coup and was 
given even more powers, as well as a stylish new 
costume. But he found himself stranded in the 
Negative Zone, a kind of limbo. 

Issue #17 saw a major change of direction, 
courtesy of a new creative team: Roy Thomas and 
Gil Kane. A spectral Captain Marvel convinces 
perennial boy sidekick Rick Jones to try on a pair of 
wrist bands (or Nega-bands), which when struck 
together enable him to switch places with the lad. 
Having initially taken the character's name from 
Fawcett, Marvel was now very cheekily adopting the 
transformation from boy to man that made Faw- 
cett's Captain Marvel so popular. Following several 
periods of cancellation, Jim Starlin took over cre- 
ative duties, and things started to get very cosmic. 
Starlin crafted an epic intergalactic battle that saw 
his arch-villain Thanos journeying to Earth from his 
home on Saturn's moon Titan, to find the Cosmic 
Cube and thereby take over the universe. In the 
granite-faced Thanos and his colorful entourage of 
lackeys and foes, Starlin had created an exciting 
cast of intergalactic characters, which would feature 
in Marvel for decades to come. 




Captain Marvel #33 © 1974 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM STARLIN. 



The Thanos saga ran from issue #25 to #35, 
to much acclaim, and was followed up by a bizarre 
story featuring Nitro (a villain who blew himself up!), 
after which Starlin was off to new pastures. The 
book carried on in a solid enough manner, including 
a story that de-coupled Mar-Veil and Rick, but was 
never as popular again. In 1977, on-again off-again 
romantic interest Carol Danvers was given her own, 
short-lived comic as Ms. Marvel, complete with cos- 
mic powers and a more revealing version of Mar- 
Veil's costume (today she soldiers on as the 
Avenger named Warbird). The final regularly pub- 
lished Captain Marvel story came out in 1981, a 
long time from his glory days, but one year later 
Starlin came back for a graphic novel — Marvel's 



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Captain Marvel Jr. 



first — which wrapped up the series. His story 
revealed that, in fighting Nitro, Mar-Veil had been 
affected by radioactivity and, by the tale's end, our 
hero was dead from cancer. 

After an appropriate period of mourning (i.e., a 
couple of months), Marvel, ever mindful of the dan- 
gers of letting a copyright lapse, introduced another 
Captain Marvel. This incarnation was statuesque 
African American Monica Rambeau, who could turn 
herself into pure energy. Following an early team-up 
with Spider-Man, she went on to a long spell in the 
Avengers (eventually being renamed Photon). As 
she faded from view in the 1990s, yet another Cap- 
tain Marvel appeared. This time, it was Mar-Veil's 
previously unknown son Genis (whose growth had 
somehow been accelerated), complete with cosmic 
powers, his dad's costume, and a talent for teenage 
whining. (Uncharacteristically for comics heroes, 
Mar-Veil has stayed dead, though from the other 
side of the grave fans got to see a lot of him in the 
alternate-future series Universe X [2000-2001] and 
Paradise X [2002-2003], which portrayed him as a 
somewhat imperious self-styled messiah.) The late 
1990s and early 2000s saw a number of relaunch- 
es for Genis, including a twist in which he dons a 
version of his father's first Kree costume, becomes 
incredibly powerful, and goes mad. Even Rick Jones 
has returned, proving that the more things change, 
the more they stay the same. — DAR 

Capfahi Mawet Jr. 

With sales of Fawcett's Captain Marvel comics 
increasing almost daily in the early 1940s, it is not 
surprising that Fawcett Comics wanted another super- 
hero to pull in the fans. Captain Marvel Jr. grew out of 
one of the first intertitle crossovers, as Captain Mar- 
vel and Bulletman battled the jackbooted Captain 
Nazi from the pages of Master Comics to Whiz 
Comics and back again. In the December 1941 edi- 
tion of Whiz Comics (#25), Captain Nazi (effectively an 
evil mirror image of Captain Marvel) plummets into 



+ 



the sea near a small boat and, when its occupants 
attempt to rescue him, he hurls them into the sea, 
killing one and injuring the other. Well, what else 
would you expect from someone called Captain Nazi? 
Seeing that the kid is close to death, Captain Marvel 
takes him to the ever convenient wizard, Shazam, who 
transfers some of the elder Marvel's superpowers to 
the lad, and — voila! — up pops Captain Marvel Jr. 

As conceived by editor and writer Eddie Heron 
with artist Mac Raboy, Junior was an athletic, 
almost angelic-looking fourteen-year-old boy, clad in 
a blue version of Captain Marvel's costume. Once 
restored to his civilian identity of Freddy Freeman 
(which happened whenever he spoke Captain Mar- 
vel's name), he was a crippled newspaper boy, sell- 
ing his wares on a windy street corner, propped up 
on his crutches. To compound the misery of 
comics' own Tiny Tim, the poor lad was an orphan 
whose grandfather had been the old man killed by 
Captain Nazi, and his meagre earnings were spent 
on a shabby room in a nearby guesthouse. As read- 
er identification went, it was a remarkable piece of 
wish fulfilment to see the poor wretch metamor- 
phose into the god-like hero. But astute readers 
might also wonder why Freeman did not simply 
remain in his superhero form, make vast amounts 
of cash saving the world, and retire to a life of luxu- 
ry; the idea clearly never crossed his mind. 

One of the comic's great selling points was 
undoubtedly Raboy's elegant, exquisitely drawn art- 
work, which was far more realistic than that of the 
Captain Marvel strip. However, Raboy was such a per- 
fectionist that he soon found it almost impossible to 
meet deadlines, and he hit upon the solution of past- 
ing in photostats of previous drawings. In fact, some 
pages were almost entirely made up of stats, with 
new backgrounds provided by one of his assistants. 
Raboy left Fawcett in 1944 but the feature carried on, 
drawn by Bud Thompson, Kurt Schaffenburger, and 
others, in both Master Comics and Junior's own title. 

Throughout the war years, Junior repeatedly tan- 
gled with Captain Nazi and amassed a gaggle of 
supervillains, including Dr. Eternity, the Pied Piper, and 



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Captain Marvel/Shazam! 



Captain Nippon. In the postwar period, one villain 
came to dominate the strip: the boy scientist-gone- 
bad Sivana Junior, son of ... oh, you guessed — Cap- 
tain Marvel's arch-foe, Dr. Sivana! Sivana Junior's evil 
plots included potions to make himself a giant, induce 
insatiable hunger, or provoke unstoppable jitterbug- 
ging. As the decade progressed, however, the feature 
came to be dominated by the fads of the day, such as 
crime comics, juvenile delinquency comics, funny ani- 
mal comics, and even horror. One remarkable cover 
memorably showed Captain Marvel Jr. being strapped 
to an electric chair and shot through with electricity. 
That is not to say that the strip was all darkness and 
no light, however, since our hero was just as likely to 
be found speeding up the revolutions of the planet 
Mars as fighting werewolves or gangsters. 

Captain Marvel Jr.'s comic was canceled in 1953 
along with the rest of Fawcett's superhero line and he 
lay fallow until DC Comics' revival in the 1970s, when 
he starred in a number of decent if unspectacular 
strips. In the 1990s Power of Shazam revival he 
played a somewhat more prominent role and also 
briefly joined the Teen Titans (decades after his birth, 
he was seemingly still a teenager) but, despite this 
longevity, his true importance might actually lie some- 
where altogether more surprising. Several sources 
have suggested that a certain Elvis Presley was a big 
fan of the character and modeled his look on Junior, 
right down to the curls and insouciant quiff that set a 
generation's hearts aflutter. In Las Vegas as well, it 
seems that his cape was a tribute to the one Captain 
Marvel Jr. wore, so the look that launched a thousand 
imitators came from the comics — not bad for a news- 
paper boy on crutches. — DAR 



Captain 
Mawet/Shazam! 

In the pantheon of truly great original superheroes, 
there are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spi- 



der-Man, and the Hulk, and one other that is far 
less well known today: Captain Marvel. In his hey- 
day in the 1940s, the good Captain outsold every 
other superhero, including Superman, and launched 
a vast line of comics and merchandise, as well as a 
decade-spanning lawsuit that ultimately brought his 
entire empire crashing down. 

By 1940, Fawcett Comics was already one of 
the top publishing houses in the country and, sens- 
ing that comics were becoming the next big thing, 
the company decided to bring out its own super- 
hero. Calling on staff writer Bill Parker, Fawcett ini- 
tially wanted him to create six heroes, each with a 
different attribute, but later decided to combine all 
six powers into one person. Another staff member, 
Charles Clarence ("C. C") Beck, was recruited from 
the humor magazine department and, in February 
1940, Captain Marvel was born in the pages of 
Whiz Comics. 

The first story opens with young, orphaned 
newspaper seller Billy Batson being summoned by a 
stranger into a nearby subway station, and in short 
order the boy is whisked by subway car to the end 
of a tunnel. Once there, the lad is confronted by a 
long-bearded wizard named Shazam, who has been 
hanging around for 3,000 years protecting the 
world from evil. He declares that it is now Batson's 
turn and, when the boy repeats the wizard's name, 
"Shazam!", he is transformed into a red-suited 
adult man with rippling muscles, a white cape, gold 
boots, and a lighting-flash design on his chest. The 
wizard instructs him that he now possesses six 
great powers: wisdom from Solomon, strength from 
Hercules, stamina from Atlas, power from Zeus, 
courage from Achilles, and speed from Mercury (the 
initials of each "donor" conveniently forming the 
magic word, Shazam!). Whenever Captain Marvel 
wishes to resume the form of Batson, he need only 
repeat the word and the reverse transformation will 
occur. Thrilled with his new body and seemingly lim- 
itless powers, the Captain travels back to the sur- 
face, failing to see the falling block of granite that 
inconveniently squashes the old man. Still, he need 



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Captain Marvel/Shazam! 



not worry, since Shazam would reappear at various 
points over the coming decade, seemingly none the 
worse for wear. 

In no time at all, Captain Marvel met and 
defeated his first foe, the bald-headed mad scien- 
tist Dr. Sivana (in the first of many, many such bat- 
tles) and, as Billy Batson, had gained a job as a 
radio announcer at station WHIZ. The story and art 
were direct, simple, and charming, and the readers 
loved the strip. While Superman's stories were 
ostensibly serious and science-based, Captain Mar- 
vel was a creation of magic, and literally anything 
could happen in his adventures. They were also 
underpinned by a wry sense of humor, as was soon 
proved by the introduction of the bumbling would-be 
superheroes, the Lieutenant Marvels. More impor- 
tantly, the Captain (or "the Big Red Cheese" as he 
was nicknamed by Sivana) was every boy's wish ful- 
filment made flesh. Superman and Batman were 
resolutely grown-ups but Billy Batson was a kid just 
like his readers — apart from being able to change 
into a dashing superhero (a sort of omnipotent big 
brother or uncle figure) at the drop of a magic word. 
Why relate to a sidekick like Robin when you can 
imagine being the real thing? 

Almost immediately, sales were colossal and, in 
early 1941, Captain Marvel was given his own title. 
Soon after, two spin-off characters, Captain Marvel Jr. 
and Mary Marvel, began appearing in other Fawcett 
comics. Later still, that pair spun off into their own 
books, while Captain Marvel himself began to crop 
up in such comics as All Hero and America's Great- 
est Comics. Then, in 1945, all three characters 
starred together in Marvel Family. By 1943, their 
combined titles were selling almost 3 million copies 
a month and the Captain Marvel comic itself was 
appearing twice a month. At its peak, two years later, 
the comic was selling an amazing 1.3 million copies 
per issue, and was by a substantial margin the most 
successful superhero comic on the stands. 

The sheer quantity of product required by this 
demand was too much for Parker (who was, in any 
case, drafted in 1941) and Beck on their own, and so 



Fawcett recruited a small army of creators. Writers 
included Rod Reed and Eddie Heron, but it was the 
prolific Otto Binder who was to define the true 
essence of Captain Marvel over the course of his 
451 scripts (which were part of more than 1,000 sto- 
ries in total, if you include the whole range of Marvel 
Family titles). The art was taken from two studios 
(comics factories, almost) set up by Beck and part- 
ner Pete Costanza, a third studio run by Otto Binder's 
brother Jack, and Fawcett's own stable of talents, 
including Marc Swayze. But it was Beck's simple yet 
perfectly realized art that best characterized the Cap- 
tain, his bold and almost cartoonish approach being 
both exciting and humorous, and instantly accessible 
to even the youngest reader. Binder was only one of 
the thousands to recognize this, having said of Beck, 
"The enormous success of Captain Marvel was due 
primarily to the storytelling talents of Beck. He had 
tremendous story sense and could see ways to 
improve the flow of my scripts, or bolster up weak 
parts. I believe I wrote good stuff in general, but 
Beck's art made me seem a master." 

Binder and Beck's finest hour was undoubtedly a 
serial that ran in the pages of Whiz Comics for two 
years during the darkest days of the war: "The Mon- 
ster Society of Evil." The tale introduced an evil crimi- 
nal genius named Mr. Mind, who gathered together a 
group of villains including Sivana, Captain Nazi, Mr. 
Banjo (now there's a name to conjure with!), King 
Krull, and Ibac to do battle with the Big Red Cheese. 
In a masterstroke that could only have worked in Cap- 
tain Marvel stories, Mr. Mind turned out to be a partic- 
ularly devious worm, much to the amazed delight of 
the readers. Another anthropomorphic favorite was a 
talking tiger called Mr. Tawny, who repeatedly roped 
the Captain into his schemes to get rich, to become a 
movie star, and similar escapades. A less successful 
development was occasional sidekick Steamboat, an 
unfortunately caricatured African-American boy who 
was widely denounced by critics and has since been 
airbrushed out of the comics history books. 

With such rich material (and an enthusiastic 
audience) to draw upon, Captain Marvel was among 



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Captain Marvel/Shazam! 



the most merchandised of Golden Age super- 
heroes, probably second only to (him again!) Super- 
man. Throughout the 1940s, all sorts of badges, 
puzzles, planes, games, clothes, watches, figures, 
and all-purpose do-dads spewed forth from the toy 
companies. Fawcett itself was quick to introduce a 
Captain Marvel fan club in 1941 and a Mary Marvel 
club five years later. In 1941, Republic Pictures 
released the highly regarded movie serial, The 
Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler 
and Frank Coghlan Jr. 

In his many hundreds of strips, Captain Marvel 
tirelessly conquered an unending stream of villains, 
but there was one enemy even he could not defeat — 
his greatest rival, Superman, and the latter's litigious 
publisher, DC Comics. As early as 1939, DC had suc- 
cessfully prosecuted Fox Comics for their character 
Wonder Man's similarity to Superman and, as soon 
as it appeared that the Big Red Cheese was becom- 
ing a serious rival, DC turned its sights on him. From 
1941 to 1953, Fawcett and DC battled it out in court, 
earning their lawyers a small fortune in fees before 
Fawcett threw in the towel, agreeing to cease publish- 
ing the character. It could be argued that just about 
every superhero owed something to the character 
that started the genre, and that Captain Marvel — of 
all of them — owed the least to the Man of Steel. 
However, by this point superhero sales were falling 
and comics in general were suffering something of a 
slump, following a media-led witch hunt and the 
arrival of the Comics Code. So Fawcett had in any 
case decided to shut down its entire comics division 
and, rather than incur further court costs, they set- 
tled with DC and the Captain was doomed to fly no 
more — or so it seemed. 

For many years before the lawsuit, Captain 
Marvel stories were licensed all over the world, 
and in Brazil and Great Britain when the reprints 
ran out in the mid-1950s those comic publishers 
simply drew their own stories. In Brazil the char- 
acter was called Capitao Marvel, while in Britain 
he was renamed Marvelman and starred in hun- 
dreds of strips well into the 1960s. Back in the 




THfttU TO 

THE ADVENTURE 

of me tAMous. 
talking r/aee/ 



Captain Marvel #149 © 1953 Fawcett Comics. 

COVER ART BY C. C. BECK. 



United States, however, Captain Marvel lived on 
in the memories of comics fans, and throughout 
the 1960s he was a nostalgic figure in fanzines 
and convention costume parades. No one would 
have guessed that DC, of all companies, would 
turn out to be the Captain's savior, but it was 
indeed DC that, however ironically, licensed him 
from Fawcett and began publishing a new series 
in 1973. DC also managed to tempt C. C. Beck 
out of retirement to resuscitate the Captain. The 
only fly in the ointment was that Marvel Comics 
had in the meantime appropriated the name Cap- 
tain Marvel for one of its comics, and so the new 
DC comic had to have a new name; DC happily 
hit on Shazam! 



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Captain Marvel/Shazam! in the Media 



However, what worked so well in the 1940s 
seemed not to have the same resonance in the 
more cynical 1970s, and the revival was not the 
success everyone had hoped for. Beck argued with 
DC over the direction of the feature, which he said 
the writers had failed to grasp, and he left after ten 
issues. He maintained that the original run had dra- 
matic stories that had a humorous treatment, 
whereas this newer run was all too often played for 
laughs — and with stories such as "Invasion of the 
Salad Men" you could see his point. Still, it did rein- 
troduce the Captain and his supporting and oppos- 
ing casts to a new generation, and it undoubtedly 
prompted Filmation Studios to produce a Shazam! 
television show. The live-action show premiered on 
CBS in 1974 and ran for several seasons, starring 
Jackson Bostwick (and, later, John Davey) as Cap- 
tain Marvel with Michael Gray as Billy Batson. A 
new, well, mentor character called Mentor was intro- 
duced. While it suffered from a small budget and 
limited special effects, it had a certain charm and 
is fondly remembered by fans. 

What the show failed to do was help sales of 
the comic, even though for a while the latter tried — 
to little effect — to reflect the television version, 
albeit replacing Mentor with Uncle Marvel (a regular 
of Mary Marvel strips in the 1940s). A further 
revamp, which had a more realistic, gritty approach 
to the art, was similarly ineffective, and for many 
years the strip was relegated to backup status in 
comics such as World's Finest. Subsequent revivals 
in such comics as Superpowers and Jerry Ordway's 
well-crafted Power of Shazam series (which ran for 
five years from 1995 to 1999) have kept the Cap- 
tain in the public eye, but have not been enormous 
successes financially. However, an almost impercep- 
tible shift has granted him iconic status in DCs line- 
up of stars, so that he regularly appears as statues, 
action figures, posters, and books along with the 
rest of DCs characters. Star artist Alex Ross made 
him one of the central figures of the blockbuster 
Kingdom Come comic (1996) and in 2000 painted 
the lavish Shazam — Power of Hope oversized paper- 



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back book, including the Captain as one of only four 
DC characters to be given the honor of such an 
upscale comic (inevitably, Superman, Batman, and 
Wonder Woman were the others). A new 2004 series 
by acclaimed indie cartoonist Jeff Smith was the talk 
of comics fandom. So, while sales may never again 
match their 1940s heights, Captain Marvel remains 
an American icon to this day. — DAR 

Captain 

Nlaweifihamn! 

in the Media 

With one magic word — Shazam! — young Billy Bat- 
son could transform into the "World's Mightiest 
Mortal," Captain Marvel. It's fitting that a superhero 
whose face (popular legend has it) was designed to 
resemble that of film star Fred MacMurray would be 
brought to Hollywood quickly after his conception. 
The superhero genre was in its early days when 
Fawcett Comics staff writer Bill Parker and artist 
Charles Clarence ("C. C") Beck co-created Captain 
Marvel (originally calling him "Captain Thunder") in 
1939. His first appearance was in February 1940's 
Whiz Comics #2. 

Less than a year had passed before Republic 
Pictures optioned the character of Captain Marvel 
for a movie serial. The script was written as a 
twelve-part storyline; like other film serials, each 
quarter-hour-plus segment ended in a dramatic cliff- 
hanger designed to get the audience to return to 
the movie theater the following week to see how the 
hero managed to escape death and get to the next 
chapter. The Adventures of Captain Marvel debuted 
on March 28, 1941, and continued weekly there- 
after for three months. 

The comic-book adventures of Captain Marvel 
were fairly cartoony — a style that would have been 

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Captain Marvel/Shazam! in the Media 



impossible to reproduce with live 
actors — so the producers of the 
serial settled on a more realistic 
approach. They cast heroic lead- 
ing man Tom Tyler as Captain Mar- 
vel, whose radio announcer alter 
ego Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan 
Jr.) is given powers by an ancient 
wizard named Shazam (Nigel de 
Brulier). He must use these pow- 
ers to stop the evil villain the 
Scorpion before he can gain all of 
the crystal lenses that can be 
placed in a scorpion idol and pro- 
vide a devastating weapon. The 
Scorpion is actually a member of 
the archeological team that Bat- 
son is a part of, and the mystery 
of his identity is cleverly achieved; 
Harry Worth and other cast mem- 
bers played the masked villain, 
but he was voiced by an uncredit- 
ed (and unseen) Gerald Mohr! 
When the Scorpion learns Billy's 
secret and kidnaps Billy's girl- 
friend, could the days of Captain 
Marvel be numbered? 

Helmed by a pair of directors 
(John English and William Whit- 
ney), The Adventures of Captain 
Marvel features an engaging sto- 
ryline and some good cliff-hang- 
ers, as well as some surprising 
violence, such as when Captain 
Marvel uses a machine gun, or 
throws a villain off a building. But the serial's most 
fascinating aspect was the way in which the flying 
effects for Captain Marvel were created. Special 
effects directors Howard and Theodore Lydecker 
used a costumed mannequin on a wire to show Mar- 
vel flying overhead for some shots, while other 
scenes had stuntman Dave Sharp diving off buildings 
or being catapulted into the air. The serial wasn't 




Jackson Bostwick (Captain Marvel) and Michael Gray (Billy Batson) in a scene 
from Shazam! 



popular enough to spawn a sequel, though it was re- 
released as The Return of Captain Marvel in 1953. 

Captain Marvel might have continued in some 
form in Hollywood had not Fawcett been sued by DC 
Comics over the similarity of Captain Marvel to 
Superman. The protracted lawsuit ran from 1941 to 
1953, and the character made a final appearance 
in Marvel Family Comics #89 in January 1954. Ironi- 



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Captain Marvel/Shazam! in the Media 



cally, DC Comics itself would be the company to 
revive Captain Marvel in February 1973 with a 
comic-book series titled Shazam! (since Marvel 
Comics now owned the title name "Captain Mar- 
vel"). The new title posed no public-recognition 
problems. After all, actor Jim Nabors had already 
kept Captain Marvel's catchphrase alive since the 
spring of 1963 on the TV series The Andy Griffith 
Show and GomerPyle, U.S.M.C, where his comic 
book-reading character Gomer Pyle was fond of 
exclaiming "Shazam!" Now, with the character back 
in comic-book circulation, it wasn't long before Hol- 
lywood came to see if lightning could strike again. 

Under their Filmation Studios banner, produc- 
ers Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott drafted the 
Captain to star in a new live-action television series 
for CBS. This new version, which debuted in Sep- 
tember 1974 and was also titled Shazam!, varied 
significantly from its comic-book counterpart. The 
narration at the start of the series gave the 
premise: "Chosen from among all others by the 
immortal elders — Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, 
Achilles, Mercury — Billy Batson and his Mentor trav- 
el the highways and byways of the land on a never 
ending mission ... to right wrongs, to develop under- 
standing, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire 
need, young Billy has been granted the power by the 
immortals to summon awesome forces at the utter- 
ance of a single word: Shazam! A word which trans- 
forms him, in a flash, into the mightiest of mortal 
beings: Captain Marvel!" 

Teenage Billy was played by twenty-five-year-old 
Michael Gray (though teen magazines always listed 
him as much younger), while a new character, Men- 
tor, was portrayed by radio, film, and stage star Les 
Tremayne. Mentor was a grandfatherly type who 
often lectured Billy, but who was always helpful 
when needed. The role of Captain Marvel was origi- 
nally played by Jackson Bostwick, although he was 
replaced early in the second season by a stockier 
John Davey. The "Elders" (as the immortals were 
known) would appear in each episode as barely ani- 
mated heads, with voices by producers Prescott 



and Scheimer. Episodes were shot quickly and 
cheaply — sometimes two in a week — near Sepulve- 
da Basin in southern California. 

The twenty-eight half-hour episodes that were 
produced of Shazam! were aimed squarely at pre- 
teen audiences. Hyper-moralistic plots depicted 
teens discovering the dangers of joyriding in cars, 
sneaking into zoos, and using drugs. Each episode 
would end with Captain Marvel or Billy giving out a 
preachy moral lesson, looking into the camera at the 
viewers as if lecturing them personally. 

In the fall of 1975, the series became The 
Shazam!/lsis Hour, and the second half-hour was 
filled with the adventures of a Filmation-created 
heroine named Isis. Crossovers were popular, with 
Isis appearing in three Shazam! episodes, and Cap- 
tain Marvel guest-starring in a trio of Isis adven- 
tures. The Shazam!/lsis Hour stayed on the air until 
the fall of 1977. Shazam! was rerun as a solo 
series again in 1980, and has been syndicated 
since then worldwide. 

Perhaps the strangest appearance of Captain 
Marvel came in January 1979, when Hanna-Barbera 
produced two hour-long live-action specials for NBC. 
Legends of the Superheroes was the overall title, 
but "The Challenge" aired January 18, 1979, and 
"The Roast" aired January 25, 1979. In the shows, 
Captain Marvel was played by Garrett Craig (with no 
Billy Batson alter ego) while Howard Morris played 
the cackling villain Dr. Sivana. The specials were 
tremendously campy, and never re-aired. 

In 1980, Prescott and Scheimer began work on 
a series for NBC, which would later be called Hero 
High when it went into syndication. The show was 
designed as a live-action and animated hybrid, with 
live actors portraying the Hero High students in 
musical and comedy sketches, interspersed 
between short animated comedy adventures. Filma- 
tion decided that the series would achieve higher 
ratings if a known quantity was introduced, and 
paired the planned series with new animated adven- 
tures of Captain Marvel. 



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Captain Midnight 



Kid Super-Power Hour with Shazam! debuted in 
September 1981, and twelve half-hour segments of 
Shazam! were part of the package. This new series 
hewed very closely to the comic-book plots, featur- 
ing not only Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Uncle 
Dudley, and Tawky Tawny, but also veteran comics 
villains such as Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, 
and Ibac. The character designs looked like C. C. 
Beck drawings, and both Beck and comic 
editor/writer E. Nelson Bridwell made animated 
cameos in one episode! The series ended after one 
season, but Shazam! and Hero High (minus the live 
segments) were licensed later for syndication and 
video release. 

For a character that was once the most popular 
superhero of all time, Captain Marvel has been 
scarce beyond the printed page in the last twenty 
years or so. However, that may change. In late 
2002, New Line Cinema announced that a Shazam! 
film project was in development with producer 
Michael Uslan. As of early 2004 Joel Cohen and 
Alec Sokolow were selected as screenwriters, 
reworking a first draft by William Goldman. Rumors 
of development of another animated Shazam! 
series also made Internet rounds in 2003. Could 
lightning strike again for Billy Batson and Captain 
Marvel? Only the future will tell. —AM 

Captain Midnight 

Many superheroes found success in radio after 
breaking through in pulps or comics, notably the 
Shadow and Superman, but Captain Midnight was 
one of the few who moved the other way, from radio 
to comics. In the wake of World War I, a number of 
flying aces caught the public's imagination, both 
real (Charles Lindbergh and Captain Frank Hawkes) 
and fictional (such as pulp stars G-8 and his Battle 
Aces, and Bill Barnes). So it made sense for the 
Skelly Gasoline Company to sponsor a new radio 
show starring a daredevil flying ace — Captain Mid- 
night — in stories written by a couple of genuine avi- 



ators, Robert M. Burtt and Wilfred G. Moore. Cap- 
tain Midnight debuted on Mutual Radio (from Chica- 
go) on September 30, 1940. 

Captain Midnight (voiced by Ed Prentiss) was 
Red Albright, a World War I flying ace who earned 
his nickname when he returned from a vital mission 
at the stroke of twelve midnight. Together with his 
adopted son Chuck Ramsey, plucky young Patsy 
(later replaced by another aviatrix called Joyce Ryan) 
and his mechanic Ichabod Mudd (also known as 
"Ikky"), Captain Midnight flew off to find adventure 
around the world. Although he didn't possess any 
superpowers per se, Captain Midnight possessed 
extraordinarily precise flying skills, able to take off 
from such obscure locations as a Mexican pyramid. 
Albright was a resourceful inventor, creating such 
super-gadgets as his Gliderchute (think combination 
glider and parachute); Code-O-Graph for deciphering 
top-secret assignments; "Doom Beam Torch," which 
doubled as an infrared-heat generator and a device 
for flashing the Captain Midnight clock symbol; and 
"blackout" pellets. 

His nemesis was Ivan Shark, a seemingly inde- 
structible rogue who was joined by a gang of his own, 
which included his daughter Fury. From 1940, Ovaltine 
took over sponsorship of the radio show, a successful 
relationship that continued for years and resulted in a 
torrent of merchandising, including badges, T-shirts, 
posters, and rings, and a fan club. On the entry of the 
United States into World War II, Captain Midnight was 
summoned by the president and given command of 
his own squadron of flying aces — all the better to take 
the fight to the Axis hordes. 

The radio show was a real hit and, not surpris- 
ingly, comic-book publishers soon took note. First in 
the field was Dell, which ran faithful story adapta- 
tions of several Captain Midnight radio scripts in 
Funnies and Popular Comics in 1941. Another 
inevitable spin-off was the newspaper strip, which 
duly arrived in 1942, from the Chicago Sun Syndi- 
cate, drawn by "Jonwan." That same year saw the 
release of a fifteen-chapter Captain Midnight movie 



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Card Captor Sakura 



serial from Columbia Pictures, starring Dave 
O'Brien. If these features were all very much true to 
the spirit of the radio show, another development 
from 1942 was most certainly not. Seeing the suc- 
cess of the serial, Fawcett Comics launched its own 
interpretation of the daredevil ace. 

Like its legendary Captain Marvel, Fawcett's 
Captain Midnight debuted in his own red costume, 
complete with aviator's helmet, goggles, and 
winged-clock insignia on his chest. Though initially 
quite baggy, the suit became increasingly tight-fit- 
ting over the following months, so that he was soon 
every inch the superhero. Although the character 
retained his radio comrades (albeit with Ikky soon 
becoming known as Sergeant Twilight), for good 
measure Fawcett's Captain Midnight borrowed a 
couple of gimmicks from his comic-book rivals. 
From the Black Condor he took a pair of underarm 
wings — his "Gliderchute," which allowed him to fly 
into action without bothering with his plane. From 
Batman he borrowed the idea of a handy utility belt, 
boasting blackout bombs, a doom beam radio trans- 
mitter, and a grappling hook. While the Captain and 
his chums usually took the fight to the Nazi and 
Nippon war machines, he did cultivate a few other 
villains along the way, including the sinister Angels 
and the Shark. 

By the standards of the day, Captain Midnight 
was not one of the most exciting comics on the 
stands, but it was always competently crafted by 
writers such as Joe Millard and Otto Binder, with art 
by the Binder studio (run by Otto's brother Jack), 
Leonard Frank, Carl Pfeufer, and Sheldon Moldoff. 
With Germans and their accomplices as ready-made 
villains, the war years were fertile ones for the Cap- 
tain, but peacetime proved more problematic, and 
Fawcett took the unusual step of switching the strip 
to a science fiction direction. Most issues from #50 
(1947) on featured the space-helmeted Captain 
Midnight toughing it out with the Flying Saucers of 
Death, Xog (Evil Lord of Saturn), Dr. Osmosis, Jagga 
the Space Raider, and their ilk. Unconvinced read- 
ers stayed away from the comic and, in 1948, after 



sixty-seven issues, the comic was retitled Sweet- 
hearts and headed off for more romantic pas- 
tures — without the Captain, needless to say. 

The radio show was itself abandoned the fol- 
lowing year, but Ovaltine soon switched its sponsor- 
ship to the new medium of television. A Captain 
Midnight half-hour television show ran from 1953 to 
1957 on CBS and starred Richard Webb as a suit- 
ably jet-age Captain. (When the show went into syn- 
dication, Ovaltine, which owned the rights to the 
character, was not involved, and so the series was 
renamed Jet Jackson.) No comics were published to 
tie in to the Captain Midnight TV show, and as of 
2004 no more Captain Midnight comics have 
appeared at all, though Marvel did produce a Cap- 
tain Midnight health and fitness book in the late 
1970s, starring a yellow-costumed hero. In retro- 
spect, the good Captain seems to be an early exam- 
ple of the cross-media merchandising that is so 
common with characters today. From radio to 
comics, toys, books, newspapers, premiums, 
movies, and television, the character was every- 
where, drafting the blueprint for licensing for years 
to come. — DAR 

Catxt Captor Sakwa 

For many fans of anime and manga, the name 
CLAMP represents shojo ("girls' comics") at its 
best: powerful storytelling combined with beautiful 
artwork. Hailing from Osaka, Japan, the all-female 
studio CLAMP was founded in the late 1980s with 
seven members. Its first major work was published 
in 1989, and the group consists of four members — 
Nanase Okawa, Satsuki Igarashi, Mokona Apapa, 
and Mikku Nekai. This writing/art team gained even 
greater popularity in the 1990s, especially in light 
of the wave of new shojo titles that followed the 
success of Naoko Takeuchi's Lovely Soldier Sailor 
Moon; that highly successful manga and anime 
franchise had combined elements of shojo with 
superhero action and adventure. The titles following 



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Card Captor Sakura 



in its footsteps included Revolutionary Girl Utena, 
Corrector Yui, Fushigi Yuugi, and Ayashi no Ceres 
(Ceres, Celestial Legend). 

CLAMP's titles would further change the face of 
shojo in Japan. Among them were Magic Knight 
Reyearth, a popular fantasy epic; X, a grim apoca- 
lyptic horror tale; and Chobits, a science-fiction 
comedy. With Card Captor Sakura, CLAMP created a 
title that combined elements of the "Magical Girl" 
shojo (a genre begun with the Little Witch Sally 
manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama) and the Pokemon 
franchise. The series began in 1998 as a monthly 
title in Nakayoshi (literally, "intimate friend" or 
"pals") magazine and ran until 2000; more than ten 
volumes were published. The main audience for the 
manga was young, pre-teen girls, the same age as 
the manga's protagonist. 

By all accounts, Sakura Kinomoto has a typical 
life — she is a ten-year-old student at Tomoeda Ele- 
mentary School in Japan. She is somewhat naive, 
and lives with her father Fujitaka and older brother 
Touya. Sakura's mother, Nadeshiko, died several 
years earlier. Sakura's life changes when, while 
investigating a strange noise in her father's base- 
ment library, she finds a book entitled "The Clow." 
Curious, she opens the book and discovers that it 
is filled with cards resembling a Tarot card set. 
When Sakura reads the name on the first one, 
"Windy," a violent wind blows away all of the cards 
in the book, leaving only the Windy card. Immediate- 
ly following the windstorm, a small creature appears 
out of thin air — a creature resembling a winged 
teddy bear named Kerberos (better known as Kero). 
He tells Sakura that he is the guardian of the Clow 
Cards, magical items of incredible power created 
long ago by Clow Reed, the greatest — and most 
powerful — magician ever known. Each Clow Card 
represents a particular element or grants a certain 
power to the owner. 

Unfortunately, Kero is not happy that Sakura 
caused the Clow Cards to be lost. He tells Sakura 
that since she lost the Cards, she is the only one 
who can recover them. She must become the Card 



Captor. Kero gives her a magical key that trans- 
forms into a pink staff with a stylized birdlike 
"head" that allows her to "capture" the Clow 
Cards. Her best friend, the wealthy Tomoyo 
Daidouji, helps Sakura by creating outfits for her 
to wear while she pursues the Clow Cards, and 
also videotapes Sakura in action. While Sakura's 
search for the cards remains hidden from her fam- 
ily and her school, the arrival of Li Shaoran (an 
exchange student from Hong Kong) further compli- 
cates matters. Shaoran is a distant relative of 
Clow Reed, and feels that his family is entitled to 
the Clow Cards. At first, he and Sakura are rivals 
for possession of the Clow Cards, but they eventu- 
ally forge a close friendship — with the implication 
that it could go further. 

Throughout the series, Sakura's magical ability 
grows, but she also has visions of a great battle 
near the landmark Tokyo Tower. And Kero, without 
her knowledge, speaks to Yue, a character who will 
test the worthiness of the Card Captor with a 
"Final Judgment." 

Card Captor Sakura's story has roots in mythol- 
ogy; Sakura's accidental loss of the Clow Cards par- 
allels the story of Pandora's box, and Kero is named 
after Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell. Like 
Pokemon (or a similar property, Digimon), where a 
character can use one creature to capture another 
(and use the captured creature's power later), so 
can Sakura use the powers of the Clow Cards. Each 
time she captures a card, it selects her as its 
owner. Examples of these cards include the Windy 
card, "Fly" (which gives Sakura's staff wings, allow- 
ing her to fly), "Dash" (which can give Sakura the 
power of speed), "Return" (which can temporarily 
give Sakura the ability to see into the past), and 
"Shield" (a card that can protect Sakura from magi- 
cal or physical attacks). 

As is the case in manga, the success of Card 
Captor Sakura led the creation of an animated 
series. CLAMP and Kumiko Takahashi were the 
main designers for the series, and Nanase Okawa 



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Casshan: Robot Hunter 



and Jiro Kaneko were the main writers. Directors 
Akito Daichi and Morio Asaka supervised the pro- 
duction of the series, with animation from Mad- 
house (Ninja Scroll, X). The seventy-episode series 
began in 1998 on Japan's NHK satellite channel 
BS2. Like the manga, the series was also very pop- 
ular, as was the merchandise wave that followed. 
Such items included a replica of Sakura's magical 
staff; art books featuring CLAMP and Takahashi's 
illustrations; and even an actual Clow Card set. Two 
theatrical features were also made: Card Captor 
Sakura: The Movie (1999) and Card Captor Sakura: 
The Sealed Card (2000). 

Card Captor Sakura eventually made its way to 
the United States, beginning in 1999. At first, the 
Japanese publisher Kodansha published the 
manga in an English-language tankobon format (a 
paperback format similar to the trade paperback in 
the United States, with high-quality paper, color 
pages, and a dust jacket for a cover) as part of its 
"Kodansha Bilingual Comics" line. TokyoPop contin- 
ued the publication of the English-language transla- 
tion, first as a monthly comic, then as graphic 
novel collections. In 2000, the WB network began 
airing Cardcaptors, the English-dubbed version of 
CCS. Nelvana Studios worked on the dubbing for 
the series; unfortunately, as in the case of Sailor 
Moon five years earlier, the end result did not sat- 
isfy anime fans in America. To conform to network 
standards, the series was heavily edited — dialogue 
and names were changed (Sakura Kinomoto 
became Sakura Avalon), and episodes were simply 
dropped. The dubbed version of the series began 
at episode eight, after Li Shaoran arrives. In trying 
to make the series geared more to males — not its 
original audience — a great deal of back history and 
general information about Sakura and the Clow 
Cards was never revealed. Fortunately, Pioneer 
began releasing the original unedited Card Captor 
Sakura series, subtitled, on VHS and DVD, as well 
as the English dub. Both of the theatrical films 
were released in the United States by Pioneer on 
DVD in 2003. —MM 



Casshan-' 
Robot Hunter 

"Man versus machine" is a common, long-running 
theme in the science fiction genre. Examples 
include films such as the Matrix trilogy, the Termina- 
tor ■films, and James P Hogan's 1979 novel The Two 
Faces of Tomorrow. Comic books have also 
embraced the theme of man versus machine, with 
the Gold Key Comics (later Valiant Comics) series 
Magnus, Robot Fighter of the 1960s and 1990s 
being one major example. 

Japanese animation and manga have also 
dealt with this theme, from the days of Astro Boy to 
more contemporary examples such as Argento 
Soma. In the 1970s, the animation studio Tat- 
sunoko Productions used the theme of man versus 
machine as the starting point for the series Jinzo 
Ningen Casshan (New Style Human Casshan). 
Casshan aired on Fuji Television on October 2, 
1973, and concluded on June 25, 1974, after thirty- 
five half-hour episodes. Part of the "Tatsunoko 
heroes" line of the 1970s (which included 
Gatchaman, Tekkaman, and Hurricane Polymar), 
Casshan's story is a dark one. Tatsuo Yoshida (who 
founded Tatsunoko Productions) created the series 
and also performed the additional duty of character 
designer, along with Yoshitaka Amano. Junzo Toriu- 
mi, Akiyoshi Sakai, Takao Koyama, and Toshio Naga- 
ta were the main scriptwriters and Hiroshi 
Sasakawa was the series director. 

Set in the future, Casshan opens with Dr. Kotaro 
Higashi working on a project to build robots to help 
humankind. Sadly, the scientist's good intentions are 
thwarted by a lighting strike on one of these 
machines, BK-1, which destroys the robot's moral cir- 
cuits. BK-1 — now known as the Black King — gathers 
other machines to its side and begins a war against 
humankind, with devastating results. Higashi's son, 
Tatsuya, makes the decision to fight the machines ... 



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The Cat 



but he must become a machine in order to do so. 
Higashi augments his son with an android body, with 
the full knowledge that Tatsuya can never go back to 
being "normal." Tatsuya Higashi dies, and Casshan is 
born. His body is all white, with black trim and a styl- 
ized "C" on his chest. While a mask hides most of 
his face, it opens when he speaks. Casshan's punch- 
es and kicks can shatter the armor of any machine 
(or he simply rips them apart). Yet all of his powers 
cannot hide the angst of the young man, who has 
sacrificed his humanity to save humanity. 

Tatsuya's dog, Friender, is also cybernetically 
enhanced, becoming a valuable ally, transforming 
into different vehicles depending upon the combat 
situation. A young freedom fighter, Luna, falls in 
love with Tatsuya, but the relationship is bitter- 
sweet, since both know that he can never be human 
again. Tatsuya's deceased mother returns in the 
form of a robot swan that often appears to give 
advice or valuable information. 

Thanks to Casshan, the tide of war turns in 
favor of the human race, but in the end, the conflict 
comes down to the final face-off between Casshan 
and Black King — the two creations of the same sci- 
entist, but extreme opposites. 

The original Casshan series never achieved the 
major success of Gatchaman, and was never 
released in the United States. Nonetheless, Pioneer 
released the series on DVD in Japan in 2001. 
Casshan would also appear in the video game Tat- 
sunoko Fight, released for the Sony Playstation in 
Japan. In the early 1990s, Tatsunoko produced a 
four-part OVA (Original Video Animation, direct-to- 
video) series New Android Casshan, which retold 
the original series in a condensed manner. Hiroyuki 
Fukushima both directed and co-wrote the screen- 
play with Noboru Aikawa, and Yasuomi Umezu 
updated the character designs (Umezu would go on 
to perform similar duties on the remakes of 
Gatchaman and Hurricane Poylmar). The studio Art- 
mic produced the animation; it was also one of Art- 
mic's final projects. 



In 1995, Streamline Pictures acquired the 
rights to the English-language version and released 
the series on VHS under the title of Casshan: Robot 
Hunter. The series was edited together as a two- 
hour movie and first premiered on American televi- 
sion on the Sci-Fi Channel in 1996. AD Vision re- 
released the OVA on DVD in 2003. —MM 



The Cat 



The Cat was launched by Marvel Comics in late 
1972 in an attempt to attract the emerging 
women's liberation movement by featuring strong 
female characters. Her first issue introduced the ex- 
hippie-student Greer Nelson, whose policeman hus- 
band has recently been killed in a corner store hold- 
up. Working as an assistant to the great woman sci- 
entist Dr. Tumolo, Nelson takes part in hi-tech 
experiments to boost women's physical and mental 
potential. The experiments turn out to be funded by 
a sexist megalomaniac bent on creating a race of 
compliant superwomen, but nevertheless Greer 
emerges with some formidable powers. Donning a 
yellow catsuit with retractable claws, the Cat swings 
from building to building like a female Spider-Man. 
With an all-woman creative team of Linda Fite on 
scripts and Marie Severin on art, which was virtually 
unheard of in the 1970s, the comic was certainly 
distinctive. But because it was saddled with a 
parade of strictly B-list villains and an unrespon- 
sive, mostly male audience, the comic failed, last- 
ing only four issues. 

Of course, Marvel is famous for never letting a 
character go to waste, and the Cat was back a year 
later in a rather different guise. Foiling a kidnap 
attempt on Dr. Tumolo, the Cat became "fatally" 
injured, whereupon the good doctor revealed that 
she was in fact a member of a secret race of cat- 
people, and only their secret potions could cure her. 
In the process, Nelson was herself transformed into 
a cat-person, complete with a tail, striped fur, and 
real claws. Rechristened Tigra the Werewoman, she 



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The Cat 



was now somewhat more flirtatious and adopted a 
costume of bikini and chains that was one of the 
most provocative in comics. 

An entertaining 1976 series was short-lived, 
but in the 1980s Tigra became an occasional 
Avenger, and finally found a regular berth in the 
spin-off West Coast Avengers title. She was por- 
trayed as an interesting combination of self-doubt 
and sexual allure, and eventually proved to be a 
popular character. But back in 1976, in the same 
month that Tigra's solo series had started, an issue 
of The Avengers introduced a new version of the 
Cat, whose roots stretched back to the earliest 
days of Marvel. 

Patsy Walker first appeared back in 1944 in 
the second issue of Miss America comics, and 
within four issues had taken over the title. For 
twenty years the ditzy redhead's misadventures 
in love and work entertained the same young 
fans who enjoyed Archie Comics, with an early 
cover boasting more than 5 million readers. She 
was certainly no superheroine and was probably 
introduced into the short-lived 1970s Beast 
series as a bit of comic relief, but writer Steve 
Engelhart had other plans for her. Disgusted by 
her husband's career with the corporate crime 
organization, the Brand Corp., Walker follows the 
Beast to the Avengers' headquarters where she 
happens upon the Cat's old costume. In a flash, 
she dons the suit and decides to become a 
superheroine, this time called Hellcat (one of the 
names first considered for the character in 
1972). Following a few less-than-inspiring out- 
ings, her creators sent her away for training but 
she soon reappeared in the rival group, the 
Defenders. Like the original Cat, the Walker ver- 
sion was both athletic and self-assured, though 
also rather reckless and irresponsible. 

In comics, nothing should be taken for granted 
and, as the Defenders stories moved into a darker 
and more horror-based direction in the 1980s, 
things became rather strange for the ex-model — 




The Cat #4 © 1973 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN ROMITA AND TONY MORTELLARO. 



from being transformed into a pink-furred demon to 
bumping into just about every monster in the Mar- 
vel universe. Nevertheless, this detour is no draw- 
back in the world of superheroes and, following her 
sojourn with the Defenders, the Cat went on to 
rejoin the Avengers briefly before, in 2000, starring 
in her own miniseries. (This somewhat gloomy tale, 
covering Hellcat's literal comeback from hell, was 
followed by a more lighthearted return to the char- 
acter's roots in a humorous Defenders reboot short- 
ly afterward.) 

While never the success that Marvel had hoped 
for, the Cat was one of the few characters that can be 
said to be two heroines for the price of one. — DAR 



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Cat Heroes 

Cats became objects of worship in ancient Egypt 
because they kept the rodent population under con- 
trol, but the sleek beauty and fascinating aloofness 
of felines have continued to mesmerize humans for 
centuries. Superheroes (or at least their creators) 
have been unable to escape the allure of cats. Cat- 
woman's hissy fits between thievery and heroism 
have etched her into the public's consciousness, 
and Marvel Comics' Black Panther, Tigra (a.k.a. the 
Cat), and Black Cat have added their notches on the 
superhero scratching post. There are lesser-known 
crime fighters in cat costumes, however, some of 
whom still enjoy an occasional stretch in the sun, 
and others who have scatted into obscurity. 

Consider Cat-Man, first seen in Holyoke Pub- 
lishing's Crash Comics #4 (1940). Some fans dis- 
miss this character as a Batman clone with a feline 
motif, but his novelty extends beyond imitation. Cat- 
Man's powers — catlike prowess, vision, reflexes, 
and nine lives — were naturally developed, not artifi- 
cially acquired like so many superheroes of comics' 
Golden Age (1938-1954): He was orphaned as a 
child in the wilds of Burma and was raised by jungle 
cats. Cat-Man is also distinguished by his nubile 
female sidekick, the playful Kitten, whose very pres- 
ence added subtle innuendos into a prudish period 
of comic-book history. 

It is unlikely that the Lynx, Fox Features Syndi- 
cate's caped crusader with leopard-spotted trunks 
and a red mask, could avoid allegations of being a 
Batman copycat, especially with his partner, the 
Robin the Boy Wonder-like Blackie the Mystery Boy, 
at his side. Premiering in Mystery Men #14 (1940), 
the Lynx had few distinguishing characteristics and 
no superpowers, and was banished to comics' litter 
box by issue #31. 

What if Catwoman's alter ego, Selina Kyle, were 
real — and a comic-book artist? Tarpe Mills, the cre- 
ator of the slinky superheroine Miss Fury, was the 




Tiger-Man #2 © 1975 Atlas Comics. 

COVER ART BY FRANK THORNE. 



closest imaginable personification of a true-life 
Kyle — without Catwoman's criminal tendencies. 
Mills was vivacious and lovely, a socialite who 
owned many cats as pets. 

DC Comics' Wildcat was first seen in Sensa- 
tion Comics #1 (1942), an issue better known for 
featuring the second appearance of Wonder 
Woman. Inside Wildcat's midnight-blue bodysuit — 
with floppy cat ears, a catlike face application (with 
whiskers!), and clawed feet — is professional pugilist 
Ted Grant. In his origin story, this pummeling heavy- 
weight parlays his muscle into superheroics, being 
inspired to action by the Golden Age Green Lantern. 
Wildcat later joined the Justice Society of America, 



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and has sporadically appeared in various DC titles 
throughout the decades, including The Brave and 
the Bold, the team-up title where he frequently 
joined forces with Batman during the 1970s. In the 
1980s and 1990s, Grant's goddaughter, Yolanda 
Montez, briefly succeeded him as Wildcat in the 
superteam called Infinity, Inc. 

Zoologist Ralph Hardy uncovered a Peruvian 
artifact in 1961: a belt made from a jaguar's pelt, 
carrying the inscription, "To be transformed into a 
human jaguar with supreme power over animals 
everywhere in the universe, the wearer need only 
say, 'The Jaguar.'" Hopping into a red uniform with a 
cat-head chest insignia and spotted boots, Hardy 
becomes the Jaguar, Archie Comics' Superman- 
meets-Doctor Doolittle. The Jaguar used prodigious 
strength and his critter control to fight everything 
from dinosaurs to aliens in a fifteen-issue run of 
The Adventures of the Jaguar (1961-1963), and 
was updated in 1991 as part of DC Comics' 
"Impact" imprint, a short-lived attempt to revive the 
Archie superheroes. 

Animal Man — whose garish costume consists 
of an orange chainmail bodysuit with a big blue "A" 
on the front — debuted in DCs Strange Adventures 
#180 (1965). Secretly Buddy Baker, Animal Man 
can mimic the ability of any creature within close 
proximity, including felines, a trait he acquired after 
being irradiated by a UFO. After a smattering of 
appearances, Animal Man was resurrected in his 
own monthly comic that ran for an astounding 
eighty-nine issues (1988-1995). A teenage super- 
hero with similar powers also bowed in 1965: Beast 
Boy (a.k.a. Changeling), in Doom Patrol #99. 
Garfield Logan survives a rare disease after a 
genetic experiment imbues him with the ability to 
transform into animals — and gives him green skin 
as a side effect. Morphing into green tigers and 
lions (and other creatures), Beast Boy is now one of 
DCs Teen Titans. 

The peculiar Tiger Boy was introduced in Har- 
vey Comics' Unearthly Spectaculars #1 (1965). 
Paul Canfield was born on Earth to parents who 



immigrated from Jupiter. He inherits the Jovian 
power of transmutation and uses it to change into, 
of all things, a tiger with a boy's head. Tiger Boy 
originally wants to subjugate Earthlings, but his par- 
ents harangue him into changing his stripes and 
becoming a superhero. Panthea is equally as extra- 
ordinary as Tiger Boy. Briefly appearing in Marvel's 
Comix Book #l-#5 (1974-1975), Panthea's par- 
ents are an African lion and a human woman, 
explaining her unorthodox catlike facial features 
and the tail on her humanoid frame. 

Atlas Comics, an ambitious but ill-fated pub- 
lisher surfacing in 1975 with a line of titles that dis- 
appeared within months, published two cat-inspired 
heroes. The Cougar, running two issues, was a gen- 
der-switching update of the original Black Cat, Har- 
vey Comics' "Hollywood's Glamorous Detective 
Star," with a touch of TV's Kolchak: The Night Stalk- 
er (1973-1975) added. A Tinseltown stuntman 
moonlighting as a monster-bashing superhero, the 
Cougar was clad in red with a laced, open-chested 
shirt similar to Plastic Man's attire. Other than his 
name and his self-taught acrobatic agility, the pow- 
erless Cougar had no catlike attributes. Atlas man- 
aged to eke out three issues of Tiger-Man. Dr. Lan- 
caster Hill isolates a strength-inducing chromosome 
from a jungle tiger's blood and, after an injection, 
gains catlike senses and powers. As Tiger-Man, he 
fights crime in a tiger-striped tunic with clawed 
gloves and boots. 

Several other cat-inspired heroes have pranced 
through comics and the media over the decades in 
such numbers as to prohibit a full listing, but 
notable examples include Streaky the Supercat, the 
pet of the Silver Age (1956-1969) Supergirl, who 
temporarily obtains superpowers from kryptonite 
exposure; Pumaman, a low-budget 1980 movie fea- 
turing a feral superhero whose powers are derived 
from a mysterious amulet; Coyote, an atypical 
comic first published in 1981 by Eclipse Comics, 
starring the Native American trickster god; and Pan- 
tha, the vicious she-cat who in the 1990s was a 
member of DCs New [Teen] Titans. — ME 



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Cat-Man 



In 1940, the newsstands were suddenly awash with 
superheroes, several eminently forgettable. Such 
characters could be found in the pages of Crash 
Comics, published by the obscure TEM Publica- 
tions, but issue #4, in between episodes of Buck 
Burke, Strongman ("the perfect human"), and the 
Blue Streak, featured the first appearance of Cat- 
Man, who soon gained a sizeable following. Cat- 
Man's origin would have been familiar to fans of 
Tarzan and the recently released Black Condor; 
while traveling in India (or Burma, according to later 
issues), young David Merrywether's parents are 
killed by "jungle wildmen," and the child is left to 
the tender mercies of an approaching tiger. As wild 
animals are seemingly prone to do, she raised the 
child as her own cub and, by the time he emerged 
from the jungle as an adult, he had developed great 
strength and leaping abilities, as well as the ability 
to see in the dark (by shining beams of light from 
his eyes). Moving to the great metropolis, he 
becomes appalled at man's inhumanity to man, and 
quickly rustles up an appealing green costume, 
complete with large, furry tiger-claw mittens — all the 
better to fight crime with. 

With his superior abilities, Cat-Man was more 
than a match for any evildoer, but a stray bullet in his 
first adventure resulted in his untimely death. Howev- 
er, it seems that he had also acquired the nine lives 
of a cat during his wilderness years, and the great 
spirit of the tigers conveniently revived him. The trou- 
ble-prone hero was also killed in the next two stories, 
before his editors realized that his nine lives were 
being rapidly exhausted and so quietly abandoned 
that idiosyncrasy. By this point, Cat-Man's popularity 
had demanded that he be given his own title (and a 
more sensible costume), and in the spring Cat-Man 
#1 was released by the newly renamed Holyoke Com- 
pany. From the outset, the strip was drawn by Charles 
Quinlan, in an accomplished if slightly old-fashioned 
style, and written by Martin Panzer. 



After a first-issue battle with terrorists, Cat- 
Man's comic was soon dominated by the outbreak 
of World War II, and Merrywether enlisted as a lieu- 
tenant in the army, quickly rising to the rank of cap- 
tain. In between battling Benito Mussolini, Hideki 
Tojo, and Adolf Hitler (one cover even showed him 
throttling the Nazi despot), he also gained a young 
sidekick. In the wake of Robin's enormous success, 
no self-respecting hero would be complete without 
his own pal, but only Cat-Man was assisted by a 
girl. Eleven-year-old orphan Katie Conn is an unwill- 
ing accomplice in her evil uncle's life of crime but, 
when the recalcitrant relative is tackled by Cat-Man, 
she joins in and helps our hero defeat him. In clas- 
sic comic-book style, Merrywether adopts her as his 
ward and she becomes the daredevil fighting girl, 
the Kitten. Over the ensuing months she also grew 
up very quickly until, barely a year later, she looked 
more like a grown woman. Kitten's relationship with 
"Uncle David" was always rather ambiguous, but 
incredibly no one ever seemed to notice, and the 
strip managed to avoid the controversy that sur- 
rounded other comics. 

The typical Cat-Man story involved the pair foil- 
ing Axis plots or organized crime, and there was 
usually a high body count and more than the strip's 
fair share of sadism. What the feature initially 
lacked, however, was an arch-villain, a problem that 
was resolved after the war with the introduction of 
top-hatted, monocled baddie Dr. Macabre (and face 
it, with a name like that he was hardly likely to be a 
saint, was he?). Dr. Macabre and his ward Lenore 
sailed in from Lisbon, of all places, and set about 
establishing a crime syndicate — until Cat-Man and 
Kitten came upon the dastardly pair in the middle of 
a robbery. Over the following five issues, the evil 
Doctor acquired the touch of death from a Z-ray gun 
(which basically meant that anything or anyone he 
touched suddenly keeled over dead), caused havoc 
with a band of killer gorillas, and attempted to cook 
the unfortunate Kitten in a cauldron of molten 
metal. Macabre was last seen in Cat-Man #32, 
plunging to his death in a deep-sea diving bell, but 



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Catwoman 



whether he lived to fight another day fans will never 
know, as that issue was the last. 

In the new millennium, interest in Cat-Man has 
grown as collectors have discovered just how rare 
the comics are. Evidently, very few copies survived 
wartime paper drives, and barely ten copies are 
known to exist for some issues. Longtime enthusi- 
ast Bill Black has also revived Cat-Man in his AC 
Comics line and has added Kitten to the lineup of 
his long-running Femforce team. Additionally, vari- 
ous AC titles regularly reprint vintage tales from the 
Holyoke era, keeping interest in the crime-fighting 
duo alive. — DAR 



Catwoman 

Catwoman, slinking in and out of thievery like a mis- 
chievous kitten, has titillated Batman throughout 
most of the Dark Knight's long career. This "princess 
of plunder" was envisioned by Batman creator Bob 
Kane and writer Bill Finger as a female counterpart 
to the Caped Crusader, and as a means to attract 
girls to the comics' readership, but through spunk 
and tenacity she quickly distinguished herself as 
much more than a copycat. From her first appear- 
ance as "The Cat" in Batman #1 (1940), Gotham 
City's most notorious burglar — dressed to the nines 
(lives?) in a clinging, cleavage-showcasing gown — 
arouses a side of Batman that the prepubescent 
Robin finds puzzling. Through each encounter, sug- 
gestive repartee between the Bat and Cat intimates 
that if not for their ethical division, these two would 
boot the Boy Wonder out of the Batcave and rede- 
fine the term "Dynamic Duo." 

When compared to the Joker, Two-Face, and 
other psychopaths in Batman's deadly rogues' 
gallery, Catwoman, whose penchant for luxuries 
entices her into a career as a thief, seems tame — 
but by no means is this lady docile. Wielding a whip 
with a "cat-o'-nine-tails," a weapon that by the late 
1980s acquired sado-sexual connotations, the cun- 



ning Catwoman, with her pugilistic prowess and ... 
well, catlike reflexes, becomes a fierce combatant 
when cornered or challenged. She had clawed her 
way through a decade's worth of stories in random 
issues of Batman and Detective Comics before her 
roots were disclosed. In "The Secret Life of Cat- 
woman" in Batman #62 (1950), the villainess 
reveals her true stripes as she saves Batman's life, 
taking a blow to the skull in the process. Once 
regaining consciousness, she emerges from amne- 
sia with the recollection of her past life as Selina 
Kyle, flight attendant, and no knowledge of her stint 
as a criminal. Aiding Batman and Gotham City Police 
Commissioner Gordon in their apprehension of her 
former partner in pillage, Kyle is exonerated of her 
felonies and allowed to set up business as a pet- 
shop operator, but before long her ego, bruised by 
taunts from the press and former underworld associ- 
ates, leads her back into larceny as Catwoman. 

While her identity was known to Batman and 
Gordon, Catwoman's mystique stymied her adver- 
saries, particularly her ability to resurface after 
seemingly perishing — did she, like her namesake, 
really have nine lives? This raven-haired, wide-eyed 
"felonious feline" also dazzled Gotham's finest with 
her wardrobe: Aside from the ghastly full-sized cat- 
head mask she wore during a few early outings, 
Catwoman skulked about for more than two 
decades in a stylish purple dress, green cape, and 
a cat-eared cowl before streamlining her garb in the 
1960s into a form-fitting emerald catsuit that would 
have made Diana Rigg (TV's Mrs. Peel) green with 
envy. By 1969, she'd slipped into a skintight blue 
bodysuit with a long cat tail, before returning to the 
purple gear in the mid-1970s. She also frequently 
cavorted about town in a cat-shaped "kitty" car, 
took to the air in a catplane, hurled a catarang, and 
even used a caf-apult to leap to a helicopter while 
pulling a heist. 

Throughout most of her comic-book career, Cat- 
woman was portrayed as Batman's most likeable 
villain: Sure, she was a bad girl, but not that bad. In 
the late 1970s, Catwoman's heart of gold led her to 



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Michelle Pfeiffer portrays Catwoman in a scene from Batman Returns. 



shed her life of crime and marry Batman — not in 
the comics' regular continuity, but on "Earth-Two," 
DCs parallel world where its characters from the 
1940s resided. Their union bore a daughter, Hele- 
na, who became the Huntress when the Earth-Two 
Catwoman was murdered. 

Back on "Earth-One," Catwoman continued to 
pillage, even after DC Comics jettisoned its multiple- 
Earth concept in 1985. Selina Kyle was reinvented, 
along with the Dark Knight, in Frank Miller and David 
Mazzucchelli's groundbreaking "Batman: Year One" 
four-issue story arc beginning in Batman #404 
(1987). Kyle, it was disclosed, endured an abusive 
childhood and was on the streets at age twelve, 
becoming fiercely independent as a result. Segueing 
into a life of prostitution, this new Kyle was a domi- 
natrix with a butch haircut, who donned a leather 



catsuit and used her whips on Johns before taking to 
the rooftops as the burglar Catwoman. More recent- 
ly, however, Catwoman has given up streetwalking 
and developed a profound moral sense, albeit one 
tempered by her hard life. She serves as an occa- 
sional ally to Batman and often protects the down- 
trodden in Gotham City's seediest neighborhoods. 

Catwoman's popularity was bolstered in the 
mid-1960s by Julie Newmar's tantalizing portrayal of 
the villainess in the popular Batman television 
show. Newmar sunk her claws into the role, playfully 
frolicking about with moves so sensuously catlike, 
all eyes were glued to her while she was on camera. 
Her immediate successors to the part, Lee Meri- 
wether in the Batman theatrical movie (1966) and 
Eartha Kitt in later episodes of the television 
series, never quite commanded the screen as New- 



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Challengers of the Unknown 



mar did. In director Tim Burton's Batman Returns 
(1992), Michelle Pfeiffer's take on Catwoman 
rivaled Newmar's, and spawned a long-delayed Cat- 
woman movie, planned for 2004, starring Halle 
Berry (Ashley Judd and Nicole Kidman were previ- 
ously considered for the part). Catwoman has also 
appeared in the numerous incarnations of Batman 
television cartoon series throughout the years and 
has been merchandized since the 1960s in items 
including dolls, action figures, and bubble-bath dis- 
pensers. — ME 

Censorship: See Comics Code 

Challengers of 
the Unknown 

Although still published in the twenty-first century 
amongst the many thousands of superheroes vying 
for comic shelf space, the Challengers of the 
Unknown enjoyed their heyday during the Silver Age 
of comics (1956-1969). Indeed, after the Flash, 
Challengers of the Unknown was the second signifi- 
cant superhero creation of this era. After the can- 
cellation of the Justice Society of America in All Star 
Comics in 1951, the newsstands did not carry 
superhero teams for much of the 1950s until writer 
Dave Wood and artist Jack Kirby revived the con- 
cept in DC Comics' Showcase #6 in early 1957. In 
an origin sequence that lasts all of two pages, 
Wood and Kirby revealed how four adventurers on 
their way to a radio show narrowly avoid death when 
their airplane is struck by lightning. Climbing from 
the wreckage, the group decides that since they are 
living on borrowed time they might as well take 
whatever risks the world can throw at them and lit- 
erally "challenge the unknown." As motivations go it 
was perilously shallow, but nevertheless one page 
later they were a team and already hot on the heels 
of their first challenge. 



v^ 



The Challenger lineup included Professor 
Haley, the thinker of the group; pug-nosed wrestler 
Rocky Davis; ginger-haired daredevil Red Ryan; and 
jet pilot Ace Morgan. The group soon added an 
occasional fifth member, plucky June Robbins, 
whose main role was to be captured by assorted 
wrongdoers. After four issues of Showcase and 
eight of their own title, Kirby left for Marvel Comics, 
but by then he had set the pattern for the team's 
career. Issue after issue featured the intrepid team 
taking on an endless parade of aliens, monsters, 
magicians, robots, and all manner of miscreants 
from deepest antiquity to the furthest-flung futures. 
By 1959, the purple-jumpsuited band had mysteri- 
ously acquired their own secret hideaway in the 
Rockies, complete with their own jail and a fleet of 
planes, helicopters, and cars. They also collected a 
cadre of arch-enemies, led by the mustached Multi- 
Man, who gradually grew a large bald head and 
pointed ears — as supervillains are wont to do — as 
well as an ever-expanding range of deadly powers. 
As the 1960s progressed, the prison in Chal- 
lengers' Mountain filled up with the motliest group 
of evildoers in comics, including Volcano Man, 
Brainex, and the truly horrifying Spongeman. Some- 
where along the line they lost the constantly imper- 
illed June but gained Cosmo the superpet. 

Because of a formula that appealed to a wide 
readership, the Challengers became something of a 
blueprint for many future superteams, notably Jack 
Kirby's world-conquering Fantastic Four of Marvel 
Comics fame: The Challengers had Professor Haley; 
the Fantastic Four had Reed Richards. Wrestler 
Rocky Davis was a clear precursor to the muscle- 
bound Thing. And, much like June Robbins rounded 
out the Challenger lineup nicely, so too did Invisible 
Girl for the Fantastic Four. 

And what an adaptable superteam the Chal- 
lengers were. In the late 1960s, DC discovered hor- 
ror in a big way and, to cash in on the trend, the 
Challengers began to investigate the mysterious; 
the giant aliens were replaced by ghosts and 
ghouls. A June look-alike, Corrinna Stark, briefly 



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Charlton Heroes 




Challengers of the Unknown #3 © 1997 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN PAUL LEON AND SHAWN MARTINBROUGH. 



joined the group, but their heyday was over and the 
comic was canceled in 1970. A few years later they 
were back in a short-lived revival that mixed horror 
and science fiction, presumably going for a 
crossover market that didn't really exist. 

After a very lean spell in the 1980s, the group 
returned for a couple of startling revamps in the 
mid-1990s, the first of which saw Challengers' 
Mountain transformed into a sort of theme park, 
complete with its own visitors' village. It seems that 
the group had decided to cash in on their celebrity 
status by courting the tourist dollar, a plan that was 
rather undermined when a mysterious villain blew 
up their hideaway, which then plummeted onto the 



village below, killing the visitors. Understandably 
upset by this, the foursome split up and all got a bit 
peculiar, but thankfully they pulled themselves 
together again just in time to save the world as 
usual. For the final Challengers series of 1997, the 
original team were dumped altogether in favor of a 
new band of heroes who investigated alien sight- 
ings and paranormal phenomena in a transparent 
attempt to hit the X-Files market. Despite some of 
the comic's finest writing and artwork, the revamp 
failed to find an audience, but it's always only a 
matter of time before the Fab Four ride the next 
trend and return to the shelves — as they did in the 
much-anticipated period piece The New Frontier, a 
retro epic by writer-artist Darwyn Cooke that 
impressed readers in 2004. — DAR 

Charlton Heroes 

An unauthorized song magazine sent its publisher 
to "sing-sing." Such is the origin of Charlton Publi- 
cations, the Derby, Connecticut, outfit known for 
everything from crossword puzzle periodicals to 
superhero comic books. 

In the early 1930s, Italian immigrant John San- 
tangelo, a bricklayer, was encouraged by a girlfriend 
to produce a magazine that printed the lyrics to pop- 
ular songs. His effort landed him behind bars for 
copyright infringement. In jail, he got a crash course 
in copyright law courtesy of fellow inmate Edward 
Levy, a disbarred lawyer, and the two joined forces 
upon their release to start a legitimate publishing 
house, Charlton. They legally obtained the rights to 
print song lyrics, and in 1945 launched their first 
magazine — Hit Parader—a huge success that 
became the cornerstone of a line of music titles. 
Charlton entered the comics business in 1946, 
mimicking the then-current market trends of funny 
animals, science fiction, horror, and crime series. 

Santangelo's frugality is legend. Charlton — or 
Capital Distributing Company, its official name — 



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Charlton Heroes 



sliced its production costs by headquartering its 
editorial, production, distribution, and printing divi- 
sions in one plant (Charlton at one time even 
owned a paper mill). The publisher also paid the 
lowest page rates in the publishing field, even feed- 
ing a few bucks to prisoners for contributions. 

This gift for parsimony helped Charlton stay 
alive during a mid-1950s comic-book market crash. 
It absorbed properties from other publishers, includ- 
ing Fox Features Syndicate, from which Charlton 
obtained its first superhero series, Blue Beetle, 
which the company issued briefly during this era 
before cancellation. Charlton also published the 
funny-animal superhero comic Atomic Mouse begin- 
ning in 1953. 

Hurricane Diane nearly decimated Charlton's 
facilities on August 18, 1955, dumping eleven inch- 
es of rain on Derby in the course of a day and send- 
ing a surge of flood waters into the building. Some 
employees narrowly escaped, but managed to sal- 
vage the printing press during their hasty exodus. 
Comics inventory, artwork, and reams of paper did 
not fare as well. "All of the comic books were 
turned into papier-mache," remembered former 
Charlton and DC Comics editor/artist Dick Giordano 
in his biography, Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, 
One Day at a Time (2003). 

Charlton became the third comic-book publish- 
er to release superhero comics during the indus- 
try's Silver Age (1956-1969), following DC and 
Archie Comics' lead. Charlton's nuclear hero Cap- 
tain Atom was first seen in Space Adventures #33 
(1960). His stint there did not last long, but he was 
resurrected in the mid-1960s — as was Blue Beetle, 
as a gadget-wielding, high-tech crime fighter. Soon, 
Charlton's two superheroes were joined by some 
not-so-super friends. 

"I always preferred heroes who could do things 
that we supposedly would be able to do," revealed 
Giordano, who was tapped to edit the Charlton 
superhero titles. He and his creative teams opted 
for heroes with skills and talents, not superpowers 



(discounting the preexisting Captain Atom), which 
he called Charlton's "Action Heroes." Steve Ditko, 
the original artist of Marvel Comics' The Amazing 
Spider-Man, drew Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, and 
the faceless hero the Question, who appeared as 
the backup feature in Beetle. Other Action Heroes: 
Pete "PAM" Morisi's Peter Cannon-Thunderbolt, 
who relied upon his "powers of the mind"; the 
Peacemaker, who loved tranquility so much he was 
willing to fight for it; Nightshade, "Darling of Dark- 
ness," the occasional partner of and backup series 
in Captain Atom; the iron-fisted Sarge Steel, drawn 
by editor Giordano; and martial artist Judomaster. 

Tightfisted Charlton did not market its Action 
Heroes during this extremely competitive time for 
superhero comics, and many titles never made it 
into the distribution web, with never-opened bundles 
remaining on delivery trucks and then being 
returned to the company. The Action Heroes titles 
were canceled after roughly two years. Giordano is 
favorably remembered by the writers and artists 
who produced the Action Heroes titles — Denny 
O'Neil, Jim Aparo, Joe Gill, Roy Thomas, and oth- 
ers — and believes that his uncharacteristic super- 
hero comics would have performed well if Charlton 
had supported them. 

In the 1970s, Charlton made a few additional 
forays into superhero publishing. The company 
licensed stalwarts from the King Features Syndicate 
and published comic books starring space adven- 
turer Flash Gordon and the jungle hero the Phan- 
tom. Underdog, based on the animated television 
cartoon featuring a canine do-gooder who gains 
powers from popping energy pills, appeared in ten 
issues of his own Charlton series from 1970 to 
1972. Also receiving a ten-issue run was E-Man, a 
lighthearted superhero created by Nick Cuti and Joe 
Staton in 1973. 

In the early 1980s, improvements in the quality 
of comics production and the industry's growing 
reliance upon the "direct market" (selling preordered 
titles to specialty outlets) began to squeeze Charlton 



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Civilian Heroes 




Thunderbolt #52 © 1966 Charlton Comics. 

COVER ART BY PETE MORISI. 



out of business. Giordano had since become the 
managing editor, then the editorial director, of DC 
Comics. DC executive Paul Levitz purchased the 
rights to the Action Heroes as a "gift" for Giordano in 
1983; beginning with Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 
(1985), DC infused Charlton's characters into its uni- 
verse, with Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, and The Ques- 
tion receiving monthly titles. Writer Alan Moore origi- 
nally wanted to use the Action Heroes as the stars of 
his twelve-issue series Watchmen (1986-1987), but 
was encouraged by Giordano to create original 
heroes instead. The Charlton characters have spo- 
radically surfaced in the DC universe ever since. 

After a few difficult final years of publishing 
reprints of its old horror series and failing to pene- 



trate the changing distribution network, Charlton 
Comics went out of business in 1986. — ME 



Cbrftian Heroes 

Although "civilian" heroes appeared in the movie 
serials of the 1940s and 1950s, it was not until the 
1970s that the era of civilian superheroes really 
took hold. Unlike their "true" superhero brothers 
and sisters who glossed the pages of many Silver 
Age (1956-1969) publications — complete with an 
iconic costume or mask and loaded with superhu- 
man powers and/or a secret identity — civilian 
heroes have had to make do with functioning in the 
world as, well, civilians. For the most part, they fight 
crime and subvert evil in their street clothes, living 
life in one persona. Though they are undeniably 
heroic in their actions, the popular culture has been 
reticent to label them superheroes in the most com- 
plete sense of the word. 

Granddaddy of them all was Steve Austin 
(played by Lee Majors), the title hero of The Six Mil- 
lion Dollar Man. Once an astronaut, Austin was 
injured in a crash landing. "Gentlemen, we can 
rebuild him. Better. Stronger. Faster." So said Oscar 
Goldman (Richard Anderson) at the start of each 
episode, and rebuild Austin they did, replacing his 
legs, right arm, and left eye with costly bionic 
enhancements. Once he recovered, Austin became 
a secret agent for the Office of Scientific Informa- 
tion (OSI), using his bionics to aid the world against 
spies, terrorists, and other criminals (although an 
occasional encounter with deadly robots, aliens, 
and Sasquatch did figure into later seasons). 
Debuting on ABC on March 7, 1972, with a telefilm 
based on Martin Caidin's novel Cyborg, the series 
was picked up the following fall for two more films, 
and then run as a regular series from January 1974 
to fall 1978. 

The Six Million Dollar Man not only made a star 
out of Majors, it also provided an opportunity for a 



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Civilian Heroes 



spin-off series. After Austin's girlfriend, tennis pro 
Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner), was injured para- 
chuting, she too was outfitted with bionics to 
become the Bionic Woman. Appearing first on The 
Six Million Dollar Man in January 1975, Sommers 
debuted in The Bionic Woman on ABC in January 

1976. Her series switched networks in the fall of 

1977, to NBC, and ended its run in 1978. Like 
Austin, Sommers fought kidnappers, criminals, and 
thugs, as well as occasional aliens and "fembots." 
Between OSI assignments Sommers lived her life 
as a schoolteacher in Ojai, California, occasionally 
accompanied by her bionic dog, a German Shep- 
herd named Max. Both The Six Million Dollar Man 
and The Bionic Woman were hugely popular with TV 
audiences, and much licensed material was sold 
from the properties, including dolls, books, puzzles, 
and more. Along with an array of lunchboxes and T- 
shirts, the marketplace welcomed the "Jaime Som- 
mers Classroom" and the "Bionic Beauty Salon." 
Charlton Comics published comics based on both 
series. Several reunion movies were shot, including 
one in which the son of Austin and Sommers 
required bionic enhancements as well. 

Whereas the bionic special effects were rela- 
tively easy for producers — even superspeed was 
shown by using sound effects over slowed-down 
action! — another pair of civilian heroes had a much 
more difficult time getting seen. The Invisible Man 
(1975-1976) and The Gemini Man (1976) were two 
TV series in which the hero could turn invisible. 
However, neither hero had a secret identity per se, 
nor did either have an iconic costume into which 
they changed. A 1958-1960 series of The Invisible 
Man had been produced in England and aired in the 
United States, but the 1975 series was different. In 
the latter show, Dr. Daniel Westin (David McCallum) 
used his invisibility formula to keep it out of govern- 
ment hands, but found he could not turn visible 
again. He undertook missions for the KLAE Corpora- 
tion while searching for a cure. In Gemini Man, a 
government agent for INTERSECT was accidentally 
exposed to radiation, which rendered him invisible. 



Sam Casey (Ben Murphy) finds that he must use a 
specialized watch to keep himself visible, except 
when going on dangerous missions. The concept 
was revived in 2000 when Sci-Fi Channel premiered 
The Invisible Man, starring Vincent Vintresca as a 
thief and con man who underwent an experiment 
that rendered him invisible; he was soon black- 
mailed into helping a secret government organiza- 
tion fight crime. This Invisible Man was visible for 
two seasons. 

Two alien-powered heroes appeared at the 
start of the 1980s. In ABC's The Phoenix, Bennu 
(Judson Scott) was an alien messenger who was 
trying to help Earth while finding his missing part- 
ner. An amulet he wore around his neck gave him 
special powers to help people and the environment, 
but although a debut telefilm in September 1981 
did well, only four episodes of the series aired the 
following spring. The Powers of Matthew Star was 
also set to debut in the fall of 1981 on NBC, but an 
on-set fire badly burned lead actor Peter Barton, 
delaying production. The series debuted in Septem- 
ber 1982, and lasted one season. Barton played 
Matthew Star, a seemingly normal high school stu- 
dent who was really an alien prince. Watched over 
by a guardian (Louis Gossett Jr.), Matthew devel- 
oped his powers of telekinesis, telepathy, and astral 
projection to help people and the government, all 
while training to return to his homeworld and over- 
throw its despotic ruler. A bit later, Starman beamed 
onto TV from the popular movie of same name, for 
non-costumed, Fugitive-Wke adventures that lasted a 
single season in 1986-1987. 

One of the oddest superhero shows, in the 
1983-1984 ABC season, was Automan. In it, a 
police computer expert (Desi Arnaz Jr.) creates a 
handsome sparkling superhero that jumps right out 
of his computer! Automan (Chuck Wagner) could walk 
through walls, affect machinery, and even merge with 
his creator. They were aided in their crime-fighting 
adventures by Cursor, an electronic blip that could 
create fantastic cars or even a tank! Unlike most of 
the "civilian superheroes," who are regular people 



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Cobra 



(albeit with unusual abilities) all the time, Automan 
belongs to that odd variety who are, though often 
costume-less, superheroes all the time. 

In 1988, one of syndication's hits was the 
series My Secret Identity. The half-hour series fea- 
tured the adventures of teen Andrew Clements 
(Jerry O'Connell) who accidentally gains powers 
after being exposed to an invention of his wacky sci- 
entist neighbor, Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoate (Derek 
McGrath). Clements develops superspeed and 
superstrength, limited invulnerability, and the ability 
to float (even to fly, using aerosol cans for propel- 
lant). A lifelong comic book fan, Clements dubbed 
himself Ultiman, but he never created a costume, 
and did all his good deeds in such a way that 
nobody knew it was him. My Secret Identity lasted 
three seasons, until 1991. 

DC Comics hero The Human Target was translat- 
ed into a short-lived television series in 1992 on 
ABC. Produced by Pet Fly Productions, which had ear- 
lier done CBS's The Flash live-action series, The 
Human Target starred Rick Springfield as Christopher 
Chance, a hero who would use his high-tech masks 
and vocal devices to impersonate those targeted for 
death. Chance flew around the world in a specially 
designed jet, with three assistants. The Human Tar- 
get ran seven episodes in July-August 1992. 

There are those who wear the barest trappings 
of superheroes, even if they don't have superpow- 
ers. Many past versions of Zorro on television and 
in film led to Sword of Justice on NBC 
(1978-1979), in which Jack Cole (Dack Rambo) is a 
rich playboy who dabbles in crime fighting, leaving a 
playing card behind at each triumph. A pilot telefilm 
of Will Eisner's hero The Spirit was produced and 
aired on ABC in July 1986, starring Sam Jones in 
the title role. Like his comic-book counterpart, tele- 
vision's Spirit was a non-superpowered criminolo- 
gist. Mike Grell's face-paint-wearing comic-book 
adventurer Jon Sable was later badly translated to 
the small screen with Lewis Ven Bergen in the title 
role. Sable aired from November 1987 to January 



1988 on ABC. And what to make of Judge Nicholas 
Marshall (Ramy Zada, then Bruce Abbott), who 
presided over a courtroom by day but dressed in 
black, rode a motorcycle, and meted out vigilante 
justice by night? That was the plot of Dark Justice, 
which ran on CBS from 1991 to 1993, with reruns 
lasting another full season into 1994. 

In today's Hollywood, costumes and assorted 
superheroic trappings are not nearly as popular as 
they once were, and lines have blurred when it 
comes to determining who makes the superhero 
cut. The X-Men wear leather outfits that would be 
acceptable in many nightclubs or bars. Young Clark 
Kent will never wear a costume in Smallville, say 
that series' producers, yet there is no denying 
young Kent bears the title of coming-of-age super- 
hero. The alien kids of Roswell look human but 
wield their special gifts in defense of good. Buffy 
the Vampire Slayer features several characters with 
enhanced powers who act heroically, but the show 
was never promoted as a superhero show. Even the 
superspy antics of Jennifer Garner on Alias, the der- 
ring-do of Tomb Raider Lara Croft in her videogames 
and film franchise, or the impossible martial arts 
moves of Jackie Chan in any of his films could be 
classified as superheroic. But because they lack 
costumes, and in many cases an alter ego, they 
are — as the public views them — still civilians, like 
so many heroes before them. — AM 



Cobra 



It is telling that both George Lucas's Star Wars and 
Buichi Terasawa's Space Adventure Cobra first 
appeared in 1977 and went on to redefine their 
respective media: science-fiction (or in the case of 
Star Wars, science-fantasy) films and manga. Both 
works went to the past to define their worlds of the 
future — the "futuristic past" of the pulp- 
magazine/whiz-bang space opera made famous by 
E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels but later reach- 
ing maturity in the works of such writers as the ven- 



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Cobra 



erable Robert A. Heinlein (Starship Troopers). The 
manga — and the character of Cobra himself— actu- 
ally represents a unique fusion of Western pop cul- 
ture and the storytelling ways of manga and anime. 

Cobra was the first major character created by 
Terasawa, who began work on the manga at the age 
of twenty-two. Cobra would become Terasawa's 
"icon" character, much like Astro Boy became asso- 
ciated with Osamu Tezuka (or Captain America with 
Jack Kirby and Joe Simon). With Cobra, Terasawa 
established several key elements that would reap- 
pear in his later works, such as Midnight Eye Goku 
and Raven Tengu Kabuto: One was a world of fantas- 
tic technology with designs that careened between 
the futuristic, the contemporary, and the baroque — 
even if the series was set in the past. Kabuto may 
have been set in feudal Japan, but this feudal Japan 
had futuristic elements such as robots, helicopters, 
and fishnet stockings. Another element established 
by Cobra was that of a hero who was a tough guy 
with a good heart; a kind, gentle romantic who 
could — and would — use his fists and superpowers 
(or a superweapon) to get the job done and take 
down the various villains he would face (each with 
his or her own bizarre look or backstory). 

And finally, a major element was the beautiful 
women that the hero would meet in his adventures. 
Some were good, some were bad, but all would be 
well depicted. Female lead heroes have been used 
by Terasawa, starting with his 1990 manga Black 
Knight Bat and also Gundragon Sigma, which 
appeared in 1999. 

Cobra is a throwback, a hero cast in the Han 
Solo mold with James Bond and Dirty Harry thrown 
in to season the mix, although Cobra eschews Harry 
Callahan's taciturn manner. His look — blond, muscu- 
lar, wearing a red outfit and with a cigar always in his 
mouth — is not his real look; his face was changed to 
avoid the notice of the nefarious Pirate Guild. 
Although a former space pirate himself, Cobra 



worked on the side of good, always foiling the Guild's 
plans until he wanted out and went underground. 

Cobra's exploits ran for seven years in 
Shueisha's Shonen Jump magazine; the manga cap- 
tured the rough-and-tumble action and adventure of 
pulp science fiction as well as James Bond films 
and the 1968 Jane Fonda sci-fi romp Barbarella 
(Terasawa is a fan of these films). Like the pulp 
heroes of the past (although closer to an anti-hero), 
Cobra has a fast ship (the Turtle); a sidekick (a 
female android, or "armaroid," named Lady); a trusty 
sidearm; and an additional ace up his sleeve in the 
form of the "Psychogun." This weapon is on his left 
forearm, and when not in use is covered by an artifi- 
cial hand. It is his most well-known feature, making 
him a unique standout in a field packed with many 
strange and bizarre humans, aliens, and worlds. And 
again, there are the women he meets and 
romances. Starting with the Royal Sisters in the first 
story arc, Cobra has had his share of relationships, 
although like 007 he never settles down, and some 
relationships end in tragedy — but also serve to push 
Cobra into stopping the villains once and for all. 

When Terasawa began Cobra in 1977, he used 
a hook reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's "I Can 
Remember It for You Wholesale" (later made into 
the film Total Recall): A bored businessman heads 
into the "Trip Corporation" to go on a "vacation" — 
actually a controlled dream trip. The dream actually 
serves to unlock the man's memories of his previ- 
ous life as the space pirate Cobra, before he went 
into hiding. With its mix of science fiction, action, 
tongue-in-cheek humor, and beautiful women, 
Cobra became a major hit for Terasawa. The manga 
was collected into eighteen volumes that sold in 
the millions. Being a fan of Western films, Tera- 
sawa often placed familiar icons from those films 
into the Cobra manga; such films include 2001: A 
Space Odyssey (1968) and The Spy Who Loved Me 
(1977), and even the late 1970s cult science- 



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Opposite: From Cobra #6 © 1990 Buichi Terasawa/ A-GIRL Rights. 

STORY AND ART BY BUICHI TERASAWA. 



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Cobra 



fiction television series Space: 1999— and, of 
course, Star Wars. While he adhered to a more 
realistic, more Western look in terms of his art, 
Terasawa also followed the storytelling techniques 
pioneered by his mentor, Osamu Tezuka. The late 
Tezuka is the man responsible for bringing about 
the modern age of manga and anime in Japan fol- 
lowing World War II. 

As was the case for all popular manga, Cobra 
made the leap to movie theaters in 1982; a thirty- 
one-episode animated television series followed 
later in the year. Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) pro- 
duced both the movie and the series, with Osamu 
Dezaki (The Professional: Golgo 13, Blackjack) 
directing both. While the TV series followed the sto- 
rylines of the first eight volumes of the manga (with 
a number of changes), the movie retold the first 
major story arc involving Cobra and the Royal Sis- 
ters — Jane, Catherine, and Dominique — and 
Cobra's fight against the cyborg agent of the Pirate 
Guild, Crystal Boy. With a screenplay by Terasawa 
and Haruya Yamazaki, the film became a sort of 
metaphysical love story (but didn't skimp on the 
action), and utilized a unique animation process 
that gave the film a psuedo-3D look without the 
need for special glasses or equipment. 

Cobra's popularity was such that his 1977 to 
1984 run would not be the end; he would return in 
artbooks, video games, and further manga adven- 
tures. The year 1989 saw the release of two CD- 
ROM games, and the artbooks Cobra Girls and 
Cobra Wonder appeared in Japan in 1997. Cobra 
returned to comics in 1995 with Cobra: The Psy- 
chogun. This title and the mangas that followed it — 
Cobra: Galaxy Knights and Cobra: Magic Doll— were 
also children of the digital revolution that was 
sweeping the manga industry at that time. Tera- 
sawa was the vanguard in this revolution (starting 
with Bat) and he would use digital coloring and 
effects to create stunning artwork that won him 
even more acclaim both in Japan and around the 
world. Despite his return to these media, Cobra's 
return to movies was put on hold with the shelving 



*> 



of the proposed film for Cobra: The Psychogun, 
despite Terasawa's involvement as director, story- 
board artist, and screenwriter. 

Cobra was well received beyond Japan; the 
manga was translated into French, Swedish, Tai, 
Chinese, and English. French television broadcast a 
dubbed version of the TV series in 1985. In Ameri- 
ca, Cobra's exploits would reach audiences in two 
different ways: An English-language adaptation by 
famed comic writer Marv Wolfman (Crisis on Infinite 
Earths, Teen Titans) released by Viz Comics in 
1990 kicked things off. The twelve-issue series cov- 
ered only the first major story arc of the manga, 
involving Cobra's "rebirth" and his adventures with 
the Royal Sisters in the search for the "Ultimate 
Weapon." One prominent change in the English-lan- 
guage version is that Cobra's Psychogun is now on 
his right hand, due to the process of reversing right- 
to-left Japanese art to conform to left-to-right-orient- 
ed readers. 

Close to a year later, singer Matthew Sweet 
caused a sensation with the video for the title track 
of his album Girlfriend. The video used clips from 
the 1982 Cobra movie and became one of the 
most-watched videos on MTV and went into heavy 
rotation on the video channel. In the late 1990s the 
movie itself would reach America in an English-lan- 
guage version originally produced by Carl Macek's 
Streamline Pictures; anime distributor Urban Vision 
released the film in a limited theatrical run on the 
"art house" film circuit; both dubbed and subtitled 
versions were released for the American home 
video market in 1999. 

Only when one takes a step back and sees 
Cobra for what he is can his appeal be understood. 
He is the embodiment of the classic hero; he may 
be rough around the edges, but he is honorable and 
able to take whatever is thrown at him. His wit and 
quick thinking — and sometimes his fists — can and 
will get him out of any trouble. In the end, he will 
walk away into the sunset or fly off into deep space 
with the girl and whatever treasure or item was the 
focus of his search. He does not brood, he acts. In 



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Comics Code 



the wildly stylized and imaginative world that Tera- 
sawa has created, Cobra fits right in. He is, in a 
sense, the heir to Haggard's Alan Quatermain, Flem- 
ing's James Bond, and Bob Kane's Batman (but 
without the dark elements). Cobra is the quintes- 
sential comic book hero, reborn in the Land of the 
Rising Sun. — MM 

Comics Code 

At the height of comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954), industrywide comic-book sales 
stood steadily at between 100 million and 150 
million copies per month, with annual revenues of 
up to $90 million. Publishers like DC Comics, 
Marvel, and EC Comics — publisher of Tales from 
the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, and MAD — were 
enjoying unprecedented success. Into this boom- 
ing business climate came psychiatrist Fredric 
Wertham, a doctor who had worked at Bellevue 
Hospital with juvenile delinquents, and who made 
a case in his 1954 book, The Seduction of the 
Innocent, that comic-book content was responsi- 
ble for the decay of America's youth. Though his 
book targeted the popular crime and horror 
comics of the day, superheroes didn't escape 
Wertham's assault, with the good doctor maintain- 
ing, "This Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman 




group is a special form of crime comics." One of 
his most well-known claims, still discussed 
among comic-book aficionados and historians 
today, is that Batman and Robin were gay. 

In response, the Senate Judiciary Committee 
created a Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile 
Delinquency in the United States, which held wide- 
ly publicized hearings between April and June 
1954 to investigate the validity of Wertham's 
claims. Rather than fall under the wrath of the fed- 
eral government, in September of that year the 
comic-book industry created the Comics Magazine 
Association of America (CMAA), an organization 
made up of all comic-book publishers that wanted 
to get their comic books distributed. The CMAA 
immediately went to work adopting the self-censor- 
ing Comics Code Authority (CCA), whose forty-one 
standards described strict editorial guidelines for 
depicting sex, crime, horror, and violence within 
the pages of comics. Its Comics Code seal (boldly 
proclaiming "Approved by the Comics Code Author- 
ity") was placed on those comics that met the 
requirements of the CCA, namely those that did 
not "explicitly present the unique details and 
methods of a crime," and did not show "nudity," 
"excessive bloodshed," or "disrespect for estab- 
lished authority," but rather fostered "respect for 
parents, the moral code, and for honorable behav- 
ior." To earn CCA approval, a comic had to depict 
good triumphing over evil and the criminal being 
punished for his misdeeds "in every instance." By 
bearing the Comics Code seal, comics promised 
parents, educators, and the federal government 
that their content was now "safe" for young, devel- 
oping minds. 

Despite the industry's good intentions in purs- 
ing a path of self-censorship, the majority of 
comics publishers went out of business or can- 
celed entire lines of books during the 1950s (EC's 
Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt included), 
with those remaining — most notably, DC — "dumb- 
ing down" their stories in an effort to meet the 
requirements of the code and appeal to a nation in 



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The Creeper 



the thrall of repressive moral standards. In 1955, 
Marvel canceled its superhero division with its final 
issue of Sub-Mariner, and characters like Human 
Torch and Captain America were shelved in favor of 
tales of sci-fi monsters (which, unlike EC's popular 
vampires, werewolves, zombies and witches, were 
not banned). Other 1950s superheroes to leave 
the marketplace included minors like Avenger, Cap- 
tain Flash, Black Cobra, and Strong Man. DC 
launched a new comic, The Brave and the Bold, 
which featured medieval superheroes, including 
Robin Hood, the Viking Prince, and the Silent 
Knight, and as a whole the industry published more 
romance, Western, and humor comics to replace 
their now-defunct horror and crime titles. Silver Age 
(1956-1969) superheroes continued this trend: 
Heroes of the 1960s lived and fought crime in a 
world that was noticeably tamer than that of their 
Golden Age counterparts, thanks in large part to 
code restrictions that greatly curtailed such comic- 
book mainstays as gunplay, sadomasochistic sub- 
texts, and displays of cleavage. 

In 1971, Marvel's Stan Lee broke new 
ground when he challenged the code by writing 
anti-drug stories that appeared in The Amazing 
Spider-Man vol. 1 #96 through #98, all three of 
which were published without the code's seal of 
approval. Shortly after their release, the Comics 
Code language was revised to allow for the depic- 
tion of drugs (though not their endorsement), and 
other restrictions were sufficiently softened to 
allow the reemergence of the horror comic into 
the marketplace (though these titles were known 
as "mystery" comics, because the term "horror" 
itself remained verboten). In the 1980s the alter- 
native comics market began to flourish in an 
increasingly unfettered creative environment, 
with maverick creators such as Frank Miller 
(Daredevil) and Alan Moore (Watchmen) respond- 
ing by pushing the envelope of the mainstream 
superhero genre and crossing characters over 
into more mature territory, with more realistic 
examinations of crime, violence, and the extreme 



psychology that motivates costumed super- 
heroes. Again the Comics Code language was 
modified (in 1989) in order to meet the more lib- 
eralized mindset of the late twentieth century. 

For many years, it was virtually impossible 
for comics to succeed in the marketplace without 
the Comics Code seal, since magazine whole- 
salers would refuse to distribute comics that did 
not bear the seal on their covers. However, begin- 
ning in the mid-1980s many publishers stopped 
participating in the CCA, primarily due to the 
emergence of the "direct market," where comics 
are sold through comic-book stores, reaching 
older and more sophisticated demographics than 
ever before. As of 2004, only two major publish- 
ers (DC and Archie) continue to participate in the 
CCA and to print the seal on CCA-approved cov- 
ers — though some, like Marvel, have adopted a 
pro forma rating system on their covers and sev- 
eral companies note which comics are "for 
mature readers." But even for the holdouts, since 
the CCA review of content is less stringent than 
it was during earlier decades, its seal of approval 
is no longer necessarily an endorsement of the 
"good taste and decency" it was originally creat- 
ed to uphold. — GM 

The Creeper 

When Steve Ditko left Marvel Comics after a row 
about the direction of his co-creation, Spider-Man, 
there was no shortage of publishers queuing up to 
hire him. In the next couple of years, he produced 
strips for Dell, A.C.G. Tower (Thunder Agents), War- 
ren, Charlton (where he worked on the Blue Beetle 
and Captain Atom) and, finally, in 1968, DC Comics. 
At DC he was given the freedom to create and write 
new superheroes, and he quickly dreamed up the 
Hawk and the Dove and the Creeper. From a twenty- 
first-century perspective, the Creeper appears in 
many ways to be just a variation on the sort of story 
that had made Spider-Man so successful, but at the 



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The Creeper 




The Creeper #2 © 1968 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY STEVE DITKO. 



time it was probably just a little too strange for 
most comics fans. 

The first appearance of the Creeper was in 
Showcase #73 (April 1968), where readers are 
introduced to manic TV interviewer Jack Ryder, 
just as he is sacked for haranguing a guest. 
Newly recruited as a network security agent (a 
sort of cross between an FBI operative and a TV 
reporter that probably only existed in the mind of 
Steve Ditko), Ryder embarks on his first mis- 
sion — tracking down brilliant scientist Professor 
Yatz and rescuing him from the clutches of "evil 
commies." For some reason, these commies 
throw a fancy dress party, which Ryder crashes 



wearing an absurd green-and-yellow costume, 
topped off with a voluminous, red fur collar. Ryder 
succeeds in finding the Professor, who gives him 
an instant-healing serum (which also endows him 
with terrific strength) and a molecular rearranger 
before (inevitably) being mowed down in a hail of 
bullets; life for a brilliant scientist tends to be 
perilous in comics. 

In his everyday civilian identity, Ryder was a 
rather dogmatic, straightlaced person, but in his 
Creeper guise he became reckless and demented, 
often terrifying criminals with his maniacal laughter 
and mad behavior. Consequently, he was as dis- 
trusted by a baffled police force as he was by the 
hordes of the underworld — much as Spider-Man 
had been, of course. Most of the time, the Creeper 
was found battling Proteus, an identity-changing 
criminal with a blank face (like the Spider-Man vil- 
lain, the Chameleon), but he was also pitted 
against the likes of the Firefly and the wonderfully 
christened Yogi Bizerk. Undoubtedly, the comic's 
major selling points were Ditko's energetic pacing 
and dynamic drawing, which were the equal of any- 
thing on the stands at the time. On the other hand, 
Ditko's characters appeared to inhabit a strange, 
timeless world in which people wore berets, Stet- 
sons, or polka-dotted clothes that owed nothing to 
late 1960s America as his readers knew it. 

Following its introduction in Showcase, the 
strip went on to six issues of its own title, but then 
it was to be several years before the Creeper was 
heard from again. The mid-1970s saw a rash of 
new Creeper stories in various Batman comics, 
which revealed that the Creeper had moved to 
Gotham City. Ditko himself returned to the Creeper 
for a one-shot in 1975, which was followed a few 
years later by a longer run in the pages of World's 
Finest Comics. As is often the case, the 1980s and 
1990s saw occasional short stories (as a backup in 
The Flash, for instance) and guest appearances cul- 
minating in a very eccentric 1990s series. In 2003 
a radical reinvention was released, inspiring a new 
generation of fans. The new comic is set in the art 



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Cutey Bunny 



world of Paris in 1925, and features a mysterious 
female Creeper who is as much cat burglar as 
superhero. — DAR 

Cutey Bunny 

In The Great Women Superheroes (1996), historian 
and comic-book artist Trina Robbins commented on 
the uniqueness of heroines who grace the pages of 
self-published comics. "The superheroines who 
emerge from the pages of these small-press 
comics tend to be more original than the bad girl 
clones or the superteam members put out by larg- 
er publishers." 

Nothing could be truer for Cutey Bunny. Writer 
and artist Joshua Quagmire introduced the world's 
first African-American rabbit superheroine, whose 
name is a parody of the Japanese manga heroine 
Cutey Honey, in 1982, when she made her debut 
in Quagmire's self-published Army Surplus Komikz 
#1. Cutey Bunny is really Kelly O'Hare, a tough- 
talking army colonel who works as a military 
recruiter. After stumbling upon an ancient Egyptian 
amulet, she is magically transformed into the fly- 
ing super-rabbit. Her mentor is the Egyptian solar 
deity Ra-Harahkte, who gives the hero her "Solar 
Scarab" amulet, which funnels his solar energy, 
giving her the powers of superstrength and flight. 
He also acts as general checker-upper on "the 
crime-busting cottontail," who distains the god's 
interference in her superhero career. Her signature 
expression: "Gosharooty" (second only to "Jeep- 
ers" and "Golly wolly"). 

Bunny is the queen of superhero costumes. 
She originally had three different outfits encoded 
in her amulet: an "Aunt Samantha" superpatriot 
outfit made of revealing stars and stripes; a 
"Roller Bunny" outfit, complete with motorized 
skates; and a "Rocket Bunny" space suit acces- 
sorized by rockets, a protective force shield, and 
ample supply of oxygen. None of these were 




Army Surplus Komikz #1 © 1982 Joshua Quagmire. 

COVER ART BY JOSHUA QUAGMIRE. 



acceptable to the ever-serious Ra, who promptly 
converted them to an Egyptian get-up by issue 
#4, which Bunny dismissed in favor of her stan- 
dard leotard, headdress, boots, and white vest. In 
body-flattering attire, Bunny battled all sorts of 
comical supervillains during her short-lived run, 
including the sinister super-spy fox Vicky and the 
X-Critters (Cycat, Vermin, Zephyr, Clummox, and 
Night Toddler), ending her day in her downtown 
Peoria apartment. 

Described in a May 1983 issue of The Comics 
Journal as containing a "good, irreverent sense of 
comics history, with numerous in-jokes, catch- 
phrases, and cameo appearances," Cutey Bunny 



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Cutey Honey 



drew a cult fan base that appreciated Quagmire's 
unique take on the funny-animal genre. — GM 

Cutey Honey 

Cutey Honey creator Go Nagai is generally known as 
the enfant terrible of manga and anime. The title is 
not due to Go's personality, but rather his various 
projects. Born in 1945, Go first broke into the 
manga industry in the 1960s working as an assis- 
tant to the late Shotaro Ishinomori (1938-1998), of 
Cyborg 009 fame. Since his initial foray into manga, 
Go has had a prolific career, but he is better known 
for manga with darker, more violent themes (not to 
mention bizarre, grotesque villains and heroes), 
such as Devilman (1972) and Violence Jack 
(1973-1992), and erotic humor like Kekko Kamen. 
In the 1970s, Go created a new genre with 
MazingerZ: the "drivable robot," which would 
become a staple of manga and anime for years to 
come. (Two very famous titles are 1979's Mobile 
Suit Gundam and 1994's Neon Genesis 
Evangelion.) In 1968, Go's manga Harenchi Gakuen 
(Shameless School) garnered a great deal of atten- 
tion — most of it negative — because of its bawdy 
humor and violence in a story whose setting was a 
high school where students matched wits with their 
oppressive teachers. Elements of this series would 
make their way into one of Go's most popular char- 
acters — Cutey Honey, one of the earliest female 
superheroes in manga and anime. 

Honey is actually an android. While androids 
were popular in manga and anime at the time of 
Cutey Honey's publication in 1971, Go went in a dif- 
ferent direction with the character's original story- 
line. Beautiful Kisaragi Honey was created by Dr. 
Kisaragi as part of the scientist's plan to create the 
perfect human. At first, Honey was not aware that 
she was an android; she believed that she was Dr. 
Kisaragi's daughter. Because the scientist installed 
a "transformation module" inside Honey, Dr. Kisara- 
gi became the target of the criminal organization 



Panther Claw, and with his death Honey sought 
revenge. In this original manga, the setting of the 
story was an all-girls Catholic school. Within this 
typical theme of revenge, Go created innovations: 
an all-female Panther Claw gang, with Panther Zora 
being the leader and Sister Jill as her second-in- 
command. 

As for Honey, her transformation module 
allowed her to change forms to deal with any situa- 
tion. The forms included "Hurricane Honey" (a 
motorcyclist), "Scoop Honey" (a photojournalist), 
and "Cutey Honey," a warrior mode that she used in 
battle: a red-haired woman wearing a red one-piece 
leotard, white collar, and black leggings, acces- 
sorized with yellow boots and gloves, and with a 
sword as her main weapon. To change forms Honey 
would shout, "Honey Flash!" and change ... with 
brief nudity between forms. 

Toei Studios produced an animated adaptation 
of Cutey Honey only in Japan and the series ran 
from 1973 to 1974. While both the manga and 
anime were popular — especially among teen boys — 
Go would not publish a sequel until 1990. Known 
as Shin Cutey Honey (Hew Cutey Honey), the story 
started after the end of the original manga: Honey 
had defeated Sister Jill but Panther Zora had gone 
into hiding after destroying the headquarters of Pan- 
ther Claw. Unlike the original Cutey Honey manga, 
New Cutey Honey was translated into English and 
released in the United States by Steve Bennett's 
Ironcat Studio in 1995 under the title Cutey Honey 
'90. The sequel manga was followed in early 1994 
by an OVA (Original Video Animation, direct to video) 
series with the same title, New Cutey Honey. This 
eight-episode series benefited from better anima- 
tion and action, and opened several years after the 
end of the original television series. Go Nagai was 
also much more involved in the production. 

This time, the setting was Cosplay City, and 
Honey fought the forces of Dolmeck, a villain whose 
ultimate goal was the resurrection of Honey's old 
nemesis, Panther Zora. 



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Cutey Honey 



With new allies like teenager Hayami Chokkei 
and Mayor Light, Honey also had new forms to change 
into, including an armored form, and a "Chinese Fight- 
er" form (a parody of the character Chun-Li from the 
Street Fighter videogame series). She also had new 
enemies, predominantly women and with names such 
as Death Star and Jewel Princess. One male villain, 
Virtual Hacker, was a character clearly influenced by 
the cyberpunk movement that had swept through 
the science-fiction genre in the 1980s and had 
a major effect on anime (for example, the film 
Akira and the OVA series 
Bubblegum 
Crisis). 




Cutey Honey © 2004 Go Nagai 



Houston-based AD Vision began releas- 
ing English-subtitled versions of the New 
Cutey Honey OVAs in late 1994, only a few 
months after their release in Japan; in 
1998, AD Vision re-released the series, this 
time dubbed in English. A dual-language 
DVD was released in 2000. 

The success of the New Cutey Honey 
OVAs led to yet another new direction for 
the character. In 1997, Cutey Honey 
Flash premiered on Japanese television 
and ran for thirty-nine episodes, with a 
movie released the same year. 
Based on the manga written and 
drawn by Yukako lisaka (with the blessing 

of Go Nagai), Cutey Honey Flash 
retained some elements of the original — 
Honey's various forms and the Panther Claw 
gang being two in particular. However, the 
series was much more influenced by Sailor 
Moon (and was even produced by the same 
creative staff), and was targeted at a younger 
audience. Bawdy humor and nudity were 
removed; the result was a romantic action- 
comedy. Honey was now a human girl attending 
a boarding school in Tokyo — magic was now 
the force behind her transformations. She 
also had a boyfriend, Seiji Hayami (in the 
original series, he was a reporter who 
helped Honey track down the Panther Claw 
gang). One character, a lecherous old man 
named Danbei Hayami, was also a main char- 
acter in the original television series and OVAs. 
As of 2004, the television series was not 
released in the United States, but the German 
SAT-1 network ran the show from 2000 to 2001. 

In the United States, Cutey Honey's adventures 
even inspired one of the best-known anime parodies: 
Joshua Quagmire's 1982 Cutey Bunny. She is also a 
popular "cosplay" character (a favorite anime or 
manga character that fans often dress up as) at anime 
conventions in Japan and the United States. Despite 
the violence, eroticism, and twisted villains, Cutey 



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Cyberforce 



Honey still stands as one of Go Nagai's most well- 
known characters thirty years after her debut. — MM 

Cyberforce 

The brainchild of Image Comics partner Marc Sil- 
vestri, Cyberforce is a property owned, produced, and 
controlled by Silvestri's Top Cow Productions, home 
of such other high-profile characters as Witchblade. 
Introduced in a self-titled, four-issue Image mini- 
series (1992-1993), Cyberforce is a group of cyber- 
netically enhanced superheroes that stands ever 
ready to step into the breach to prevent a rapacious 
multinational corporation called Cyberdata from dom- 
inating planet Earth. While Cyberdata routinely 
engages in various small-scale illicit activities (i.e., 
industrial espionage), the company's silicon-chip 
overlords have a far more pernicious long-term agen- 
da: the extermination of all organic life on Earth. 

Formerly captives of Cyberdata, the members of 
Cyberforce see themselves as the only hope humani- 
ty has for freedom and even survival, a scenario that 
pays homage to the artificial intelligence-dominated 
future dystopia portrayed in the Terminator films as 
well as to the "once more unto the breach, dear 
friends" foxhole camaraderie that so often character- 
ized Marvel Comics' X-Men during the 1980s (not to 
mention the corporate-supercriminal/renegade-for- 
mer-allies premise of Mark Evanier and Will 
Meugniot's DNAgents, itself an homage to the X-Men 
on some levels); the mutant abilities of the Cyber- 
force members also serve to reinforce the Marvel 
mutant parallel. Rootless, homeless, and forever on 
the run because of the exigencies of their guerrilla 
war to liberate Earth, the motley Cyberforce members 
forge tight emotional bonds from their shared adver- 
sity. Because Cyberforce routinely finds itself in 
pitched battles against such powerful adversaries as 
Cyberdata's private army of half-human/half-machine 
S.H.O.C. (Special Hazardous Operations Cyborg) 
troops, everyone on the high-tech superteam 
employs various bionic enhancements, including arti- 



ficial limbs, built-in weaponry, and internal cybernetic 
sensors and computers. 

The initial leader is Dylan Cruise (a.k.a. Heat- 
wave), a former Navy SEAL who is also a cyberneti- 
cally enhanced mutant with the ability to absorb 
and release solar energy by focusing it into a coher- 
ent beam of superheated plasma, a power that also 
enables him to fly by riding superheated air cur- 
rents. Heatwave controls this potent and dangerous 
power by way of a specially built containment suit, a 
la the visor used by the X-Men's Cyclops. Unfortu- 
nately, the sudden onset of his powers (during his 
teens) resulted in the death of his brother. Working 
with future Cyberforce members Cyblade and 
Stormwatch, Heatwave rescues a fourth superbe- 
ing, Stryker, from the clutches of Cyberdata. After- 
ward the four heroes form the nucleus of Cyber- 
force. Later, after his daughter Dana is killed by ter- 
rorists, Heatwave is captured by Cyberdata, whose 
Borg-like drones transform him, at least temporarily, 
into one of their obedient S.H.O.C. troopers. 

Morgan Struker (a.k.a. Stryker), an alumnus of 
the U.S. Special Forces and the CIA, is a brilliant fight- 
er, a talent doubtless enhanced by his one mutant 
characteristic: He was born with four fully functional 
arms, each capable of operating independently (thus 
he is often depicted firing four guns simultaneously). 
Stryker's artificial eye gives him night vision, as well 
as the ability to pick up both infrared and ultraviolet 
wavelengths. The targeting computers built into his 
body make him formidable indeed, as do the four 
cybernetic arms he acquires later after losing his 
organic limbs in combat. After helping establish 
Cyberforce, Stryker went on to found a spin-off group 
of mercenary mutants known as Stryke Force, seen in 
Codename: Stryke Force and Cyberforce, Stryke 
Force: Opposing Force (both 1995). 

Among the other components of Cyberforce are 
Dominique Thiebaut (a.k.a. Cyblade, a co-founder of 
Cyberforce), part of the royal family of the small 
European nation of Chalenne who possesses the 
mutant ability to project sharp blades constructed 
of pure psionic energy; Cassandra Lane (a.k.a. Bal- 



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Cyberforce 



listic), a superhuman athlete and markswoman 
whose abilities are enhanced by her bionic arm; 
Carin Taylor (a.k.a. Velocity), a cybernetic mutant 
able run at speeds in excess of 3,300 miles per 
hour (she is also Ballistic's kid sister and a former 
S.H.O.C. troop); Impact, a thick-thewed, ironclad 
powerhouse reminiscent of the X-Men's Colossus; 
and Robert Bearclaw (a.k.a. Ripclaw), a technologi- 
cally augmented (with artificial hands) Native-Ameri- 
can mutant able to assume the abilities of various 
animals (think DCs Animal Man crossed with 
Sasquatch, Snowbird, and Shaman from Marvel's 
Alpha Flight) and gifted with the power to receive 
psychic "impressions" from inanimate objects. 

Buoyed by the excitement surrounding the 
advent of Image Comics, the initial Cyberforce minis- 
eries in 1992 proved successful enough to spawn 
(so to speak) further adventures of Silvestri's cyborg 
crusaders. A second volume of Cyberforce began to 
appear in 1993, running for thirty-five issues before 
concluding in 1997. As became customary during 
the first half of the 1990s, several issues of the 



series sported covers with collectible "enhance- 
ments" such as foil embossing and "gold" and 
"platinum" inks. The team members' origins were 
revealed in greater detail in Cyberforce Universe 
Sourcebook (1994-1995) and Cyberforce Origins 
(1995-1996), both from Image Comics. Individual 
Cyberforce members such as Ballistic, Cyblade, Rip- 
claw, and Velocity proved popular enough to appear 
in comics of their own between 1995 and 1997, 
including several crossovers between Cyblade and 
popular characters from other publishers: 
Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents #1 (1995, 
Image Comics); Shi/Cyblade: The Battle for Indepen- 
dents #1 (1995, Crusade Comics); and 
Cyblade/Ghost Rider (1997, Marvel Comics). 

Like many of the superheroes and superteams 
introduced during the superhero-comics publishing 
glut of the early 1990s, Cyberforce faded into 
obscurity during the subsequent lean years. As to 
whether or when the team will return, only time — 
and the future machinations of Cyberdata, Mark Sil- 
vestri, and Top Cow Studios— will tell. — MAM 



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Vaved&nf \ 



Lev Gleason Comics, which developed under the 
guidance of Leverett "Lev" Gleason and Arthur 
Bernhardt, was one of the most remarkable compa- 
nies of comics' Golden Age (1938-1954) both in 
terms of its success and its approach to its titles. 
Both Bernhardt and Gleason were avowedly left- 
wing publishers with strong socialist roots and a 
pronounced concern for civic values. They also over- 
saw one of the real powerhouse publishing houses 
of the 1940s, with sales of its big three titles — 
Daredevil, Boy Comics, and Crime Does Not Pay— in 
the millions. Unusually, for much of the 1940s the 
company resisted the temptation to expand its line, 
concentrating instead on producing high-quality 
comics, though by the early 1950s it had diversified 
into the Western, romance, and humor genres. Just 
as Lev Gleason was one of the decade's most suc- 
cessful comic-book companies, it was also among 
the most controversial, reviled by critics for the bru- 
tality and sadism of its comics and accused of 
being a communist sympathizer. 

In its early days, the company went through 
several names (Your Guide, Rhoda, and Comic 
House) and several editors (including future Plastic 
Man artist Jack Cole). Its flagship title in 1939 was 



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m 



Silver Streak Comics, an unremarkable effort 
enlivened only by a strip, drawn by Cole, about a 
monstrous villain called the Claw. Things picked up 
in issue #6 (September 1940) with the introduction 
of Daredevil, by the Jack Binder studio and Don 
Rico. Daredevil's origin seemed to owe more than a 
little to the recently released Batman strip: Ren- 
dered mute by the shock of seeing his parents 
killed, Bart Hill builds himself up into a strong, fear- 
less fighter to avenge the wrong done to him. 
Inspired by a boomerang-shaped scar on his chest 
(which has been branded by his parents' killers), 
the young lad practices with a boomerang for years 
until he becomes a deadly master with the weapon 
(shades of the Batarang). In a somewhat implausi- 
ble twist, when Hill dons his Daredevil costume he 
miraculously regains the power of speech. 

With little to differentiate it from its many 
rivals, the Daredevil strip might have faded into 
obscurity except that editor Cole had other ideas. 
With issue #7, he took over the feature and reintro- 
duced a memorable villain. Sensing that his terrify- 
ing Claw (a giant, yellow-skinned creature of the 
night with monstrous talons and teeth) needed a 
worthy opponent, Cole pitted him against Daredevil 
in a five-issue epic that thrilled his readers. In issue 
#7, Cole also redesigned Daredevil's costume into 
a split red-and-blue bodysuit with a spiked belt and 



J59 



Daredevil 



a face-covering cowl, and he ditched the mute ploy. 
Daredevil would go on to star in Silver Streak until 
issue #17, his later tales being illustrated by Don 
Rico, but before that his publishers had other plans 
for the hero. 

Enraged and affronted by the rise of Adolf 
Hitler and the terrifying war in Europe, Gleason and 
Bernhardt were determined to battle fascism the 
only way they could, and so pitted their top hero 
against Hitler himself. Daredevil Battles Hitler came 
out in July 1941, five months before the United 
States entered the war, and launched the 
boomerang-toting superhero into a fifteen-year solo 
career. Initial strips were fast-moving affairs, filled 
to bursting with such villains as the Ghoul, Profes- 
sor Venom, the Wizard, Fu Tong and, inevitably, the 
Claw again. Token girlfriend Tonia Saunders was the 
de rigueur damsel in distress. By this point, the fea- 
ture was being produced by Charles Biro and Bob 
Wood, who were elevated to joint editorship by the 
comic's eleventh issue and immediately overhauled 
its content and direction, deleting most of the title's 
backup features. 

Charles Biro was a limited, if energetic, artist 
but a sensational writer, and under his direction 
Daredevil, Boy, and Crime Does Not Pay (as Silver 
Streak was renamed) were transformed. In Dare- 
devil #13, Biro introduced a gang of teenage run- 
aways, the Little Wise Guys — Scarecrow, Pee Wee, 
Jock, and Meatball — and the strip began to revolve 
around their adventures. The new strips were 
incredibly wordy, dense morality tales, frequently 
dealing with the problems of youth and small-town 
life that were absolutely engrossing. Reflecting the 
social concerns of Gleason and Bernhardt, Biro 
dealt with such issues as crime, juvenile delinquen- 
cy, alcoholism, child abuse, and doomed romance 
with gripping energy and a surprising candor. Never 
afraid to break with convention, Biro killed off one of 
the Little Wise Guys (Meatball) in issue #13, and 
replaced him with Curly. 

Daredevil was soon given a new name, Bill 
Hart, and (in issue #18) a new origin, in which he 



was orphaned by an evil uncle and brought up by 
aborigines in Australia; it was they who taught him 
his prowess with the boomerang. During the World 
War II years, Daredevil and his gang fought the 
occasional Japanese invasion force but mostly con- 
centrated on homegrown black-marketeers and 
hoods, in strips very similar to Crime Does Not Pay, 
the company's biggest seller. However, as the Little 
Wise Guys grew in popularity, Daredevil became 
increasingly a spectator in his own comic and, by 
issue #69, he was gone for good — with the excep- 
tion of a couple of bizarre appearances in issues 
#79 and #80 where he and the Wise Guys flew to 
Mars! Biro handled much of the writing himself, with 
some help from Robert Bernstein, while the artists 
were Norman Maurer, William Overgard, Al Borth, 
Tony Dipreta, and others. Biro wanted his strips to 
look a particular way — as little use of black as pos- 
sible, to leave the artwork open for the maximum 
amount of color — and so there is no mistaking one 
of his strips. His stories were very distinctive as 
well, full of well-developed, complex characters, con- 
vincing dialogue and satisfying plots, and it is no 
surprise that his comics were so popular. 

Lev Gleason comics were among the most criti- 
cized of the 1950s, and commentators frequently 
complained that they glamorized crime, citing numer- 
ous examples of violence, sadism, and cruelty. The 
comics were certainly uncompromising, but Glea- 
son's motives were more honorable than his detrac- 
tors gave him credit for. Nevertheless, he gave up 
publishing for good in 1956, with the final issue of 
Daredevil (#134) nestling on the newsstands next to 
DC Comics' Showcase #4, which heralded a new era 
of superheroics, the Silver Age of comics 
(1956-1969). Had Daredevil returned to his own 
title, he might well have enjoyed a great comeback 
along with the rest of Showcase's heroes, but by 
that point he was long gone. In recent years, Ace 
and AC Comics have published a few vintage Dare- 
devil reprints (with AC even reviving him for occasion- 
al outings under the copyright-secure name of "Red- 
devil"), but for most fans the character's original 



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Daredevil II 



name belongs to a more well-known superhero pub- 
lished by Marvel Comics. — DAR 

Daredevil 11 

Daredevil, "The Man without Fear," was the last new 
major Marvel superhero to come out of the comic 
company's burst of creativity in the 1960s. It took 
more than fifteen years for the superhero to 
become a real fan favorite, but he has enjoyed 
many fine periods since his introduction. The first 
Daredevil issue appeared in mid-1964 and the char- 
acter was the first of Marvel's heroes to be created 
without the input of either super-artists Jack Kirby 
or Steve Ditko, but he clearly owed a debt to one of 
writer/editor Stan Lee's biggest successes, Spider- 
Man. In a story drawn by veteran comics artist Bill 
Everett, readers were introduced to a wisecracking, 
yellow-costumed hero with a big "D" on his chest 
who swung around the New York City skyline, 
searching out trouble with his "radar sense" — a 
scenario that fans of the legendary web-slinger 
would have found all too familiar. But what differen- 
tiates Daredevil from his more famous inspiration is 
that he has a significant handicap: He is blind. 

Daredevil's origin, recounted in that first issue, 
tells of how put-upon bookworm Matt Murdock is 
blinded by a radioactive canister while rescuing a 
blind man from the path of an out-of-control truck 
from the Ajax Atomic Labs. Young Matt, nicknamed 
"Daredevil" by his high-school tormentors as a jab at 
his straggly physique, is the son of washed-up boxer 
"Battling" Jack Murdock, then on this way back to 
the big-time through the help of a crooked promoter 
known, rather suspiciously, as the Fixer. Throughout 
high school and college, Matt builds himself up 
physically, aided by his heightened senses (a side 
effect of the accident that more than compensates 
for his blindness) and, when his dad is killed after 
refusing to throw a fight, he dons a costume and 
becomes Daredevil, vowing to bring his father's 
killers to justice. In addition to his "razor sharp" 



§?S« UGLE-SUE ISSUE! 




Daredevil #181 © 1982 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY FRANK MILLER. 



senses that can hear someone else's heart beating, 
never forget an odor once it is smelled, tell how 
many bullets are in a gun by its weight, and distin- 
guish color by its feel, Daredevil's innocent-looking 
blind man's cane contains a grappling hook and 
cable for scaling walls. On being confronted by the 
imposing figure of Daredevil, the Fixer promptly dies 
of a heart attack, so establishing early on the terrify- 
ing effect the hero has on criminals. 

The first issue also established the strip's sup- 
porting cast: Murdock's partner in his law firm, 
Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, and their beautiful blonde 
secretary Karen Page; thus was the classic love tri- 



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Daredevil II 



angle set in place. Over the following decade, Lee 
and other writers built up a formidable and bizarre 
rogues' gallery for Daredevil, including the Owl, Mr. 
Fear, Stiltman, the Gladiator, the Ox, Kilgrave the 
Purple Man, the Jester, and Leapfrog, among many 
others. The strip also boasted some of the finest 
talents in comics, including Wally Wood (who intro- 
duced Daredevil's famous all-red costume in issue 
#7), John Romita, and Gene Colan, who would draw 
the feature well into the 1970s. In typical Marvel 
fashion, where Daredevil was a fast-talking joker, 
Murdock was tortured and morose, petrified that his 
secret identity would be discovered and unable to 
reveal his true feelings to his seductive secretary. 
Indeed, to cover up his secret life as a costumed 
hero, Matt created a fictitious twin brother, the 
obnoxious egomaniac Mike Murdock, whom he 
impersonated for almost two years. Throughout the 
deception, Foggy and Page were convinced that 
Mike was actually Daredevil but by the decade's end 
Matt finally revealed the truth to Page, who promptly 
fled to Los Angeles to become an actress. 

Throughout the early 1970s, Daredevil 
acquired a new love, ex-KGB agent and slinky super- 
heroine Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow, 
and the pair relocated to swinging San Francisco. 
After four years of well-crafted crime fighting, includ- 
ing a period when the Widow received equal cover 
billing, the pair split, with Murdock returning to 
Foggy in New York and Romanoff joining the short- 
lived supergroup the Champions. While by no 
means one of Marvel's top-selling titles, the comic 
of this period was nonetheless invariably one of the 
company's most readable books, with consistently 
fine art from Gene Colan, Bob Brown, and rising 
star inker Klaus Janson. One 1976 issue (#133) 
even guest-starred celebrity paranormalist Uri 
Geller, but a more significant development was the 
introduction two months earlier of the deadly 
sureshot villain Bullseye, who could make literally 
anything into a weapon. 



In 1979, Daredevil issue #158 saw the intro- 
duction of a promising young artist by the name of 
Frank Miller. He took over scriptwriting two issues 
later, transforming the comic into a fan favorite and 
changing its direction forever. Miller's art was both 
cinematic and atmospheric, with a terrific knack of 
grabbing the reader's attention and not letting go. 
Miller's first act as writer was to introduce a myste- 
rious female assassin called Elektra, a deadly 
Ninja-trained bounty hunter working for the evil King- 
pin. But, to confuse things, she had also been Mur- 
dochs first love and, over the course of the next 
few years, their complicated and deadly fascination 
with each other inspired a fanatical following. What 
had once been just another comic to most readers 
was now unquestionably the most talked-about title 
in the United States. Miller became the first cre- 
ative star of the 1980s and the strip's searing, 
dark, violent, explosive direction was mimicked 
across the comics industry. 

From issue #168 to his last hurrah in issue 
#191, Miller wove an ongoing, elaborate saga 
involving the Kingpin, Elektra, assorted Ninjas, an 
increasingly psychotic Bullseye, and numerous 
lowlifes and gangsters. In his hands (aided greatly 
by the talented Janson), New York became almost a 
character in its own right, with Miller delighting in 
delineating its totemic water towers, forests of sky- 
scrapers, and fetid backstreets. He also greatly 
expanded the feature's supporting cast, introducing 
the chain-smoking Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich 
(who guesses Daredevil's true identity) and the 
blind derelict known only as Stick, a Zen master 
who had tutored the teenage Murdock in developing 
his heightened senses. In the course of the epic, 
Bullseye went mad and Elektra was killed off, 
although in a final act Miller resurrected her, much 
to fans' relief. Elektra's popularity inspired a wildly 
well-received 1986 miniseries written by Miller and 
painted by Bill Sienkiewitz, and as of 2004 nine dif- 



Opposite: From Daredevil #220 © 1985 Marvel Comics. 



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Daredevil II 



ferent Elektra titles (including reprints and mini- 
series) have appeared. 

In 1983, Miller moved over to DC Comics, 
where he would create another of the decade's 
standout titles, The Dark Knight Returns (also with 
Janson's inks); Marvel found him a hard act to fol- 
low. In time, another emerging artist, future New 
Yorker star David Mazzuchelli, joined the title and 
soon began to make waves with a beguiling combi- 
nation of Colan's fluidity and Miller's atmospherics. 
An increasingly popular run was capped in 1986 by 
the return of Miller on scripts, resulting in the "Born 
Again" storyline (in issues #227-#233), which, if 
anything, surpassed the comic's earlier triumphs. 
The story saw the return of the long-forgotten Karen 
Page, now a faded starlet and abject drug addict, 
who had sold Daredevil's secret identity for the 
price of a "hit." In the coming months, the Kingpin 
systematically destroyed Murdock's career, reputa- 
tion, friendships, and almost his life, but salvation 
appeared in the form of a nun who rescued the 
derelict and dying hero. The story's denouement 
reunited a drug-free Page with Murdock, revealed 
that the nun was in fact his long-lost mother, and 
established a new life for America's favorite hero, 
helping the poor of New York's Hell's Kitchen. 

In an ideal world, the comic would have ended 
there — as close to perfection as any superhero 
comic has a right to be — but, of course, with high 
sales and an enthusiastic readership, that was 
never going to happen. Miller and Mazzuchelli left to 
create the legendary Batman Year One series, and 
their successors have effectively based their work 
on this period ever since. In 2003, the live-action 
feature film Daredevil was released to strong box- 
office and general critical acclaim, particularly from 
fans who hailed it as one of the most convincing 
superhero films to date. The film starred Ben 
Affleck as Daredevil and Jennifer Garner as Elektra; 
with a supporting cast of Bullseye, the Kingpin, 
Foggy, and Ben Urich, it is very much based on 
Miller's vision of the comic. 



In the post-Miller era, Ann Nocenti (one of 
comics' most notable female writers) teamed up 
with artist John Romita Jr. (whose father had made 
his Marvel debut with Daredevil some two decades 
earlier) for a long run on the comic. Nocenti intro- 
duced another female assassin, the schizophrenic 
Typhoid Mary, brought back the Kingpin, and pitted 
Daredevil against Marvel's own version of the devil, 
Mephisto. That team's successors, Dan Chichester 
and Lee Weeks, revisited the "Born Again" era, right 
down to the comic's artwork, Murdock's mental 
breakdown, and the villainy of the Kingpin (yet 
again). In the 1990s, readers were presented with 
more mental breakdowns, a new Kevlar-armored 
costume, the return of the hero's mother, his old 
costume, a brief stint with the secret organization 
S.H.I.E.L.D., and Daredevil's old pal Stick. By this 
point, Miller's reinvention of the hero as a dark, tor- 
mented, unstable character had permeated the 
industry to such an extent that strips as diverse as 
Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Ghost Rider had been 
given a makeover, and Daredevil was now just one 
of the crowd. 

In 1998, after 380 issues, Marvel decided to 
relaunch the strip from #1 as part of its more 
mature Marvel Knights line, and recruited cult film 
director Kevin Smith as writer and soon-to-be new 
Marvel boss Joe Quesada on art. Smith and his 
successor Brian Michael Bendis have succeeded in 
making fans sit up and take notice by introducing a 
new twist — possibly unique in the genre — of reveal- 
ing Daredevil's secret identity to the world. Follow- 
ing an unsuccessful coup attempt against the King- 
pin (him again!), former deputy Mr. Silke turned him- 
self in to the FBI, revealing to them the one bargain- 
ing chip he had: the knowledge that Matt Murdock 
is Daredevil. Within a day, news leaked out to the 
Daily Globe, which splashed the revelation to a star- 
tled nation. Murdock and Foggy Nelson (who 
learned of Murdock's secret some years earlier), 
back together again as law-firm partners, respond- 
ed with a $400 million lawsuit, but no one was con- 
vinced by their denials. With Bendis and the photo- 



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Daredevil in the Media 



realistic Alex Maleev creating riveting stories and a 
strong fan following, Daredevil has once more 
become one of the industry's most innovative and 
talked-about comics. — DAR 

Qavedwfl in 
the Media 

Prowling the night, he lives in a world of shadows. 
Matt Murdock may be a crusading lawyer by day, but 
when the lights go out, it's time for him to turn vigi- 
lante as Daredevil, the "Man without Fear." And 
although Murdock is blind, his hyper-senses allow 
him to fight crime with a kind of radar that might 
make him see just a bit better than his enemies. 
Daredevil first burst onto the comics page in Dare- 
devil #1 (August 1964), co-created by Stan Lee and 
Bill Everett. Although his costume was originally a 
garish red-and-yellow creation, it quickly became a 
sleek red bodysuit. 

Daredevil's first media appearance was actual- 
ly just a glimpse, and not even of the real hero. In 
the debut episode of 1981's Spider-Man and His 
Amazing Friends, Daredevil's is one of the outfits 
briefly seen at a costume party. It was his only 
appearance on television in the 1980s, even 
though Daredevil's main adversary the Kingpin 
would bedevil Spider-Man on this series and a con- 
current syndicated Spider-Man series. 

During 1984, Marvel Productions planned a 
Daredevil animated series, and ABC announced it 
on their fall schedule in Hollywood trade newspa- 
pers. Dick Sebast was the producer, but early script 
development had details such as a van with a can- 
non-catapult, which Daredevil used to shoot himself 
to the scene of crimes! When the network wasn't 
wild about the show's direction, Mark Evanier was 
brought aboard to rewrite the pilot script, jettisoning 
the objectionable material. He kept Murdock's see- 
ing eye dog ("Lightning the Super Dog," according to 

THB SUPBBHeZO BOOK 



promo art), but turned the plot more toward the 
lighthearted crime-fighting stories presented in 
Daredevil's 1964-1965 adventures as drawn by 
Wally Wood. Despite the ABC announcement, Dare- 
devil didn't make the schedule after all, the victim 
of company politics. 

It was not until 1995 that Daredevil made his 
real animated debut. In the second-season opening 
episode of the syndicated Fantastic Four (FF) series 
in 1995— titled "And a Blind Man Shall Lead 
Them" — Daredevil and Murdock were voiced by Bill 
Smitrovich, and the hero helped the FF fight master 
villain Doctor Doom. In September 1996, Daredevil 
made two appearances in the third season of Fox's 
animated Spider-Man series. In chapters 6 and 7 of 
the "Sins of the Fathers" storyline, Murdock helps 
clear Spider-Man of murder charges, while Daredevil 
helps him fight crime. Edward Albert voiced Mur- 
dock/Daredevil, while Roscoe Lee Brown was Wil- 
son Fisk/Kingpin. Those episodes, along with the 
Fantastic Four story, were collected as a Daredevil 
vs. Spider-Man DVD in 2003. 

Daredevil made his first live-action appearance 
in May 1989 in the NBC telefilm Trial of the Incredi- 
ble Hulk. That project, written by Gerald DiPego and 
directed by Bill Bixby, reunited the cast of The 
Incredible Hulk TV series in a storyline in which 
David Banner (Bixby) is accused of assaulting a 
woman on a subway. When he goes to trial, he 
seeks the help of blind attorney Murdock (film and 
Broadway star Rex Smith). After Banner "Hulks out," 
the Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) and Daredevil take on the 
criminal Wilson Fisk (John Rhys Davies). 

Trial was meant as a backdoor pilot to see if 
NBC wanted to commit to a Daredevil TV series. 
The storyline was fairly faithful to the comics origins 
of "hornhead," but fans weren't happy that Dare- 
devil's costume was significantly altered. Instead of 
red togs, the crime fighter wore an all-black outfit 
that looked more suited to ninja-wear than super- 
hero-ing. At least he still had his radar sense and 
all-purpose billy club. 



'6s 



Daredevil in the Media 




Jennifer Garner (Elektra) and Ben Affleck (Daredevil) duel in a scene from Daredevil. 



In March 2002, shooting began on a Daredevil 
feature film, from New Regency Enterprises and 
Twentieth Century Fox. Longtime Darectew'/fan Mark 
Steven Johnson both scripted and directed the film, 
concentrating on the comic's origin story and Frank 
Miller's Bullseye-Elektra storyline (1979-1983), as 
well as elements from more modern storylines. The 
plot finds Daredevil (Ben Affleck) up against Kingpin 
(Michael Clarke Duncan), who had hired psychotic 
assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell) to kill the father of 
Elektra (Jennifer Garner). 

The film featured bravura fight scenes and a 
stunning visualization of Murdock's radar-vision. 
Fans appreciated the red leather costume that was 
fairly faithfully realized, as well as the peppering of 
cameo appearances from real-life comics creators 
Stan Lee, Frank Miller, and Kevin Smith. Affleck had 



little to do but look grim in the Daredevil costume, 
but as Murdock, he played blindness credibly and 
presented a sympathetic man who retained a sense 
of humor despite being physically tortured due to his 
punishing good deeds. Less popular with fans was 
the reimagining of Kingpin as an African-American vil- 
lain instead of a Caucasian crime lord, and the lack 
of traditional costume for either Elektra or Bullseye. 
Instead of Elektra's red (or white) ninja gear, Garner 
wore dark leather, while Farrell's Bullseye traded in 
blue-and-white tights for a tank top, trenchcoat, and 
tough-guy forehead scar. Few quibbled with the act- 
ing talents of Duncan, Farrell, and Garner, however, 
with each filling their role — as written — nicely, and 
reflecting elements of their comics characterization. 

While critics gave Daredevil a mixed reception, 
the public liked the film, giving it a record opening 



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Dark Horse Heroes 



weekend in February 2003 and a $102-million-plus 
domestic box office take. Duncan reprised his role 
(in voice only) as Kingpin in an episode of MTV's 
computer-animated Spider-Man series in August 
2003. Meanwhile, Fox has discussed a Daredevil 
animated series, and deals have been signed for 
development on a sequel for Daredevil and a stand- 
alone Elektra film, with both Affleck and Garner 
signed to reprise their roles. Clearly, the "Man with- 
out Fear" is also the "Man with a Hollywood 
Future." — AM 

Part: Horse 
Heroes 

Mike Richardson, owner of a successful chain of 
comics shops in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan 
area, was dissatisfied with the caliber of material 
being produced in the mid-1980s, and invested in a 
highly risky venture: publishing his own comic-book 
line. Dedicated to producing quality projects with 
diversified subjects, and to giving major publishers 
Marvel and DC Comics a run for their money, his 
tenaciously named Dark Horse Comics charged out 
of the gate in 1986 with its black-and-white antholo- 
gy series, Dark Horse Presents (DHP). Paul Chad- 
wick's Concrete and Chris Warner's Black Cross 
were featured in DHP#1, two nontraditional strips 
featuring nontraditional heroes. True to Richard- 
son's vision, those stories were miles above stan- 
dard B&W fare and rivaled the quality of the best 
comic books then being published by the majors. 
Concrete and Black Cross helped Dark Horse 
define a template that would direct the path of the 
company's heroes to follow: a nurturing of creators' 
visions and a drive to be different. 

Richardson, abetted by editorial second-in-com- 
mand Randy Stradley, expanded the Dark Horse line 
in the late 1980s with licensed titles, continuing 
the sagas of Twentieth Century Fox's Aliens and 




Ghost #2 ™ & © 1995 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 

COVER ART BY ADAM HUGHES. 

Predator movies in best-selling comic books. The 
promise of lucrative royalties lured top talent to this 
upstart's books, and before long big-name creators 
anxious to break free of the corporate restraints of 
Marvel and DC Comics were bringing their personal 
wares to Dark Horse. 

John Byrne, a fan favorite from his work on X- 
Men, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and Super- 
man, came knocking on Dark Horse's door in 1992 
with his original superhero concept, The Next Men. 
This series, an homage to Marvel's X-Men, featured 
a quintet of mutates who flee from the top-secret 
"Project Next Men" and struggle to adjust to the real 



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Dark Horse Heroes 



world while avoiding their pursuers. Byrne followed 
his thirty-issue stint on Next Men with his short-lived 
Fantastic Four pastiche, Danger Unlimited. 

Also in 1992, Dark Horse picked up Grendel, 
Matt Wagner's bleak but compelling study of aggres- 
sion that originated in the late 1980s at Comico the 
Comic Company, for a lengthy run of irregularly pub- 
lished miniseries and one-shots. On two occasions, 
Wagner's creation encountered the Dark Knight in 
DC/Dark Horse Batman/ Grendel crossovers. Gren- 
del is in development as a movie, with a release 
date yet to be unannounced. 

Eccentric cartoonist Bob Burden transplanted 
his bizarre superhero comic books The Flaming Car- 
rot and its spinoff Mysterymen Stories to Richard- 
son's company in the mid-1990s. The latter proper- 
ty became a movie produced by Dark Horse Enter- 
tainment: Mystery Men (1999) featured a band of 
low-rent superheroes, including Mr. Furious (Ben 
Stiller), the Bowler (Janeane Garofalo), Captain 
Amazing (Greg Kinnear), and the Spleen (Paul 
Reubens). Despite its impressive cast and a 
wickedly satirical script, Mystery Men tanked at the 
box office. Another established independent super- 
hero series that temporarily relocated to Dark 
Horse was Mike Baron and Steve Rude's Nexus, a 
critically lauded science-fiction concept — inspired in 
part by Rude's fascination with the television car- 
toon Space Ghost— which featured the exploits of 
an intergalactic executioner. Similarly, Mike Allred's 
snappy beatnik-hero concept, Madman Comics, was 
picked up by Dark Horse in the mid-1990s and 
stayed there until late 2000. 

Creator Mike Mignola's Hellboy, the story of an 
orphaned demon, debuted at Dark Horse in 1994. 
Mignola's stylish, shadowy rendering and his flair 
for having fun with dark subjects struck a chord with 
readers. Numerous Hellboy miniseries and specials 
have appeared, as has some merchandising, and 
director Guillermo del Toro's live-action feature Hell- 
boy, starring Ron Perlman (of TV's Beauty and the 
Beast), was released in April 2004— just in time for 
the character's tenth anniversary. 



Dark Horse had made a name for itself pub- 
lishing other people's characters: creator-owned 
series and licensed titles (Godzilla, Terminator, 
Tarzan, Star Wars, and other properties joined 
Aliens and Predator). When Richardson, Stradley, 
and their editorial staff decided to produce super- 
hero comics all their own, they were determined to 
create superheroes unlike any other publisher's. 

Dark Horse's first company-owned superhero — 
the Mask — first appeared in Dark Horse Presents 
#11 (1987), quite early in the company's history. A 
twisted, graphic melding of Bugs Bunny and the Ter- 
minator, the original Mask is actually poor schmuck 
Stanley Ipkiss, who buys a bizarre ancient mask 
and gains Looney Tunes-inspired superpowers, but 
uses these abilities to slaughter his tormentors. 
The Mask made repeated appearances, with other 
unlucky souls gaining the artifact and its dangerous 
properties, before heading to the big screen (albeit 
in a watered-down, family-friendly incarnation) with 
The Mask (1994), a film co-produced by Richard- 
son, with Jim Carrey in the lead. The Mask was a 
summer box-office hit, and an animated series and 
loads of action figures followed. 

Brand-new superhero universes flooded comics 
shops in the early 1990s, the result of a specula- 
tor-fueled sales boom. Dark Horse entered this 
competition for market share in 1993 with its 
boastfully named "Comics' Greatest World" (CGW), 
which situated new heroes in four distinctive envi- 
ronments: Arcadia, an art deco-inspired Mecca for 
mobsters; Steel Harbor, a bombed-out urban land- 
scape overrun by superthugs; Golden City, a picture- 
perfect megalopolis governed by superheroes; and 
Cinnabar Flats, the sparsely populated, Southwest 
desert location of an interdimensional vortex and a 
top-secret military installation. Sixteen titles (four in 
each environment), bargain-priced at one dollar 
each, were released to introduce the cities and 
their stars. 

This baptismal gimmick was succeeded by a 
quartet of ongoing monthly series, each deeper in 
content than the standard superfare: Catalyst, 



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Dark Horse Heroes 




Go Boy 7 #1 ™ & © 2003 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 

COVER ART BY FRANCISCO RUIZ VELASCO. 



Agents of Change, set in Golden City, dealt with the 
woes of a Utopian gated community, including the 
U.S. government's suspicions over its autocracy and 
an influx of persistent would-be immigrants. X, the 
Arcadia title, was a violent study of a lone vigilante's 
efforts to unravel the city's corruption. Out of the Vor- 
tex, based in Cinnabar Flats, focused on the dubious 
motivations of an extraterrestrial called Vortex who 
emerged from the region's strange whirlpool, as well 
as the military's efforts to take advantage of alien 
nanotechnology. Finally, Steel Harbor's Barb Wire 
starred a hard-hitting, motorcycling lady brawler. 

Other series and specials were released to help 
strengthen Comics' Greatest World, featuring super- 



heroes cut from a more cerebral cloth: The Machine, 
featuring a horrific tech/flesh fusion; Motorhead, a 
heavily tattooed, muscle-bound bar bouncer haunted 
by voices implanted into his head; Titan, an arrogant 
superman with few mental gifts; Mecha, a free- 
wheeling iron man; Hero Zero, a teenage boy who 
morphed into a Japanese-robot-inspired giant (he 
even fought the King of Monsters in Godzilla vs. 
Hero Zero); Division 13, an X-F/7es-esque task force; 
Agents of Law, a Catalyst sequel with Golden City 
leader Grace deposed from her own city; and Ghost, 
a moody series involving a sexy, gun-toting wraith 
butchering Arcadia's bad boys. 

X, written by Steven Grant, was a modest hit, 
and Steel Harbor's "babe on wheels" became a 
movie star — in the ample (and heavily exploited) 
form of Pamela Anderson — in Barb Wire (1996), a 
poorly received movie borrowing the comic's tag 
line: "Don't Call Me Babe!" The one success of 
these Dark Horse heroes was Ghost. Initially script- 
ed by screenwriter Eric Luke (Explorers) with lushly 
rendered covers and interior art by comics' most 
celebrated "Good Girl" artist, Adam Hughes, Ghost 
ran through 2000. Dark Horse produced a Ghost 
action figure and three crossovers involving the 
character: Ghost/Batgirl (with DC Comics), 
Ghost/ Hellboy, and Ghost and the Shadow. 

Despite Dark Horse's valiant efforts, the 
comics industry became glutted in the mid-1990s 
and imploded. After a 1994 attempt to reimagine 
"Comics' Greatest World" as "Dark Horse Heroes," 
the titles, save Ghost, were canceled, one by one. 
As a result, Dark Horse continues in the 2000s as 
a smaller, more tightly run comics machine, count- 
ing the Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fran- 
chises, Hellboy, and American-distributed Japanese 
manga series like Ghost in the Shell as its most 
successful properties. In 2003, Dark Horse 
launched a new line of superhero titles under its 
"Rocket Comics" imprint: Go Boy 7, Hell, Syn, 
Galactic, Lone, and Crush, youth-oriented concepts 
with contemporary themes and in-your-face charac- 
ters. Given Dark Horse's persistence and flair for 



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Dazzler 



originality, Rocket may very well succeed where 
CGW didn't. —ME 



Qazzlev 



Alison Blaire, a young woman with the mutant ability 
to transform sound into blinding light bursts, holo- 
graphic illusions, and even intense laser blasts, 
first flared across the Marvel Comics firmament in 
late 1979 in an issue of X-Men (vol. 1 #130, cover- 
dated February 1980), the creation of writer Chris 
Claremont and co-plotter and artist John Byrne. Like 
most mutants, Blaire's powers do not manifest 
themselves until her teens, suddenly appearing 
while she is performing at a high-school dance. For- 
tunately, Blaire's adolescent audience mistakes her 
nascent light powers for clever stagecraft. Though 
her father, Judge Carter Blaire, wants her to pursue 
a legal career as he did, she enters the world of 
music instead, using her powers on stage to visual- 
ly enhance her vocal performances; as during her 
high-school years, the adult Blaire's audiences 
attribute her light shows to special effects. As she 
matures, Blaire develops her abilities — which, inci- 
dentally, are useless in a vacuum, or in the com- 
plete absence of sound — into formidable offensive 
and defensive weapons. Her mutant talents (which 
account for her stage name Dazzler) eventually 
attract the attention of the villainous Hellfire Club, 
whose minions attack her, and the X-Men, who try 
to recruit her. However, Dazzler doesn't opt to join 
the team until years later, after going on musical 
tours during which she finds herself using her pow- 
ers to thwart various undistinguished criminals. 

Also known as "the Disco Dazzler," Blaire rep- 
resents Marvel's attempt to capitalize on the disco 
craze of the 1970s, though her debut came a little 
too late to be anywhere near the "cutting edge" of 
contemporary popular culture. But Dazzler proved 
popular anyway, and this success prompted Marvel 
to place the character in her own self-titled monthly 
series, beginning with Dazzler #1 (March 1981), 



written by Tom DeFalco with pencils by John Romita 
Jr. This series was destined to change the face of 
comics forever — though this was more due to the 
book's marketing than to its content. 

Throughout the mid-1970s, the vast majority of 
new comics sales occurred on newsstands. But as 
the decade wore on, news vendors began seeing 
comics as less profitable than other periodicals, 
causing steady declines in sales. Meanwhile 
comics shops across the United States — mostly 
subsisting from the sales of back issues — had 
been clamoring to Marvel and DC for new comics 
made strictly for the comic-shop market (or "direct- 
sales market," as it is usually called inside the 
industry). Taking a cue from small upstart publish- 
ers such as Pacific Comics — who sold its publica- 
tions to comics stores at unprecedented deep dis- 
counts but also adopted newsstand-antithetical 
nonreturnable terms — Marvel made its new Dazzler 
title exclusive to the direct market, racking up an 
impressive 428,000 in sales for the premiere 
issue. Although newsstand sales remained Marvel's 
bread and butter for the next several years, Dazzler 
had put the writing on the wall in great, glowing let- 
ters: The direct-sales market was here to stay. By 
the end of the decade, upwards of 5,000 comics 
shops were thriving across the country, dwarfing 
Marvel's flat newsstand sales. 

Although Dazzler's best days were rather quick- 
ly behind her — sales of her series' debut issue may 
have been inflated somewhat by collector specula- 
tion, and the series went bimonthly in 1983 before 
expiring with its forty-second issue — the character 
soldiered on, struggling to adapt to changing times. 
Reinventing herself periodically in Madonna-esque 
fashion, she redesigned her costume several times, 
taking her musical career in a more relevant (for the 
1980s, at least) techno-pop direction. In the 1984 
graphic novel Dazzler: The Movie, writer (and Marvel 
editor-in-chief) Jim Shooter sent Alison Blaire to Hol- 
lywood, where a crooked producer named Roman 
Nekoboh (strangely, that's "Hoboken Namor" 
spelled backward) takes advantage of her both per- 



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sonally and professionally; instead of benefiting 
from having starred in a career-boosting biopic, 
Blaire finds herself "outed" as a congenital super- 
human, her show-business career essentially 
destroyed by the general public's hysterical hatred 
of mutants. 

During the late 1980s, Alison rebuilds her life 
while living and training with the X-Men, under whose 
tutelage she greatly refines her powers. She meets 
and falls in love with the extradimensional mutant 
entity known as Longshot during this time, but fails 
to kindle a satisfying relationship with him right away 
because of his romantic tone-deafness, as it were. 
In the early 1990s, Dazzler is killed during a battle 
against anti-mutant forces in Dallas, Texas, only to 
be restored to life by a sorceress named Roma — 
who confers upon her the dubious "gift" of causing 
others to lose their memories of her, and gives her a 
vampire-like inability to be recorded on audio, video, 
or film; this development is an anathema for one 
who seeks show-biz immortality. 

After helping Longshot rid his other-dimension- 
al realm of Mojo, its tyrannical ruler, Blaire finally 
settles down with Longshot on his homeworld. 
Tragedy strikes soon afterward, however, when Long- 
shot goes missing after a battle, and she miscar- 
ries his child; a second Mojo reconquers Longshot's 
world (which is destroyed soon thereafter), forcing 
Blaire to flee to Earth. As the new millennium 
dawns, Dazzler is once again a solo act, trying to 
reconstitute her life and musical career and proving 
herself to be one of Marvel Comics' most tenacious 
survivors. — MAM 



QC Comics 

"An adventurer, an author, a teller of tall tales, a 
dreamer, and perhaps a bit of a rogue, Major Mal- 
colm Wheeler-Nicholson was the individual who cre- 
ated the comic book as we know it today," observed 
writer Les Daniels in his book, DC Comics: Sixty 



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Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes 
(1995). Nicholson, a former cavalry officer, drew 
from his military experiences when penning fiction 
stories in the late 1920s and early 1930s for a 
pulp magazine whose name would soon bear great 
significance for him: Adventure. 

In February 1935, the indomitable Nicholson 
published New Fun, a collection of all-new comic 
strips in a comic-book format. Reprints of strips had 
been previously collected by other publishers, but 
New Fun was the first new comic book. The major's 
company, National Allied Publications, soon added 
to its roster New Comics, but before long changed 
the series' titles to More Fun Comics and New 
Adventure Comics, respectively. 

Comic-book publishers trickled into existence 
in the mid-1930s. One of them, Harry Donenfeld 
and Jack Liebowitz's Detective Comics, Inc., part- 
nered with Nicholson's National in 1936, ultimately 
buying out the major's interest the following year. By 
endorsing his check, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nichol- 
son was transformed from an influential innovator 
to a footnote in the annals of comics history; few 
readers or fans are aware of his valuable contribu- 
tions and, stated Daniels, "He died, all but forgot- 
ten, in 1968." 

THB COMING OF SUPZZMAN 
ANP BATMAN 

This new publishing house lived, however, and 
grew. Now officially called National Comics, but bet- 
ter known as "DC" (for Detective Comics, its flag- 
ship series), DC produced anthology series that 
delivered short stories bristling with verve but lack- 
ing identifiable characters. When Liebowitz assigned 
editor Vin Sullivan the start-up title Action Comics, 
the search began for a headlining character. 

A young collaborative team from Cleveland, 
Ohio, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, had 
been producing strips for DCs More Fun and New 
Adventure. Their labor of love, a brightly garbed 



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champion with amazing powers they called Super- 
man, had earlier been rejected by newspaper syndi- 
cates but seemed right for DCs new title. Placing 
Superman — effortlessly heaving a sedan over his 
head — on the cover of Action Comics #1 (June 
1938) was a wise move for DC: This assertive 
image was unlike anything the comics audience had 
ever seen. In the History Channel's documentary 
Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked (2003), film- 
maker Kevin Smith remarked, "I'll never have any- 
thing approaching the level of the sense of wonder 
that those first kids who opened up Action #1 had." 
The first costumed superhero was born. 

And so was an industry. Action sold phenome- 
nally well, and competitors instantly materialized 
with inventive successors and transparent replica- 
tions of DCs "Man of Steel." Instead of plagiarizing 
its own character, DC chose, with its second major 
superhero, to create the antithesis of Superman. 
Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) introduced the 
Batman, a grim vigilante created by artist Bob 
Kane, abetted by writer Bill Finger. With his forebod- 
ing guise (chosen to "strike fear" into the hearts of 
the "cowardly lot" of criminals) and violent methods 
(Batman killed gangsters early on), the Batman was 
comics' original anti-hero. 

TPAU01AZ£P OF THE GOLPZN 
A&B C1933-19S4) 

The Batman's gruesome methods made pub- 
lisher DC nervous, and soon the hero's edge was 
softened by the addition of the first-ever superhero 
sidekick: the "laughing young daredevil" Robin the 
Boy Wonder, heralded as "the sensational character 
find of 1940" in his Detective #38 debut (April 
1940). The Batman, shadowy avenger, became Bat- 
man, costumed crime-fighting mentor and patriarch. 

In the late 1930s, DC formed an alliance with 
M. C. Gaines' All-American Publications (AA), with 
Gaines' titles bearing DCs imprint. Gaines pub- 
lished several series that initiated the next wave of 
superheroes who would become DC Comics main- 



stays: "The Fastest Man Alive," the Flash, and the 
winged hero Hawkman first appeared in Flash 
Comics #1 (January 1940), and the power 
ring-wielding Green Lantern bowed in All-American 
Comics #16 (July 1940). Gaines was instrumental 
in two other important DC milestones: the creation 
of comics' original superteam, the Justice Society 
of America, in All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940), 
and the birth of the most popular and enduring 
female superhero, Wonder Woman, in All Star #8 
(December 1941-January 1942). DC and AA tem- 
porarily parted company in 1944, but by the follow- 
ing year DC had purchased Gaines' properties. 

DC, like other American comics publishers, 
enlisted its superheroes in the war effort during 
World War II — even before the United States official- 
ly entered the conflict. Siegel and Shuster were 
commissioned by Look magazine to prepare a two- 
page comics story called "How Superman Would 
End the War," which was published on February 7, 
1940. The tale depicted the Man of Steel corralling 
the "power-mad scoundrels" Adolf Hitler and 
Joseph Stalin and dropping them off in Geneva to 
be tried. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, pro- 
Allied propaganda became common in DCs titles, 
particularly on its covers: Batman and Robin sold 
bonds, Hawkman dropped a bomb on Japan while 
signing "V for Victory" to the reader, and the Justice 
Society delivered food to the "starving patriots" in 
occupied Europe. 

PC SUPBPHBPOeS CONQ.UBP 
POPULAR CULTUBe 

The Man of Steel became a media sensation in 
the 1940s. The Fleischer animation studios pro- 
duced a celebrated series of seventeen Superman 
cartoon shorts beginning in 1941, and the hero 
spun off into a radio drama, a long-running newspa- 
per strip, and two live-action movie serials. The hero 
was heavily merchandized throughout the decade, 
in figurines, board games, puzzles, and other novel- 
ties. Superman also moonlighted in product 



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endorsement, pitching everything from Kellogg's 
Pep cereal to Conoco "N-tane" gas. Other DC stars 
shone in the media — Batman and Robin starred in 
two serials and a short-lived comic strip, while 
Congo Bill, the Vigilante, and Hop Harrigan 
appeared in movie serials of their own. Yet no DC 
character of the era could hold a candle to Super- 
man: The Man of Steel was the man of ubiquity. 

Once World War II ended, America's love affair 
with superheroes similarly died, and caped cru- 
saders crashed and burned as quickly as they had 
premiered a few years prior. By the end of the 
1940s and into the 1950s, only Superman, Bat- 
man, and Wonder Woman remained in print in their 
own titles, with a few "B" players (Superboy, Aqua- 
man, Green Arrow and Speedy, and a few others) 
visible in backup stories. DC pursued new genres in 
the 1950s: Westerns, funny animals, science fic- 
tion, horror, combat, romance, teen- and kid-orient- 
ed humor, and even celebrity tie-ins (comedians 
Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope had their own DC comics 
for years). With the burgeoning medium of televi- 
sion competing for the attention of comics' young 
audience, sales slipped. "It was a real tough time," 
penned editor Mike Gold in his introduction to the 
DC Comics collected edition, The Greatest 1950s 
Stories Ever Told (1990). 

Psychologist Fredric Wertham made it even 
tougher. In his contemptuous book Seduction of the 
Innocent (1954), Dr. Wertham condemned comic 
books as a gateway to juvenile delinquency and sex- 
ual immorality, charging that Batman and Robin 
were gay and that Wonder Woman was a "frighten- 
ing image for boys." His book leveraged U.S. Sen- 
ate hearings against the entire comic-book industry, 
resulting in the implementation of a censorship 
board called the Comics Code Authority. Most of 
DCs content had been innocuous enough to 
emerge unscathed, but Batwoman and Bat-Girl were 
introduced to skirt any inkling of homosexuality 
between Batman and Robin, and Wonder Woman 
was recast in a less-threatening manner compliant 
with patriarchal views of feminine roles. 



Throughout this tumultuous decade, Superman 
held strong. He rocketed to television stardom, por- 
trayed by George Reeves on the syndicated live- 
action series The Adventures of Superman 
(1953-1957). Superman merchandising marched 
forward, and his comics franchise expanded. Super- 
man aside, DCs sales suffered. 

PC PBFTNBS THE SUVZZ AG£ 
0956-1959) 

In 1956, editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz revived 
the Flash — albeit an updated version in a stylized 
new costume — in the "try-out" series Showcase 
(#4, September-October 1956). The Flash was a 
hit, returning for more Showcase outings before run- 
ning off into his own series. The Flash's (re)intro- 
duction marked the beginning of what would soon 
be known as the Silver Age of Comics. 

Schwartz similarly reworked Green Lantern 
beginning with Showcase #22 (September-October 
1959), then made a courageous next step by 
reimagining the Justice Society in the form of an 
all-new Justice League of America in The Brave and 
the Bold #28 (February-March 1960). Hawkman 
and the Atom were also revived, and new heroes 
like Metamorpho, the Metal Men, and the Teen 
Titans were introduced. Superheroes became a hot 
commodity, and once again, DC Comics had 
defined at trend. 

*8ATMANIA" 
SWEEPS TH£ U.SA. 

In 1964, Batman received a makeover under 
Schwartz's direction: Silly menaces like space 
aliens and monsters, which had populated the Bat- 
man books with alarming frequency, were discarded 
and the stories became more science- and detec- 
tive-oriented. Batman's Batmobile was retooled into 
a stylized hot rod, and the hero's all-purpose utility 
belt now housed an arsenal inspired by the gadgets 
of the James Bond movies. 



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January 1966 marked a milestone in DC 
Comics history. The colorfully campy live-action tele- 
vision series Batman (1966-1968), starring Adam 
West and Burt Ward, premiered as a twice-weekly 
program on ABC and became a runaway hit. With its 
surfin' score, imaginative sets, frenetic pacing, and 
celebrity-cast villains, Batman commandeered the 
nation's attention. Hundreds of merchandized 
items, most authorized but some cheaply pirated, 
flooded toys stores, magazine racks, record bins, 
clothing outlets, and grocery marts. 

Batman's popularity inspired a fad of serious 
and satirical superheroes during the mid- to late 
1960s. DCs sales improved, especially on its Bat- 
man titles. Superman also basked in the glow of Bat- 
man's acclaim: Reruns of Superman's 1950s TV 
show were widely syndicated, a new Superman ani- 
mated program premiered, and a stage musical 
about the Man of Steel hit Broadway. As with all 
trends, however, Batmania ran its course: The TV 
series was canceled in 1968 and DCs sales dropped 
precipitously. The company was being outdistanced 
in the marketplace by competitor Marvel Comics. 

Not that the DC editors noticed. "We were top 
dog for so long," reflected longtime DC editor Mur- 
ray Boltinoff, "we became impervious to any criti- 
cism or new ideas. We thought everything we did 
was right." Readers thought otherwise, preferring 
the quirky, problem-ridden Marvel superheroes like 
the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and the 
Amazing Spider-Man. 

New management certainly took note, though. 
Kinney National Services bought DC in 1967, begin- 
ning a transformation that would eventually evolve 
into the Time Warner media conglomerate. Corporate 
higher-ups initiated DC staff changes. "DC needed a 
kick in the rump. And they brought me on board to do 
it," revealed Carmine Infantino, former artist of The 
Flash, in the fanzine Back Issue #1 (2003). Infantino 
was hired first as art director, then promoted to edito- 
rial director and later publisher of the DC line. Stodgy 
literary editors were replaced by editors with artistic 
backgrounds, like Joe Orlando, Dick Giordano, and 



Joe Kubert: "I felt the company needed visual peo- 
ple, because comics is a visual medium," Infantino 
said. In the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, DC, 
under Infantino's direction, was reborn. 

"KIRBYTS COMING!" 

New superheroes that defied DCs traditional 
mold began to appear, among them, the maniacal 
Creeper and the argumentative Hawk and Dove, two 
concepts created by Steve Ditko (former artist of Mar- 
vel's The Amazing Spider-Man). Batman returned to his 
dark roots, largely thanks to writer Denny O'Neil and 
artist Neal Adams, and Superman became hipper, with 
his alter ego Clark Kent shifting careers from newspa- 
per journalist to TV reporter. "Relevance" — explo- 
rations of contemporary themes — became vogue in 
DCs series: Superheroes Green Lantern and Green 
Arrow hopped in a pickup truck to tackle racism and 
corporate fatcats as they "discovered" America; Green 
Arrow's sidekick Speedy got hooked on heroin; and 
Wonder Woman lost her superpowers and became a 
fighting feminist (although in a few years she got her 
supergroove back and starred in a successful live- 
action TV series with actress Lynda Carter). 

DC reinvented horror comics during Infantino's 
watch, from anthologies like The House of Mystery 
to the sympathetic monster Swamp Thing, and 
acquired classic pulp and fiction properties like 
Tarzan and the Shadow for brilliantly illustrated, criti- 
cally acclaimed runs. DC also went on a superhero 
shopping spree, acquiring characters from defunct 
publishers, most notably the original Captain Mar- 
vel, who was reintroduced in Shazam! #1 (February 
1973); ironically, DC had sued the character, who at 
one time outsold Superman, out of business in the 
early 1950s for being derivative of the Man of 
Steel. Exciting new artists like Bernie Wrightson 
and Michael Kaluta added fresh visual dimensions 
to the publisher's titles, and in 1975 the previously 
unthinkable happened: DC and Marvel joined forces 
to co-produce a tabloid-sized crossover, the best- 
selling Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. 



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Infantino also helped recruit Jack Kirby — the 
artist fundamental to so many of Marvel Comics' 
successes — to DC beginning in 1970. "My job is to 
involve the reader," Kirby once asserted, and he did 
just that with his series of separate but interlocking 
titles The New Gods, The Forever People, and Mis- 
ter Miracle, plus the DC mainstay Superman's Pal 
Jimmy Olsen. Kirby's arrival was trumpeted by 
house ads announcing, "Kirby Is Coming!" His DC 
efforts failed to generate substantial sales, howev- 
er, and disappeared after a few years, with Kirby 
returning to Marvel. 

THZNWPC 

A disagreement with upper management forced 
Infantino out of his job in 1976, and he was 
replaced as publisher by Jenette Kahn. Kahn had 
previously spearheaded three successful children's 
magazines and was hand-picked by Warner Publish- 
ing (then DCs parent company) to steer DC Comics 
into new territory. While Kahn dropped the compa- 
ny's longtime official name, National Periodical Pub- 
lications, for its more common name, DC Comics, 
she got off to a rocky start: A rapid expansion of 
titles and material (the "DC Explosion") led to a 
1977 crash (the "DC Implosion") that put numer- 
ous creative folk out of work. 

DC got a shot in the arm in December 1978 
when Superman: The Movie was released. Starring 
newcomer Christopher Reeve, Superman was a box- 
office smash, and its sophisticated (for the time) 
special effects helped shape the look of fantasy 
films that followed. But DCs sales, which had stag- 
nated post-Implosion, experienced little improve- 
ment from Superman's star status, and the movie's 
1980 sequel didn't help either. 

So Kahn, not unlike Infantino before her, tar- 
geted quality and innovation as the means to dis- 
tinguish DC in the marketplace. Giordano returned 
to DC in 1980, first as editor, then as editorial 
director, and helped groom new talent and mas- 
sage existing superstars. Abetted by executives 



Paul Levitz and Joe Orlando, Kahn and Giordano 
recruited cutting-edge British visionaries (like 
author Alan Moore and artists Brian Bolland and 
Dave Gibbons), implemented new formats (glossier 
paper and square-bound "Prestige Format" edi- 
tions), paid royalties to top-selling creators, and 
elevated the medium's standards with literate, well- 
illustrated titles like Camelot 3000 and The Saga 
of the Swamp Thing. 

By the mid-1980s, this "new" DC had revital- 
ized what comics could be: Its landmark Crisis on 
Infinite Earths (1985-1986) streamlined its conti- 
nuity while garnering strong sales, Frank Miller's 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) revolution- 
ized the Batman legend, John Byrne's 77?e Man of 
Steel (1986) reworked Superman for a contempo- 
rary audience, and Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen 
(1986-1987) depicted ethically ambiguous cos- 
tumed characters and illustrated that superheroes 
weren't just for kids. Marvel Comics still, by and 
large, commanded a larger market share than DC, 
but DC established new standards for excellence. 
Innovative series like Neil Gaiman's The Sandman 
(1989-1996) helped DC explore more adult 
themes, and such series ultimately splintered from 
the company's mainstream fare into its own 
"mature readers" imprint, Vertigo (which has forged 
ahead into the 2000s with critically lauded series 
like Preacher and Fables). DC seemed content with 
its reputation: Being number two isn't so bad when 
you are number one in excellence. 

AGARPZNOF 
CONCEPTS ANt? GIMMICKS 

In 1989, DCs parent company shifted from 
Warner Publishing to Warner Bros., the film and 
television studio, and DC found itself directed to 
feed a media machine. Its superheroes have since 
been regularly translated to film and video. Exam- 
ples include (but are not restricted to) the live- 
action movie Batman (1989) and its three sequels, 
TV's The Flash (1990-1991), the long-running Bat- 



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Deadman 



man: The Animated Series (1992) and its continua- 
tions, the romantic action/comedy Lois & Clark: 
The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997), 
the teen drama Smallville (2001-present), and the 
Cartoon Network's animated Justice League 
(2001-present) and Teen Titans (2003-present) 
programs. In 2004 a legion of DC superheroes is 
under development or consideration for TV shows 
and movies, including a relaunch of the Batman film 
franchise, with actor Christian Bale (American Psy- 
cho) tapped for the lead. 

Perpetuating its long-standing publishing histo- 
ry, the DC Comics of the 1990s and 2000s has 
struggled to find its niche in the industry, and to 
profitably sell its wares in the marketplace. Numer- 
ous big "events," designed to make noise and 
attract consumers, have been introduced: the death 
of Superman (1992), the (back) breaking of Batman 
in the far-reaching "Knightfall" storyline (1993), 
more character overhauls in Zero Hour (1994), and 
even more character overhauls in the "Our Worlds 
at War" serial interwoven through numerous DC 
series in 2001. Yet while its heroes have been 
slaughtered, maligned, and mutated in recent 
years, DC has, as it has always done, taken 
chances along the way. It is the company that 
defined the comic book, the superhero, and the 
medium's potential, and will continue to be a trend- 
setter into the twenty-first century. — ME 

Veadman 

Despite never gaining the high sales it deserved, 
Deadman has been one of the most influential and 
critically acclaimed characters in superhero comics. 
Deadman was conceived by maverick writer Arnold 
Drake in 1967 and first appeared in the pages of 
Strange Adventures #205, in what was to be artist 
Carmine Infantino's last strip before becoming edi- 
tor-in-chief of DC Comics. Usually, the tale starts 
with the death of its star, Boston Brand, a daredevil 
trapeze artist assassinated by a sniper in the 




Deadman #6 © 2002 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOSE LUIS GARCIA LOPEZ. 



middle of his act. But death is not the end for 
Brand, as a disembodied voice (of Rama Krishna, a 
sort of god) tells him that to avenge his death he 
must roam the earth in ghostly form until he finds 
his killer. Unfortunately, the only clue to the killer's 
identity is that he has a hook on his arm, but Brand 
now has the convenient ability to enter people's 
bodies and take them over. 

The strip was blessed with an unusual set- 
ting — Brand's circus with its colorful performers — 
an intriguing quest at its heart, and an unconven- 
tional, complex hero. Brand was an argumentative, 
egotistical, and somewhat self-pitying character 
who, despite his powers and stylish costume (as a 



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ghost, he still wore his acrobat's red high-wire out- 
fit, complete with white death's-head mask), was no 
better than the reader. In 1967, this was revolution- 
ary content and in retrospect Brand can be seen as 
the first "mature" superhero. Another revolutionary 
factor in the strip's critical appeal was the art of 
Neal Adams, who took over the feature for its sec- 
ond instalment. Adams came to the strip from the 
world of advertising and newspaper strips, and 
brought a realism to comic books that had never 
been seen before. He also had a gift for dynamic 
drawing and stylish design; Deadman was peppered 
with pop-art effects and witty in-jokes. In short, this 
was a very cool comic. 

Over the next two years, Deadman roamed the 
country endlessly, tracking down the Hook in what 
was very much the comic-book equivalent of the 
1960s television show The Fugitive. In his travels, 
he came across supervillains (the Eagle), drug 
pushers, Batman, and a group of killers called the 
League of Assassins. The strip's complexity and 
depth were perhaps too much to take for most read- 
ers and, after its twelfth installment, the series was 
canceled. Undeterred by this, Adams went on to 
draw further Deadman appearances in numerous 
comics, including Aquaman, The Justice League, 
The Brave and the Bold, and Challengers of the 
Unknown. Editors finally revealed Deadman's killer 
to be an assassin in the pay of a mysterious crimi- 
nal called Sensei, and the pair went on to tangle 
with each other throughout the 1970s. 

While it is true that Deadman was then relegat- 
ed to a relatively minor status, he nevertheless con- 
tinued to appear in backup spots in Adventure 
Comics and Phantom Stranger, which were notable 
for their high quality. A 1986 miniseries — the first 
of six relaunches as of 2004 — drawn by Jose Luis 
Garcia Lopez (Adams' talented successor on the 
strip) featured a final showdown with Sensei. The 
strip showed Deadman finally regaining his human 
form only to lose it again, vowing to continue his 
fight against evil, wherever it may appear. For a 
while later on in the decade, DC repositioned him 



as a horror character, now looking more like a living 
skeleton than a well-toned superhero, but recent 
miniseries have been very much in the intelligent, 
elegant tradition of Deadman's early days. 

As a commercial project, the strip has never 
rewarded DCs continued faith in it, though the pub- 
lisher has repackaged the Adams run on several 
occasions, as have several European publishers; 
the feature is highly regarded across Europe. But in 
introducing the concept of "serious" superhero 
strips, Deadman was clearly the precursor to the 
likes of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, 
and it is now widely viewed as one of the key strips 
of the 1960s. — DAR 

The Defenders 

When is a team not a team? When they are a non- 
team. That, at least, was the logic behind the 
Defenders, a grouping of Marvel Comics' misfits, 
loners, and losers that met with unexpected suc- 
cess and acclaim. Like DC Comics' All-Star 
Squadron, the Defenders characters sometimes 
belong to other superhero groups, but can still hold 
membership within the team; however, most 
Defenders are offbeat and eternally team-less or 
series-less characters who unite out of necessity 
and disband at whim. The seeds of the group were 
sown in two 1970 issues of Sub-Mariner (#34 and 
#35) by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema, 
in which the Sub-Mariner recruits the nearby Hulk 
and Silver Surfer to help him destroy a rogue weath- 
er-controlling device. Naturally enough, the three 
"collaborators" end up fighting both each other and 
the Avengers, but the combination of such seeming- 
ly incompatible characters struck a chord with both 
Thomas and the fans. Later the next year, Thomas 
brought the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk back togeth- 
er, teaming them this time with Dr. Strange as the 
group the Defenders for a three-issue run in the 
new Marvel Feature title. As in the Sub-Mariner 
strip, the three superheroes came together to dis- 



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Giant-Size Defenders #1 © 1974 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY GIL KANE AND FRANK GIACOIA. 



pose of an Earth-destroying device, in this case the 
Omegatron, created by dying sorcerer Yandroth. 
While they parted company at the end of the first 
issue, the pattern was set for adventures to come. 

Shortly after the third issue of Marvel Feature, 
the Defenders were promoted to their own comic 
(August 1972), with new writer Steve Englehart and 
Sal Buscema on art (a role that he would hold for 
the next forty issues). Almost from the outset, the 
team members — including a returning Silver 
Surfer — would come and go, with Dr. Strange oper- 
ating as a de facto leader, while the team used his 
sanctum sanctorum as their rendezvous point. 
Issue #4 introduced the first new "regular" team 



member, Valkyrie, previously seen in The Avengers 
(as a disguise for a Thor villain, Amora the 
Enchantress) and The Incredible Hulk (in which the 
Enchantress used an unwitting host body for 
Valkyrie's persona). The current incarnation's host 
body was Barbara Norriss, a catatonic ex-cult mem- 
ber. As Valkyrie's warlike and stridently feminist per- 
sona asserted itself, the quest for her true identity 
became one of the comic's central themes. 

The Defenders fought a variety of Marvel's 
stock of villains, including Magneto, the Red Ghost, 
and Attuma, and they were also part of the first 
extended inter-title crossover, in the so-called 
"Avengers/Defenders war," which ran across eight 
issues altogether. Soon afterward, the group was 
joined by a defecting member of the Squadron Sin- 
ister, Nighthawk, a.k.a. wealthy heir Kyle Richmond, 
who had drifted into a life of crime to relieve his 
boredom but who would soon become one of Mar- 
vel's most complex heroes. 

With issue #20 (1975) and the arrival of 
eccentric genius Steve Gerber as writer, the comic 
entered its most memorable era. Gerber pitted the 
team, now reduced to a nucleus of Hulk, Dr. 
Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk, against a bizarre 
group of deviant scientists known as the Headmen. 
One of these had his head transplanted onto the 
body of a gorilla, while another's head was a large, 
ruby-red sphere. Gerber also explored Valkyrie's 
schizophrenic existence, as her host body's hus- 
band, Jack Norris, suddenly appeared looking for 
his wife. Nighthawk, too, was developed as a char- 
acter when first his girlfriend lost an arm in an 
explosion and then his own brain was removed by 
the Headmen. Indeed, identity (and brains) proved 
to be a recurring theme of Gerber's tenure, as the 
brain of Headmen member Chondu was transplant- 
ed first into an unsuspecting deer and then into a 
monstrous harpie's body, while Valkyrie's erstwhile 
husband Jack ended up in Nighthawk's now-vacant 
body. Add to the mix a new (female) Russian super- 
hero, the Red Guardian, a celestial mind-control cult 
called the Bozos, a caged heat-style spell behind 



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'Dial 'H' for Hero" 



bars for Valkyrie, and a murderous elf with a gun, 
and it's no wonder that fans were by turns amazed, 
amused, and bemused. Gerber left the comic after 
issue #41; his successor, David Anthony Kraft, sus- 
tained something of its strangeness, but by the turn 
of the decade it was just another superhero title. 

The final twist in the team's existence came in 
late 1982, when most of the group were jettisoned 
to make way for X-Men alumni the Angel, Iceman, 
and the Beast, in a failed attempt to cash in on the 
X-Men's soaring popularity. The fans failed to take 
the revamp to heart and Marvel, deciding to stick 
their lucrative stars into a comic with an "X" in its 
title, canceled The Defenders and created X-Factor in 
its place, leaving Valkyrie, Gargoyle et al. in limbo. 

Since that time, two subsequent revivals have 
emerged, the first of which (in 1993) went back to 
the comic's original premise of the "non-team" by 
using "The Defenders" as a catchall title to show- 
case eclectic or underused superheroes. The 
Secret Defenders was based on Dr. Strange sum- 
moning the likes of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and the 
Silver Surfer to combat various mystical enemies, 
and ran for two years. The 2000 revival, with long- 
time fan Erik Larsen providing art and also co-script- 
ing with popular writer Kurt Busiek, returned to the 
classic lineup of the team's early years and was 
predicated on frantic action and old-style battles. 
Neither revival matched the popularity or quality of 
the Defenders' glory years. — DAR 



"Pfar IP for Ifero" 

From its inception in January 1966, "Dial 'H' for 
Hero" has been one of DC Comics' quirkiest fea- 
tures. In fact, it was comics' first interactive strip. 
Readers were first introduced to young Robby Reed 
in House of Mystery #156, in a story written by 
Dave Wood and illustrated by Jim Mooney. Soon 
after moving to Littleville, bespectacled science 
prodigy Reed discovers a strange-looking telephone 



dial while exploring an underground cavern. After 
decoding a strange inscription on the dial, he finds 
that it was created by aliens and that by dialing the 
letters H-E-R-0 he is transformed into a superhero. 
In fact, as the strip's subtitle, "The Boy Who Could 
Change into a Thousand Superheroes," made clear, 
Reed became a different hero each time he 
touched the dial. 

Like many of DCs mid-1960s features, "Dial 
'H' for Hero" was lighthearted, breezy, and attrac- 
tively drawn, but what set it apart from its competi- 
tors were the various superhero guises dreamed up 
by DCs writers. These were as wonderfully diverse 
and bizarre a sequence of characters as the comics 
world has ever seen. Among other peculiar cre- 
ations, fans were entertained by the likes of Daffy 
the Great, the Squid, King Kandy, Baron Buzz-Saw, 
Robby Robot, Balloon Boy, the Human Icicle, Mighty 
Moppet (a giant baby), and Plastic Man (who was 
actually the old Quality Comics hero making his DC 
debut). After seventeen issues, House of Mystery 
dumped the strip and was converted into a horror 
anthology. Nothing further was heard of Reed until 
he filled a guest slot in Plastic Man's mid-1970s 
revival. This appearance starred an embittered, mis- 
anthropic Reed reduced to eking out a living as a 
writer, but by the end of the issue he seemed to be 
all right again. 

In March 1981 a new "Dial 'H' for Hero" strip 
surfaced in Adventure Comics #479, shortly after 
being previewed in revised form in Legion of Super- 
Heroes #272. Uniquely for a superhero comic, it 
encouraged readers (including noted science fiction 
author Harlan Ellison) to contribute ideas for the 
various characters. This strip starred Christopher 
("Chris") King and Victoria ("Vicki") Grant, high- 
school students from Fairfax, Virginia, who discov- 
ered an old chest in King's attic; in the chest were a 
watch and a pendant, both bearing dials. It seemed 
that Reed had at some point dialed D-l-V-l-D-E on his 
original dial, so splitting it in two. The process also 
split Reed into two characters: the Wizard (who was 
good) and the evil Master, who plagued the two 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



'»? 



Doc Savage 




Adventure Comics #482 © 1981 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY CARMINE INFANTINO, DENNIS JENSEN, AND DON HECK. 



teenagers until he was reunited with his good coun- 
terpart. While never quite as silly as their 1960s 
predecessor, King and Grant nevertheless had sev- 
eral enjoyably ridiculous incarnations, such as Mis- 
ter Thin, Thumbelina, Hasty Pudding, Frosty, and 
Ragnarok the Cosmic Viking. 

After Adventure Comics became a reprint title 
in 1982, King moved over to the pages of The New 
Adventures ofSuperboy, but Grant apparently lost 
interest in being a hero — though she later improba- 
bly joined a cult called the Children of the Sun while 
her dial was picked up by Hero Cruz. In a series of 
tales throughout the 1990s in Teen Titans and 
Superboy & the Ravers, Cruz tackled the brain- 



\tP 



washed Grant (who had somehow internalized her 
dial's powers) before she eventually came to her 
senses. At some point her dial must have been 
donated to a museum, where it was discovered in 
the twenty-fifth century by one Lori Morning, who 
then took it back with her to the thirtieth century 
(are you following this?), where she joined the 
Legion of Superheroes. In the fine tradition of the 
strip, her many heroic incarnations included Star- 
Spangled Lass, Chiller, Blip, and Blobetta. 

After a somewhat fallow period, DC once more 
revived the concept in 2003, for the first time in its 
own title — now shortened to H-E-R-O. The next recip- 
ient of a magical dial was Jerry Feldon, who found it 
in Scoopers' ice cream shop, where it had been left 
behind by a mysterious female customer. After a 
few issues, Jerry passed on the dial to family man 
Matt Allen, who passed it on to others, and it 
appears as if this latest series will be the most 
unpredictable to date. — DAR 

Qoc Swage 

With his rippling muscles, extraordinary strength, 
and genius-level IQ, he could outrun a horse, dodge 
a speeding bullet, speak in a myriad of foreign lan- 
guages, and perform life-saving surgery, and then, 
after saving the world yet again, he would retire to 
his secluded Arctic hideout, the Fortress of Soli- 
tude. No, this is not a description of Superman but 
is, in fact, Doc Savage, a hero who predated the 
Man of Steel by five years and who laid the founda- 
tion for the superhero explosion that occurred in 
1938 with Superman's arrival. In the wake of their 
successful Shadow pulp magazine, Street & Smith 
publisher Henry Ralston and editor John Nomaric 
dreamed up their ideal hero, a cross between 
Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, as a sort of counter- 
point to the darker, sinister Shadow. They handed 
over the concept to pulp veteran Lester Dent (writ- 
ing under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson), and 
the first issue of Doc Savage magazine hit the 



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Doc Savage 



stands in March 1933. Sales soon rose to 
200,000 per issue; the title was a hit. 

Clark Savage Jr. had been raised as the perfect 
man, a master of all things intellectual and physi- 
cal, and he was given the nickname "Doc" because 
of his skills as a surgeon. At a wake to mourn his 
late father, Doc gathers together five friends — all 
masters in their respective fields — who swear to 
maintain his father's ideals of travel, adventure, and 
punishing evil. The group consists of the dapper 
Harvard lawyer "Ham" Brooks, the strong engineer 
Renny, the bespectacled and verbose archaeologist 
Johnny, the electrical expert Long Tom, and Monk, a 
cantankerous, ape-like chemical genius whose con- 
stant baiting of Ham was one of the feature's recur- 
ring themes. Operating out of the 86th floor of a 
certain New York skyscraper (which closely resem- 
bles the Empire State Building), the happy band 
trek around the globe, from exotic location to hid- 
den tribe to evil genius and back again. 

Not content with his imposing physique, 
bronzed skin, fabulous wealth, and secret hideout, 
the Man of Bronze was a master inventor, and his 
stories were chock-full of his super-inventions, 
including a pocket knife that fired sleep-inducing 
"mercy" bullets from its handle (since Doc did not 
believe in killing his enemies), a belt with its own 
grappling hook, miniature bombs, false fingertips fit- 
ted with needles that caused unconsciousness, an 
Atomic disintegrator, Oxygen pills, exploding but- 
tons, and clothes that either held, or doubled as, 
weapons. Add to this an array of super-gadgetized 
vehicles — including his Helldiver, capable of sailing 
under polar ice — and one can easily see that Doc 
was indeed a hero to be reckoned with. In the 
course of their adventures, he and his band encoun- 
tered all manner of weird and colorful adversaries, 
including the Black Witch, the Annihilist, the Stone 
Man, the Vanisher, and the Czar of Fear. Dent's 
prose was punchy, breathless, and fast-moving; it 
grabbed the reader and did not let go for a moment. 
With a contract binding him to an output of 70,000 
words a month, Dent himself had to be something 



MARVEL COMICS GROUP. 




Doc Savage #3 © 1972 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM STERANKO. 



of a superman! In fact, he not only managed that 
workload, writing almost every story for 181 issues, 
but also found time to contribute to other titles to 
boot. Physically, Dent was an impressive figure — 
tall, strong, a member of the Adventurers' Club — as 
well as being a diver, a magician, and a sailor with 
his own yacht, and so it is not hard to see Doc Sav- 
age as an extension of Dent's own persona. 

Street & Smith was quick to exploit Doc's popu- 
larity with a fan club, portrait, lapel pin, and his own 
short-lived radio show in 1934. However, when 
Superman and his hundreds of followers appeared 
on the newsstands, sales of pulps were gradually 
hurt across the board, since they largely shared with 



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Doctor Strange 



the new comics the same young readership. Street 
& Smith itself entered the emerging comic-book mar- 
ket in 1940, only a few months after Marvel and 
Fawcett, with Shadow Comics, which also featured a 
strip version of Doc Savage, drawn by Maurice 
Gutwirth. This backup strip lasted five issues but, 
even before it ended, Doc had emerged in his own 
comic (in May 1940). Early episodes closely fol- 
lowed the pulp stories, but with issue #5 of Doc Sav- 
age Comics (August 1941) the Jack Binder studio 
reinvented the pulp magazine hero into a superhero: 
Doc acquired a Tibetan sacred hood, armed with a 
"miracle-working ruby" that could deflect bullets and 
hypnotize his foes. This bare-chested, hood-wearing 
superhero (for such he now undoubtedly was) was 
known as Doc Savage — the Invincible (often simply 
referred to by his new name, the Invincible); unfortu- 
nately, in sales terms he was certainly not the latter, 
as the comic folded after a mere twenty issues, in 
1943. Nevertheless, the superhero makeover of the 
character continued on in a 1943 radio show. 

Returning to the back pages of Shadow Comics, 
Doc's comics adventures continued until that title's 
demise in 1949, though in those strips he was once 
more just plain Doc. Doc's comic strips were written 
by Otto Binder, among others, and were drawn initially 
by his brother John's studio, though later by Al Bare 
and Bob Powell. Just as Shadow Comics was can- 
celed in 1949, so too was its pulp equivalent, and 
Doc's pulp magazine as well. The comparison 
between the demise of the pulp heroes and comics' 
own superheroes, most of whom had been canceled 
by the end of the decade, is a fascinating one. Clear- 
ly, both were fulfilling the same need for heroes, first 
during the Great Depression and then later during 
World War II — a need that apparently no longer exist- 
ed in a postwar era. Then, just when superheroes 
experienced their extraordinary rebirth in the 1960s, 
so too would Doc Savage rise again. 

In 1964, Bantam repackaged the first of Lester 
Dent's Doc Savage stories in paperback. More books 
followed, and in time the new paperback series 
became a publishing phenomenon, eventually reprint- 



\lfi 



ing all 181 original stories and adding new ones by 
Philip Jose Farmer and fan/historian/comic writer Will 
Murray. With sales running into the tens of millions, it 
is no surprise that comic-book companies soon took 
notice, and a Gold Key one-shot comic duly appeared 
in 1966. Marvel was next in line for the license, 
releasing two well-crafted series: first a color adapta- 
tion of various Dent stories (eight issues, 
1972-1974) and then an all-new black-and-white 
magazine by Doug Moench, John Buscema, and Tony 
Dezuniga (eight issues, 1975-1977), which has come 
closest to capturing the spirit of the pulps. A couple of 
fanciful crossovers also saw Doc and his chums 
guest-star with Spider-Man (Giant-Size Spider-Man #3, 
1974) and the Thing (Marvel Two-in-One #21, 1976). 

The increased interest in Doc Savage as a hero 
also came to the attention of George Pal, who pro- 
duced a 1975 movie starring Ron Ely. Critics found 
the film to be cinematically appealing and Ely the per- 
fect Doc; however, many mentioned its weak script, 
the tone of which veered dangerously close to camp. 
Longtime fan and artist Jim Steranko also weighed in 
with a new fan club, the Doc Savage Brotherhood of 
Bronze. By the end of the decade, only the paper- 
backs were left, but in recent years a succession of 
comics publishers — DC, Millennium, Innovation, and 
Dark Horse — have released their own versions of the 
great man. Most of these have been relatively true to 
the character's pulp roots. DCs 1988 series brought 
him forward to the present and also featured a 
crossover with the Shadow. In 1995, Dark Horse 
Comics released The Shadow and Doc Savage mini- 
series, which has proved to be his last comics outing 
as of 2004. However, it is undoubtedly true that his 
legacy lives on to some degree in each and every 
superhero comic published today. — DAR 

Doctor Strange 

What started as a small backup strip in a 1963 
issue of Strange Tales #110 soon blossomed into 
one of the cult characters of the decade — one who 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Doctor Strange 



has been a cornerstone of the Marvel Comics uni- 
verse ever since. Magicians had been a staple of 
comics ever since Mandrake in the comic strips of 
the 1930s and Zatara in Action Comics #1, but 
Doctor Strange potently mixed his sorcery with the 
energy of superheroes to create something unique. 
His origin story, however, could have come out of 
the pulps: Vain, egotistical neurosurgeon Stephen 
Strange injures his hands in a car crash and winds 
up on skid row with the other outcasts. In a last- 
ditch search for salvation, he travels to Tibet to find 
the fabled "Ancient One" who he hopes will heal his 
hands. On finding the old sage, he becomes his 
acolyte and (as each cover proudly proclaimed) 
"Master of the Mystic Arts!" 

Under writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, 
Doctor Strange was a strip unlike any other, as 
the hero traveled to other dimensions and fought 
unique villains like Nightmare, Eternity, and the 
dread Dormammu. References to such wonders 
as the Eye of Agamotto and the Great Book of 
the Vishanti hinted at almost unimaginable won- 
ders. Lee kept the stories punchy, exciting, and 
enjoyably florid, while Ditko summoned up inven- 
tive images and unique visions that still look 
innovative today. 

Doctor Strange, his acolyte and girlfriend Clea, 
and his faithful servant Wong operated out of their 
Gothic "sanctum sanctorum" in the heart of New 
York City's Greenwich Village, soon to be the epicen- 
ter of the city's emerging counterculture. By the 
time of 1967's summer of love, the Doctor Strange 
strip had been widely adopted by the hippie move- 
ment, and its spells and alternate realities were 
widely believed to resemble LSD trips. Strange 
appeared on Filmore Ballroom concert posters and 
even on the covers of Pink Floyd albums. He was, in 
effect, the psychedelic superhero — except, of 
course, his creators were middle-aged profession- 
als with years of comics work behind them, and 
Ditko in particular was known for his conservative 
views and distrust of hippies. 




Strange Tales #146 © 1966 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY STEVE DITKO. 



In 1968, despite Ditko's departure, Doctor 
Strange was given his own title. His new artist, 
Gene Colan, produced hallucinatory layouts that 
were even more experimental than his predeces- 
sor's. There was a brief, last-ditch attempt to 
make Strange more superhero-like by giving him a 
mask, but it would appear that the character was 
becoming too far-out for a mass audience. Rather 
than have a useful character languish in obscuri- 
ty, Strange was eventually teamed with those 
other Marvel nonconformists, the Hulk and the 
Sub-Mariner, as the Defenders. Throughout the 
1970s and intermittently ever since, the Defend- 
ers have been a newsstand staple and, with Doc- 



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>38 



Do-It- Yourself Heroes 



tor Strange taking a leading role, interest in the 
sorcerer was rekindled. 

Initially in Marvel Premiere and then (from 
1974 onward) once again in his own comic, Doctor 
Strange was used by new writer Steve Engelhart as 
a vehicle to examine the interest in spirituality, self- 
exploration, and consciousness-raising that was 
then in vogue. Among all manner of cosmic, surreal 
adventures, the most extraordinary storyline culmi- 
nated in Earth's destruction and, one second later, 
recreation, leaving the almost omnipotent Strange 
as the planet's only "original" inhabitant. Engelhart 
left after a couple of years, but the comic continued 
to be one of the more literate titles in Marvel's line- 
up for the rest of the decade. Evidently, as readers 
had grown up with their comics, the more introspec- 
tive and thoughtful Doctor Strange stories resonat- 
ed with their maturity. Presumably among those 
more mature readers were the television executives 
who commissioned a well-received made-for-TV 
movie in 1978, aptly titled Doctor Strange. Starring 
Peter Hooten, John Mills, and Jessica Walter and 
written and directed by Phillip DeGuere, the movie 
was very true to the spirit of the comic (indeed 
Frank Brunner, one of the main artists in the 
comic's revamp, contributed design work to the pro- 
ject), despite changing Doctor Strange's costume. 
In 1979, Pocket Books published William Rotsler's 
Doctor Strange novel, Nightmare. 

In the more materialistic 1980s, on the other 
hand, there was apparently no place for subtlety or 
introspection, and so Strange spent much of that 
decade in cancellation. A revival in 1988 was char- 
acterized by an almost constant procession of 
changes, including Strange being stripped of most of 
his powers, losing one eye, and abandoning magic 
only to return to it three issues later. Many 1990s 
issues were filled with monsters and vampires, and 
the comic became affiliated with Marvel's hard-hit- 
ting "Midnight Sons" storyline. Later innovations, 
including a completely new Doctor Strange, failed to 
prevent the comic's cancellation. Doctor Strange has 
kept appearing, if sporadically, ever since — in a 



^e* 



miniseries for Marvel's mature-readers Marvel 
Knights line; as a benign spirit in the grim future 
fable Earth X and a cold manipulator in the other- 
wise upbeat alternate-future MC-2 line; in a short- 
lived, tongue-in-cheek Defenders revival; and as an 
aide to the Thunder God in the macabrely humorous 
Thor: Vikings miniseries; and elsewhere — which 
shows Marvel's fondness, if not always the market's 
enthusiasm, for this unusual character. — DAR 

Qo-lt'Yoursd? 
Heroes 

True to its favored theme of alien planets and paral- 
lel dimensions, the field of major superhero publish- 
ers has a parallel world all its own, in the output of 
fanzines, small-press ventures, and self-published 
writers and artists. Though this world is best known 
for autobiographical cartooning by quirky outcasts 
(Phoebe Gloeckner, Daniel Clowes), offbeat fairytale 
fantasy (Linda Medley's Castle Waiting), and other 
individualistic exceptions to the entertainment 
mainstream, fan and indie publishing has seen its 
share of costumed adventurers. 

Some of these, like Kevin Eastman and Peter 
Laird's mid-1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 
grow into long-running mass-media phenomena, or, 
like Sara Dyer's mid-1990s Action Girl, hold on as 
cult empires in an era more hospitable to alternative 
media. Others, like Biljo White's mid-1960s The Eye 
and Richard "Grass" Green's contemporaneous Xal- 
Kor, the Human Cat, remain under-the-radar legends, 
staying in print through niche publishers like Ham- 
ster Press and TwoMorrows and (in The Eye's case) 
even attracting famous professional talent (including 
writer Roy Thomas and artist Dick Giordano) to work 
on occasional stories. Still other small-press publi- 
cations have presented the pros with an outlet from 
mainstream restrictions, as with Spider-Man co-cre- 
ator Steve Ditko, who debuted his controversial 



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Doll Man 



moral-absolutist hero Mr. A in the late 1960s 
"prozine" Witzend and (with Robin Snyder) self-pub- 
lished other abstract ethical heroes in a late 1990s 
string of black-and-white trade paperbacks. 

No less impressive do-it-yourself stars have 
emerged at the turn of the new century. Perhaps 
the only superhero strip ever to win the respected 
Xeric Grant (given to help finance first-time self-pub- 
lishers in the comics field), The Myth of 8-0pus is a 
gripping, pulpy outer-space saga written and drawn 
by Tom Scioli. It ran for five issues from 
2000-2001, attracting guest contributions from 
industry pros along the way, and continues in a 
series of graphic novels. 

Writer-artist Glenn Whitmore bypassed the period- 
ical route and went straight to the trade paperback 
graphic-novel form for his Captain Clockwork concept 
in Chronicles (2002), the story of a dynasty of time- 
manipulating heroes that takes in the style and sensi- 
bility of various eras in comics history. Like Scioli, Whit- 
more has found work in the majors while continuing to 
publish increasingly popular material on his own. 

One of the most charming and literate of the do- 
it-yourself superheroes is Dr. Speck by pop painter 
and Adelphi University art professor Geoff Grogan. 
Produced in the mid-1990s, the comic concerns the 
misadventures of a creature of unstable atomic 
structure who is capable of Plastic Man-like transfor- 
mations — and an outlandish sense of humor reminis- 
cent of that classic character's stories. The good Dr.'s 
comics are as malleable as his body, ranging from a 
children's storybook style recalling Tin Tin in Tibetto 
hallucinatory episodes evoking Terry Gilliam's anima- 
tions for Monty Python. It is just one of many convinc- 
ing examples that, beyond the boundaries of most 
readers' known comics universe, the do-it-yourselfers 
know what they're doing. — AMC 



Poll Man 



Although it is rarely mentioned today, the comic 
books of the 1930s were dominated by newspaper 



strip reprints, in titles such as Famous Funnies and 
Ace Comics. It was the extraordinary impact of 
Superman that concentrated publishers' minds on 
the financial benefits of creating new heroes that 
they would own themselves. Neophyte publisher 
and owner of Quality Comics Everett "Busy" Arnold 
was enjoying reasonable success with Feature 
Comics, which was stuffed cover-to-cover with news- 
paper reprints, but he wanted a chance at the sort 
of big money that Superman's publisher, DC 
Comics, was making. Arnold called up the 
Eisner/lger comics studio and demanded a hero of 
his own. Their response was Doll Man, the first in a 
long line of Quality heroes that would include Plas- 
tic Man, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Kid Eternity, the 
Ray, and many more. Doll Man premiered in Feature 
Comics #27 in December 1939 and was only the 
twelfth superhero to appear on the shelves, beating 
such bigger names as Captain Marvel, the Flash, 
and Captain America to the punch. 

Studio co-owner Will Eisner himself dreamed 
up the character, possibly with some input from 
Arnold, and was no doubt inspired by the tiny 
Liliputians from Gulliver's Travels. Eisner recruited 
one of his top artists, Lou Fine, to draw the tale 
over his layouts, and the result was some of the 
most handsome art of the era. Publishers were 
keen to get straight to the action in those days, and 
there was little room for introspection, but even by 
the standards of the late 1930s the Doll Man's ori- 
gin was disappointingly slight. 

Brilliant young scientist Darrel Dane creates a 
super-formula that shrinks him down to a height of 
just five inches. After drinking it to save his girl- 
friend, Martha Roberts, from hoodlums, Dane 
decides to take up life as a caped crime fighter, pro- 
claiming, "From now on, I shall be known as Doll 
Man, and I pledge myself to fight crime and evil 
relentlessly." But he doesn't need an antidote to 
resume his normal size, he simply "wills" it. As the 
"World's Mightiest Mite" — complete in a blue body- 
suit-like costume that boasts bare arms and legs, a 
short cape, and pixie boots, worn under his street 



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Doll Man 



clothes — Doll Man is ready to go. By way of com- 
pensation for his diminutive size, Doll Man packs a 
mean punch and is able to sneak up on villains 
unannounced, hiding in pockets, bags, boxes — or 
on cats! Magically, he also gains the telekinetic 
power to slow moving objects. 

Within a couple of issues of the arrival of 
Doll Man, Arnold lost the rights to many of his 
newspaper strips, so Doll Man was promoted to 
cover star and Quality Comics changed its direc- 
tion for good, switching over to superhero produc- 
tion with gusto. Fine drew the feature for eleven 
issues and was soon followed by his only real 
rival at the time, Reed Crandall (who would go on 
to draw Feature Comics #44-#63). Crandall was, 
if anything, an even better draftsman than Fine, 
being a master of anatomy, mood, and action. 
Given the strip's excellent art, it is no surprise 
that Doll Man was soon given his own quarterly 
title, which hit the stands in winter 1941. With 
Crandall busy with Blackhawk, other artists were 
brought in, including Mort Leav, John Cassone, 
and Rudy Palais, but it was Al Bryant, Quality's 
most prolific artist, who drew the bulk of the 
strips for the rest of the 1940s. Eisner soon left 
the scripting chores to other hands, including Joe 
Millard and William Woolfolk. 

Most Doll Man stories began with the pipe- 
smoking Dane relaxing with his girlfriend Roberts 
and her inventor father Dr. Roberts in their front 
room. Invariably, the radio would announce some 
heinous crime and Dane would rush out, shrink, dis- 
cover the evildoer, and dispatch him — all within ten 
pages. Over the course of fourteen years, Doll Man 
encountered an impressive array of villains, includ- 
ing Iron Mask, the Storm, Fat Catt, the Vulture, the 
Brain, the Phantom Duellist, and Pluvius the Storm 
Maker. In the 1940s these could be fairly brutal 
encounters and the miscreants rarely reappeared 
for a second thrashing, most of them having been 
callously and fatally disposed of by Doll Man. How- 
ever, two notable returnees were the dapper, pint- 
sized Tom Thumb and the "Lord of the Plunder- 



\tfr 



world," the Undertaker — a theatrically sinister foe 
who slept in a grave. 

The year 1949 was something of an annus hor- 
ribilis for superheroes, witnessing Doll Man 
replaced in issue #140 of Feature Comics by the 
woefully banal Stunt Man Stetson. Unusually, how- 
ever, Doll Man's own title was to run for four more 
years, and there were even a couple of new addi- 
tions to the comic's supporting cast. First up (in 
Doll Man #31) was a rather pathetic-looking stray 
mutt called Elmo, which Doll Man befriended and 
transformed by means of some sort of ray into 
Elmo, the Wonder Dog, an extra-strong, super-intelli- 
gent, crime-fighting canine! Not content with that, 
six issues later the cast was joined by Doll Girl, 
a.k.a. Martha Roberts, who had finally acquired the 
knack of thinking hard enough to shrink. Her red 
costume was a skimpy counterpart to Dane's blue 
one and certainly added a touch of glamour to the 
strip, but perhaps it all came a little too late and 
Doll Man was canceled with issue #47, in 1953. 

Quality Comics sold its heroes to DC Comics a 
few years later, but the company must also have 
sold some old printing plates to I.W. Comics, as 
that company brought out a series of Doll Man 
reprints in the early 1960s. It took DC a long time 
to realize the potential of the Quality heroes but, fol- 
lowing a couple of appearances in the Justice 
League of America in 1973, Doll Man eventually 
emerged as one of the Freedom Fighters in 1976, 
along with Uncle Sam, the Ray, Human Bomb, Phan- 
tom Lady, and the Black Condor. Sadly, that group's 
comic was not a success and the Doll Man returned 
to obscurity, possibly for the very good reason that 
DC had a tiny superhero of its own. During the 
mania for revivals that characterized the early 
stages of the Silver Age (1956-1969), artist Gil 
Kane had remembered Doll Man and suggested 
that DC resurrect its old Atom character as a shrink- 
ing superhero. By the 1970s, therefore, DC already 
had its Atom — and indeed had seen his solo title 
canceled — and probably saw no point in publishing 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Doom Patrol 



Doll Man. Whether or not he surfaces again is any- 
one's guess. — DAR 

Doom Patrol 

It's asking a lot of a comic to star "the world's 
strangest heroes," but the Doom Patrol has deliv- 
ered on that promise not once but twice. The veter- 
an creative duo of writer Arnold Drake and artist 
Bruno Premiani introduced the team in the pages of 
DC Comics' My Greatest Adventure #80 (in mid- 
1963). Their first story relates how the wheelchair- 
bound genius Niles Caulder (also called "the 
Chief") summons "three victims of a cruel and fan- 
tastic fate" to his brownstone to offer them the 
chance of adventure — and superhero status. The 
three are: actress Rita Farr, who, after being affect- 
ed by volcanic gas, is able to assume a large or 
small size (Elasti-Girl); Larry Trainor, a test pilot who 
is doused in cosmic rays, gaining an "energy dou- 
ble" made of negative energy — though this can only 
survive outside his body for sixty seconds (Negative 
Man); and Cliff Steele, a daredevil racecar driver 
whose brain is transplanted by the Chief into a 
robot body following a cataclysmic crash (Robot- 
man— no relation to the Golden Age [1938-1954] 
character of the same name). 

Drake conceived the team as a response to 
such emerging Marvel Comics superheroes as the 
Fantastic Four, which emphasized characterization 
over the convoluted plots that were then DCs stock- 
in-trade. In fact, the Marvel superhero team and 
comic that the Doom Patrol most closely resembled 
was the X-Men, which shared its lineup of bitter out- 
siders under a wheelchair-confined leader, a secret 
hi-tech hideout, and arch-villains with similar names 
(the Brotherhood of Evil for Doom Patrol, the Broth- 
erhood of Evil Mutants for the X-Men). Indeed, to 
compound the similarities, Drake would later move 
to Marvel to write — you guessed it — the X-Men 
comic. Significantly, however, it was the Doom Patrol 
that came first (by three months), though, while 




Doom Patrol #96 © 1965 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY BOB BROWN. 



both strips developed a committed readership, it 
was the X-Men, of course, that proved the more 
enduring of the two. 

Back in 1963, however, the Doom Patrol comic 
soon proved popular and, with its 86th issue, My 
Greatest Adventure was retitled The Doom Patrol, 
and ran under that name until issue #121 five 
years later. The strip had an air of sophistication 
about it, thanks to Drake's well-rounded characteri- 
zations and Premiani's accomplished, European-fla- 
vored draftsmanship, which set it apart from its 
rivals. The lineup was augmented by bizarre figures 
such as Mento, the wealthy Steve Dayton, who built 
himself his own (ludicrous-looking) mind-reading 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Dr. Fate 



hairnet; and the green-skinned Beast Boy, who 
could change into any animal (and who later joined 
the Teen Titans). Villains, too, were included in 
abundance, including the immortal (and very 
wrinkly) General Immortus; Videx (a giant with see- 
through skin); an enormous walking jukebox; and 
assorted monsters and mutants. The aforemen- 
tioned Brotherhood of Evil was a motley crew con- 
sisting of the Brain (who was just that — a brain), the 
shape-changing Madame Rouge, and Monsieur Mal- 
lah, who was a sentient gorilla. 

In time, Mento and Elasti-Girl married, and then 
adopted Beast Boy, while Madame Rouge fell in love 
with the Chief, but the comic was perhaps too 
strange for some readers and cancellation became 
inevitable. The last issue ended with the group sacri- 
ficing themselves to save a village, and they stayed 
dead for a decade but, when DCs Showcase comic 
was revived in 1977, so too was the Doom Patrol. It 
seemed that Robotman had somehow survived the 
explosion that killed his teammates, and he joined 
up with a new group of young outsiders: Tempest, 
Negative Woman (no relation), and Celsius, who 
turned out to have been married to the Chief (not 
that anyone knew). This new team starred in a mere 
three issues of Showcase and had to wait another 
ten years before being heard of again, when a new 
Doom Patrol comic premiered in 1987. 

This second run reintroduced the original Nega- 
tive Man, Larry Trainor, and in due course the Chief 
reappeared, so that only the unfortunate Elasti-Girl 
seems to have perished back in the 1960s. A cou- 
ple of years into their new comic, the Doom Patrol 
acquired a young British writer, Grant Morrison, and 
became stranger than ever, picking up a more 
mature, cult audience in the process. Morrison 
introduced Crazy Jane, a schizophrenic with sixty- 
four different personalities, while Trainor fused with 
his energy being and an unfortunate nurse to 
become the radioactive Rebis. The cast of villains 
now included the Brotherhood of Dada, the Beard 
Hunter, and Danny the Street, who was — yes! — a 
sentient street. For almost four years, Morrison 



dreamed up some of the strangest and most imagi- 
native comics ever seen, which managed the seem- 
ingly impossible task of combining traditional super- 
heroes with surreal plots and serious topics, such 
as child abuse. After Morrison's departure, the 
comic carried on in much the same vein but without 
his spark of inspiration, and it was canceled with its 
eighty-seventh issue — nevertheless an impressive 
run for such a left-field title. — DAR 



Or. Fate 



Like his fellow supernatural hero, the Spectre, Dr. 
Fate was born and canceled during World War II, but 
endless revivals have kept the character in the pub- 
lic eye for decades. Dr. Fate first appeared in May 
1940 in More Fun Comics #55, under the hands of 
journeymen creators Gardner Fox and Howard Sher- 
man, and was DC Comics' eleventh superhero 
(although by this point magicians of various descrip- 
tions were already a staple of comic books). With 
his blue-and-yellow bodysuit and his identity-con- 
cealing golden helmet, he was one of the more 
striking heroes of the time — albeit a rather imper- 
sonal one, with his face permanently covered. Dr. 
Fate was Kent Nelson who, at the age of twelve, 
had stumbled across some ancient Sumerian ruins 
while exploring with his archaeologist father. An 
escaping gas killed the father but the son awak- 
ened an ancient energy being called Nabu, who 
infused him with power, causing him to grow to 
instant adulthood, and equipping him with mystical 
artifacts: a helmet, an amulet, and a cape. 

Back home in the United States, Nelson's 
power was almost limitless, which made his initial 
adventures somewhat predictable; after all, there 
can be little suspenseful drama if you know that 
your hero will always be victorious. This deficiency 
was partly addressed halfway into the character's 
career when his helmet was shortened, apparently 
limiting his powers to a degree, but coming up with 
suitably powerful villains was always a problem for 



\& 



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Dragon Ball 



his writers. In his civilian identity, Nelson operated 
out of an eerie-looking brick tower in Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, and courted the society beauty Inza 
Cramer. In an unusual twist, Nelson soon revealed 
his secret identity to Cramer, and he later married 
her. Like most of DCs main heroes of the period, 
Dr. Fate was inducted into the Justice Society and 
starred in their first eighteen adventures but, after 
the cancellation of his own strip in 1944, he was 
soon removed from the Society, too. 

Despite Dr. Fate's early years being generally 
unexceptional, when the Justice Society was revived 
in the 1960s the character became an integral part 
of the group and took part in almost all of their reg- 
ular Justice League crossovers until the mid-1980s. 
When All Star Comics was brought back in the 
1970s, Dr. Fate was in action again and he featured 
in most succeeding Justice Society outings. In the 
years since the war, comics had increasingly 
embraced powerful mystical heroes, and Dr. Fate's 
cosmic abilities were more and more in keeping 
with what the fans had come to expect. A 1976 
one-shot, drawn by Walt Simonson, was particularly 
well received (and has been reprinted periodically 
ever since) but readers had to wait another twelve 
years before Dr. Fate was given his own title, and by 
then the helmet already had a different occupant. 

This new Dr. Fate was, in fact, two people: ten- 
year-old Eric Strauss and his stepmother Linda, who 
merged to become one person; Kent Nelson was 
reduced to being their mentor. After a couple of 
years, the mantle of Fate was passed on to Nel- 
son's wife Cramer, as the writers began to develop 
the idea that the spirit of Nabu, which was what had 
given Dr. Fate his (or her or their!) power, resided in 
the helmet and other artifacts — so almost anyone 
could take over the role. Cramer's Dr. Fate seemed 
as interested in urban renewal and ecological mat- 
ters as fighting demons or sorcerers, so there was 
no place for her in the "nasty nineties" and she was 
replaced by the character's fourth incarnation. 



Jared Stevens was a treasure hunter who 
found Dr. Fate's helmet, and was thereby sum- 
moned back to the tower in Salem. When the tower 
was destroyed in a mysterious explosion, the vari- 
ous artifacts became merged with Stevens, while 
Nelson and Cramer disappeared in a puff of smoke. 
Stevens became, simply, Fate. That the old helmet 
was now transformed into a dagger was sympto- 
matic of Stevens' unlikeable personality, and few 
mourned when his incarnation of the character was 
short-lived. After three years in the wilderness, Fate 
reappeared in the first issue of a 1999 Justice 
Society revival, only to be killed off immediately; in 
a telling editorial comment, he was dispatched with 
his own knife. However, the comic's next few issues 
were devoted to the search for a new host for the 
spirit of Nabu, and in a mind-bogglingly complex plot 
twist the Silver Scarab (from Infinity Inc.), son of the 
first Hawkman, was summoned from a dream 
realm, reincarnated as a newborn baby, suddenly 
transformed into a fully grown adult, and inaugurat- 
ed as Dr. Fate the fifth! This latest version of Dr. 
Fate continues in the pages of Justice Society of 
America, but it would be a reckless fan who would 
bet that he will be the last. — DAR 

Wagon daft 

Journey to the West is one of the most beloved tales 
of China. Based on a novel said to have been written 
by Wu Cheng'en (1500-1582), the tale recounts the 
story of Sun Wu Kong (known as the Monkey King) 
and his companions — Zhu Ba Jie, the pig-headed 
monk; Sha Seng; Xiao Bai Long, the Dragon Horse; 
and the monk Tang Seng — as they search for sacred 
Buddhist writings to bring them back to China. Born 
from a large stone egg, Wu Kong has simian fea- 
tures such as a tail and an anthropoid face. He is 
also a mischievous troublemaker who brings chaos 
to heaven and hell until he is punished by being 
imprisoned under a mountain for five hundred years. 
Released by Buddha to help Tang Seng on his quest, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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COVER ART BY AKIRA TORIYAMA. 



Wu Kong agrees, but must wear an iron crown on his 
head; the divinity Kuan Shi-Yin places this upon Wu 
Kong's head — and if the Monkey King would return 
to his former ways, a spell would constrict the iron 
crown. Wu Kong travels long distances on a white 
cloud; he is also a shape-shifter. A Taoist monk 
taught Wu Kong the martial arts, and he has an 
indestructible quarterstaff that can grow to any 
length upon his command. 

The story of Journey to the West is called 
Saiyuuki in Japan, and Sun Wu Kong is called "Son 
Goku." The tale has been used as the basis for 
many popular manga and anime in Japan; it is well 



known throughout Asia. Dr. Osamu Tezuka (Astro 
Boy) and Buichi Terasawa (Cobra) are two examples 
of manga artists who created stories based on 
Saiyuuki. In Terasawa's case, he used a few ele- 
ments from the story and placed them in a twenty- 
first-century setting in his cyberpunk manga Mid- 
night Eye Goku. A most recent example is the 2000 
manga and anime Gensomaden Saiyuuki. 

The most famous — and most popular — adapta- 
tion of the Monkey King legend is Akira Toriyama's 
manga Dragon Ball (1984-1995), which was serial- 
ized in Shonen Jump magazine (Shonen Jump is tar- 
geted at teen readers). Known for his 1980 hit 
manga Dr. Slump (which also spawned a successful 
animated series and movie) and his designs for the 
videogames Tobal No. 9 and Chrono Trigger, Toriya- 
ma not only used many elements from Saiyuuki, he 
also combined science fiction and superhero action 
(and sometimes destruction on a massive scale). 
The Dragon Ball manga spawned an even more pop- 
ular animated television series that ran for 250 
episodes; seventeen movies; an incredible amount 
of merchandise; and fans from all around the world. 
The manga went on to become the best-selling 
book in the world. Dragon Ball and its animated ver- 
sion (which was titled Dragon Ball Zafter episode 
153) have been translated into many languages, 
and have a large following in the United States. 

Toei, one of Japan's oldest animation studios, 
produced the animated series with Minoru Okazaki 
and Daisuke Nishio directing the episodes. A 
sequel series, Dragon Ball GT, began running on 
Japanese television in 1996, after the end of Drag- 
on Ball Z, but it ended in 1997, and only had 
peripheral involvement by Toriyama. 

Dragon Ball follows the adventures of Son Goku, 
a kindhearted — but somewhat naive — fourteen-year- 
old boy. Goku has a tail, and knows little about his 
past; he was raised by the kind Son Gohan, and 
Goku refrains from killing. Found by a young woman 
named Bulma, Goku begins a journey to help her find 
the seven glass spheres known as the Dragonballs. 



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Dragon Ball 



The objects are scattered around the world, and 
when all are brought together, they can summon the 
dragon Shen Long, who will grant the holder of all 
seven Dragonballs a single wish. Joining Goku and 
Bulma are Oolong and Yamcha, plus Yamcha's cat 
partner Puar (who is a shape-shifter). The group is 
aided by Master Roshi, known as the turtle hermit, 
and along the way encounter Krillin, a martial artist. 
The main antagonists are the Emperor Pilaf and the 
Red Ribbon criminal organization. 

It is here that one can find similarities 
between Goku and Wu Kong. Both have tails. 
While Goku does not transform into many forms, 
he does change into a gigantic ape during the full 
moon; only when his tail is removed does the 
transformation end. Both travel on a white cloud — 
in Goku's case, it was given to him by Master 
Roshi; only someone who is pure of heart can ride 
the cloud. Unfortunately, Master Roshi's lecherous 
ways prevent him from doing so. Goku and Wu 
Kong each wield extending, indestructible fighting 
staffs. Bulma, Oolong, Yamcha, and Puar — Goku's 
companions — are parallels to the four companions 
of Wu Kong. 

Dragon Ball Z can be called the second stage 
of Goku's life; several years have passed, and 
Goku is now a young man, happily married to his 
wife Chi-Chi and father to Gohan and Goten. What 
is more evident are the parallels with American 
superheroes, especially Superman. Goku finds out 
that he is the last — or one of the last — survivors of 
an alien race known as the Saiyans; he was sent 
to Earth in a spaceship. His son Gohan also has 
Saiyan blood, and both undergo intense training — 
as a result, both can transform into "Super 
Saiyans"; their hair turns gold and they become far 
more powerful. Many more enemies and allies are 
introduced, including Vegeta, a Saiyan who starts 
off as a foe but becomes a reluctant ally; Piccolo, a 
green-skinned alien from the Namekian race who 
becomes a mentor to Gohan; and Trunks, a time- 
traveler from the future who is the son of Bulma 
and Vegeta. 



In Dragon Ball Z, the action becomes more and 
more extreme. There are many martial arts tourna- 
ments that are the settings for epic battles. Fights 
between characters can last several episodes, and 
the characters become so powerful that the 
destruction resulting from their battles often devas- 
tates the landscape. In one example, Piccolo 
destroys the Moon to prevent Gohan's transforma- 
tion into a giant ape (like father, like son ...). Char- 
acters often die and go to the afterlife, only to train 
and return to the world of the living — this happens 
to Goku and, as a result, he is seen wearing a halo. 
Some characters can even fuse with one another to 
become a new, powerful being. 

Dragon Ball GT begins after the end of Dragon 
Ball Z, and this time features Goku, an older Trunks, 
and Goku's granddaughter Pan as the main charac- 
ters. Emperor Pilaf has also returned, this time with 
a new set of Dragonballs — and when Goku's wish 
goes awry, he is turned back into a child. The series 
follows the search for the new Dragonballs, but this 
time the setting is outer space. 

Dragon Ball was first broadcast in the United 
States in the mid-1990s; FUNimation Productions 
attained the rights to the series and adapted it for 
the syndicated television market. However, changes 
were made due to broadcast standards; nudity and 
excessive violence were edited or cut out. In the 
late 1990s, Cartoon Network began airing the 
series, this time with less edits, and it went on to 
became the highest-rated program on the cable 
channel. The edited and unedited versions of the 
series were released on home video from FUNima- 
tion and Pioneer beginning in 1996 in both subti- 
tled and English-dubbed formats; in April 2003, 
FUNimation began releasing Dragon Ball GT on 
DVD. Viz Comics began publishing an English trans- 
lation of the manga beginning in the late 1990s, 
but this time published both Goku's early adven- 
tures under the title Dragon Ball and his adventures 
as an adult under the title of Dragon Ball Z. 

Yet Dragon Ball already had a fan following in 
the United States, due to episodes and movies sub- 



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Dragon Ball 



titled by fans that were sold at conventions; many 
could also find the original Japanese manga in spe- 
cialty bookstores, as well as the merchandise — 
action figures, models, artbooks, video games, and 
more. Fans are attracted to the action and super- 
hero elements and the various characters — some 
of them truly bizarre — that populate the world creat- 



ed by Toriyama. It is a tribute to his skill as both 
artist and writer that Toriyama was able to blend so 
many different elements into a cohesive story that 
would have failed in lesser hands. The series also 
made him well known in the United States. It does- 
n't look like the popularity of Dragon Ball around the 
world will fade any time soon. — MM 



y# 



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(dipse 
Heroes 



Eclipse was one of the first truly independent 
comics companies, beginning in 1977 and serving 
as a haven for many of the medium's most thought- 
ful and edgy talents (like writers Don McGregor and 
Steve Gerber) when they'd been driven from the 
majors, while also offering a welcoming creative 
space for those who remained in the mainstream 
but sought more substantive outlets (like artists 
Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan). The company 
came into being with McGregor's dystopian action 
saga Sabre, and continued for seventeen years with 
a diverse roster of everything from sci-fi, horror, and 
manga to satire, postmodern funny animals, and 
opera adaptations. In the mix, it didn't shy away 
from the occasional quality superhero series. 

In this area, Eclipse is probably best remem- 
bered as the Stateside home of Alan Moore's 
gloomy masterwork Miracleman. But there are 
other fan favorites as well, perhaps chief among 
them Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot's long-run- 
ning DNAgents. Debuting in 1983 when genetic 
engineering seemed more than a calendar century 



away, the book concerns a troupe of specially pow- 
ered meta-humans created by a global corporation 
to do its often-questionable bidding — and the ques- 
tions these characters nonetheless develop about 
the morality of their missions. Their corporate mas- 
ter, it is amusing to recall, was known as Matrix, 
and the book tapped into anti-big-business para- 
noia long before this theme became a staple of 
pop culture. 

The series dealt with uneasy relationships 
between genetic "cultures" in the way Marvel's X- 
Men books are known to, as an allegory for real-life 
friction between nations and races. Stories would 
revolve around unusual ethical themes, like the one 
in which a hostile potentate (the Commander) 
forces the armor-clad DNAgent Tank into a televised 
battle with a mighty assassin to prove the mutant 
race's inferiority, but the assassin's mercilessness 
increases pubic sympathy for the DNAgents 
instead. The book also took a novel approach to 
ubiquitous comics conventions of the day, as when 
DNAgents and DCs Teen Titans held a "secret 
crossover" in which the two actual teams never 
met, but a parallel narrative played out in each 
series concurrently, with the Agents thinly veiled 
and cleverly renamed "the Re-Combatants" in the 
Titan's book and the Titans dubbed Project Young- 
blood in the Agents'. 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



'93 



ElectraWoman and DynaGirl 




DNAgents #5 © 1983 Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot. 

COVER ART BY WILL MEUGNIOT AND AL GORDON. 



The series ran for some four years and 
spawned several successful spinoffs, including a 
miniseries for the team's electricity-generating hot- 
head Surge and a two-year run for the non-genetical- 
ly-modified hero Crossfire (also written by Evanier, 
with artist Dan Spiegle), a Hollywood bail-bondsman 
by day and costumed vigilante by night who found 
endless material in Evanier's real-life discontents 
as a television scriptwriter. 

In addition to the veteran creators of these 
series, Eclipse was known forgiving promising new 
talents their first opportunities, and one such arrange- 
ment resulted in a series little-noticed at the time but 
sought after by fans since: The Liberty Project, a book 



built around the novel concept of incarcerated 
supervillains given a shot at redemption through a 
kind of work-release as government-controlled super- 
heroes. The series was drawn by James W. Fry and 
written by Kurt Busiek, a writer then known to none 
but later acclaimed throughout the industry for comics 
like the groundbreaking Marvels and Astro City. (In 
2003 The Liberty Project was put back in print in a 
collected volume from About Comics.) 

Other Eclipse superheroes included the patriot- 
ic WWII champion Sgt. Strike and his modern coun- 
terpart Strike!, a black teenager who finds the high- 
tech harness that gave the Sgt. his superpowers. 
(These characters' mythos tied into that of Airboy, 
Skywolf, and other headliners from an unusual 
1940s genre of aviator heroes once published by 
Hillman and revived by Eclipse.) The eclectic stable 
included such others as the spacefaring superteam 
the New Wave, and one of Spider-Man co-creator 
Steve Ditko's strange metaphysical heroes, Static 
(no relation to the later Milestone Comics star). Big 
names from the nomadic landscape of creator- 
owned properties, including Dave Stevens' Rocke- 
teer, also passed through the company's pages. 

Eclipse was committed to quality production val- 
ues, creative freedom, and full ownership of its 
books by each one's artists and writers. In this, it set 
a standard for integrity that not many of the get-rich- 
quick independents that followed it into comics' mid- 
1980s to early 1990s boom bothered to match. 
Eclipse had helped bring about that boom by pioneer- 
ing the practice of distributing comics directly and 
exclusively to specialty comic shops with a ready 
audience. But many comic shops shut their doors, 
and Eclipse went out of business in 1994. — AMC 

GecfraWoman 
andPynaGirf 

"ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, fighting all evil deeds. 
Each writes for a magazine, hiding the life she 



iffl 



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Elektra 



leads." So began the catchy theme song for Electra- 
Woman and DynaGirl, a popular but short-lived seg- 
ment of The Krofft Supershow. Sid and Marty Krofft, 
best known for strange (some would say hallucino- 
genic) live-action Saturday mornings kids' shows, cre- 
ated a ninety-minute variety show for ABC, premiering 
it on September 11, 1976. Leading its mixture of 
segments was a pair of female crime fighters. 

At its ElectraHeart, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl 
was a campy female version of the 1960s Batman 
series. ElectraWoman (not-yet soap star Diedre 
Hall) was really Lori, while DynaGirl (Judy Strangis) 
was Judy, her pigtail-wearing teen sidekick. During 
the day, they were reporters for NewsMaker maga- 
zine, but whenever they got a call from Frank Heflin 
(Norman Alden), the electrical genius at their Elec- 
trabase, they rushed off to fight crime. The girls' 
gadgets included giant-sized wrist-mounted Electra- 
Comps that fired rays like the ElectraBeam and 
ElectraDe-gravitator, and they traveled to fight crime 
in an ElectraCar or ElectraPlane. 

The villains they faced were a silly lot whose 
aims never seemed too evil. The Sorcerer and his 
beauteous sidekick Miss Dazzle used hypnosis to 
rob Fort Knox of its gold, while Glitter Rock kid- 
napped a prince and tried to take over the world 
with disco. The Empress of Evil and her partner 
Lucretia, the sinister Ali Baba, the greedy Pharoah, 
and the curvy Spider Lady were other dastardly 
doers that ElectraWoman and DynaGirl faced. 

Eight half-hour episodes of ElectraWoman and 
DynaGirl were produced and aired during the 
1976-1977 season, and then the heroines went 
away. Though costumes, puzzles, lunchboxes, and 
some other licensing were released, television would 
be the only medium that the costumed heroines 
would appear in. Diedre Hall had just begun starring 
on the soap opera Days of Our Lives in 1976, but 
Strangis all but disappeared from Hollywood. Despite 
its short life, the series achieved a kind of cult 
celebrity. In the late 1990s, episodes were released 
on video, and an ElectraWoman action figure was 
released (DynaGirl was never available, however). 



In 2000, the Kroffts and Warner Bros. Television 
filmed a half-hour Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (note 
spaces now in title) TV pilot starring Markie Post as 
the retired and now-alcoholic Electra Woman, who is 
brought out of retirement by Judy Bennett (Anne Sted- 
man), a reporter who wants to become the new Dyna 
Girl. The WB chose not to pick up the series, and it 
appears that hope is lost — for now — for any revival. 
ElectraBummer! — AM 



Gekfra 



In his initial encounter with Elektra in Daredevil 
#168 (January 1981), Marvel Comics' sightless 
Man without Fear receives from her the blunt end of 
a dagger to the back of his head, then a merciless 
kick across his jaw, proving that issue's cover copy 
to be no hyperbole: "Once he loved her ... now she 
is his most deadly enemy!" 

"Elektra came into existence simply because I 
wanted Daredevil to have a femme fatale," com- 
ments writer/penciler Frank Miller in Les Daniels' his- 
torical volume Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the 
World's Greatest Comics (1991). Yet "simply" never 
applies to Miller's complex work. Elektra Natchios, 
once the college love of law student Matt Murdock, 
Daredevil's alter ego, retreats from her boyfriend and 
society after her father, a Greek envoy, is assassinat- 
ed. Emotionally poisoned by her father's murder, she 
embarks upon a Zen-like quest to find purpose in her 
life, receiving martial-arts training first from a teacher 
in Japan and then, in a mysterious Arctic retreat, from 
Stick, the sensei who similarly instructed Murdock. 
Too indignant to become a noble warrior, Elektra 
allies herself with the Hand, a cult of ninjas that 
manipulates her into executing her original teacher in 
a deadly rite of passage. Her life now has direction: 
Armed with a pair of three-pronged blades called sai, 
the crimson-clad Elektra becomes an executioner for 
hire. Single-handedly plowing through throngs of 
gangsters, assassins, and ninjas alike, Elektra rico- 
chets her sai off of walls with staggering accuracy 



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Elektra 




Elektra #3 © 2001 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY GREG HORN. 



while spinning, ducking, punching, and kicking, leav- 
ing no foe standing. 

At the time of her debut in late 1980, Elektra 
defied the stereotype of the classic superheroine, 
that prim, altruistic mighty maid of previous 
decades who had slipped into cliche. She repre- 
sented an escapist take on the global tensions and 
political cynicism looming over the heads of read- 
ers. Elektra was a female character unlike anything 
comic-book readers had seen before: Determined, 
self-assured, and vicious, she chose not to veil her 
identity behind a mask or alter ego — she was Elek- 
tra, the assassin, nothing more, nothing less. 
Although she was a killer, Elektra was a symbol of 
empowerment: Women no longer have to be vic- 



tims, her actions spoke. Miller may have been "sim- 
ply" creating a femme fatale with Elektra, but in the 
process he redefined the superheroine for the 
1980s and beyond. And unlike the female love 
interests that had previously been introduced in 
comics, Elektra emerged not as a disposable char- 
acter, but as an equal to her lover. 

Elektra's saga continued throughout intermit- 
tent issues of Miller's Daredevil run (as well as in a 
1981 solo story by Miller in Marvel's black-and- 
white anthology magazine, Bizarre Adventures). The 
assassin had a heart, readers discovered, as she 
still loved Murdock, the blind man behind the devil 
mask, affording her character emotional complexity 
beyond her brutality. Yet that bond was overpowered 
by their wills: Elektra was committed to serve as 
the executioner for Daredevil's foe the Kingpin, 
while the heroic Daredevil was pledged to stop her. 
In Daredevil #181 (1982), Elektra was stopped— by 
another assassin, Bullseye, who skewered her to 
regain his position in Kingpin's corner. Mortally 
wounded, Elektra crawled to Murdock's home and 
died in her lover's arms. Unable to accept the pass- 
ing of such a forceful spirit, Murdock exhumed her 
in the very next issue for firsthand proof that Elek- 
tra was indeed dead. A mere five months later, a 
story written and penciled by Miller — "What if Bulls- 
eye Had Not Killed Elektra?" — was published in 
What If? #35, but it merely teased readers with 
make-believe. 

Elektra lived again, however. Miller resurrected 
her in Daredevil #190 (1983), by metaphysically 
cleansing her soul. The character resurfaced, first 
in The Elektra Saga (1984), a four-issue repackag- 
ing (with new material added) of her Daredevil 
appearances, then months later in what would be 
creator Miller's banner year. 

That year was 1986. Miller returned to Dare- 
devil, but only as writer, for a brief, critically 
acclaimed stint, and produced his magnum opus 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns for DC Comics. 
Elektra: Assassin, launched in August 1986, reunit- 
ed author Miller with his popular creation in an 



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Elementals 



eight-issue postmodern prequel to her Daredevil 
appearances. Lavishly painted by Bill Sienkiewicz, 
Elektra: Assassin pitted Elektra against a pighead- 
ed federal agent and a demon bent on starting a 
nuclear war. Sienkiewicz's experimental art style 
and Miller's scathing political commentary made 
Elektra: Assassin a controversial milestone for Mar- 
vel Comics. 

By the 1990s, more superheroines had fol- 
lowed Elektra's edgy lead — Avengelyne and Shi, for 
example — dulling some of the assassin's unique- 
ness. Yet Marvel consistently maintained a pres- 
ence for the character. A four-issue Elektra minis- 
eries was published in 1995, followed by more 
reprints of the original Miller material and a 
crossover with Image Comics' Cyblade in early 
1997. In July of that year, Marvel released Elektra 
#1, an ongoing monthly comic. Daredevil guest- 
starred in the first issue and Bullseye surfaced 
shortly thereafter. Without Miller's participation, 
however, and with the embittered Elektra out of 
place in the mainstream Marvel universe, the 
series died after nineteen issues. 

In the 2000s editorial changes at Marvel 
Comics helped Elektra regain her stature. Some of 
the publisher's grittier characters have been 
allowed to explore explicit themes in the company's 
Marvel Knights and MAX imprints. After co-starring 
with the immensely popular X-Man Wolverine in the 
three-issue Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer 
(2001), Elektra was back on the stands in Septem- 
ber of that year in a new and appropriately violent 
series. In her solo adventures, Elektra's marks are 
clearly criminals; however, despite their wrongdo- 
ings, she still assassinates them, making her a vil- 
lain in the eyes of the authorities in the comics, and 
from the perspective of some readers. 

Elektra's profile received another boost with 
the release of the live-action movie Daredevil 
(2003), starring Ben Affleck in the lead. Daredevil 
appropriated much of Miller's material from his first 
run on the comic book, including the hero's relation- 
ship with Elektra, portrayed by actress Jennifer Gar- 



ner. Garner's interpretation of the character capti- 
vated viewers, including young girls, elevating Elek- 
tra from cult-comic status to mass-media acclaim. 
An Elektra movie and possible film franchise is 
under development. At the time of the release of 
Daredevil, Garner commented, "I wish that I had 
read Elektra when I was growing up because I think 
that she's very empowering to young women. I can't 
pass up the comics now; I have to stop and see if 
there's a new Elektra out." With the promise of an 
ongoing motion-picture series bolstering the pres- 
ence of the popular comic book, Elektra truly lives 
again. — ME 

CJemettfafs 

Earth, wind, fire, water. Element-based superpowers 
may seem routine in the world of superheroes — 
Geo-Force, Swamp Thing, Storm, Human Torch, and 
Aquaman are just a few of the characters who pos- 
sess them — but in the hands of creator Bill Willing- 
ham, they were anything but pedestrian. Premiering 
in Texas Comics' Justice Machine Annual #1 
(1984), the Elementals were four ordinary, unrelat- 
ed people — Tommy Czuchra, a precocious fourteen- 
year-old orphan; Jeff Murphy, a thrill-seeking profes- 
sional pilot; Jeanette Crane, a passionate Los Ange- 
les cop; and Rebecca Golden, a pampered 
heiress — who die. But not for long. 

They return from the grave with abilities that 
connect them to the planet's natural order. Czuchra 
can transform into the superstrong Monolith, a being 
of living stone. Murphy becomes Vortex, able to soar 
at fantastic speeds and project concussive blasts. 
Crane pyro-kinetically masters fire and heat immuni- 
ty. Golden — who now has green skin, and webbed 
fingers and toes — becomes Fathom (no relation to 
Mike Turner's similarly named heroine), manipulating 
(and even becoming} water. In the first story arc, 
"The Natural Order," writer/artist Willingham pushes 
the envelope by delving into subject matter that Mar- 
vel and DC Comics (at the time) considered taboo: 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Elongated Man 




Elementals #1 © 1984 COMICO the Comic Company. 

COVER ART BY BILL WILLINGHAM AND BILL ANDERSON. 



the social and psychological repercussions of resur- 
rection from the dead, and graphic explorations of 
violence and sociopathic behavior. 

Independent publisher Comico the Comic Com- 
pany picked up Willingham's creator-owned 
superteam shortly after the Texas Comics debut 
and issued Elementals #1 in 1984. Erratically 
released at first, Elementals garnered a loyal fan 
base, largely due to Willingham's provocative cre- 
ative voice. As a writer, he stretched with each 
installment — overtime, he addressed occultism, 
child abuse, sexual identity, religious obsession, 
immoral ministers, depression, and suicide, all 
while delivering well-paced, solidly scripted super- 



hero stories. A disciple of folklore, Willingham also 
introduced fantasy themes into Elementals, with 
storybook and mythological characters appearing, 
territory he later continued to cover by writing the 
critically acclaimed series Fables (2002-present) 
for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. As an artist, Willing- 
ham matured with each issue, starting as a compe- 
tent copycat (while popular Batman and Micronauts 
artist Michael Golden's influence is quite obvious in 
his early work, Willingham commands a firm grasp 
of storytelling) but blossoming into a remarkably tal- 
ented illustrator. 

But Willingham came and went, and Elemen- 
tals issues written and drawn by others lacked his 
magic and verve. In early 1989, Comico devised a 
"best of both worlds" scenario to keep Willingham 
on the title and publish what had become a strong 
seller for the company on a monthly schedule: Ele- 
mentals was relaunched with vol. 2 issue #1, with 
Willingham scripting and providing cover art, but 
with Mike Leeke and Mike Chen on interior art 
(superstar artist Adam Hughes, then an up-and- 
comer, guest-penciled Elementals #12). This plan 
worked well — until bankruptcy forced Comico to 
close its doors in the early 1990s. Not long there- 
after, a new financier revived Comico and purchased 
Elementals from its creator. Willingham and the 
artists and editors involved with the earlier, ground- 
breaking series chose not to participate in this new 
venture, and the new publisher pandered to the 
marketplace with some gratuitously exploitative 
comics involving the characters (including Elemen- 
tals Sex Special #l-#4 and Elementals Sexy Lin- 
gerie Special #1). The new Comico was dead by the 
mid-1990s, and it took Elementals to the grave with 
it, an unfortunate conclusion to a once-celebrated 
series. — ME 



Elongated Man 

The perennial backup character the Elongated Man 
has brightened up numerous DC comics since his 



y# 



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E-Maii 



introduction in the pages of The Flash #112 in 1960 
by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantine The Elongated 
Man was Ralph Dibny, who developed a fascination for 
circus "India rubber men" and eventually discovered 
that their stretching ability was derived from a soft 
drink called Gingold. Dibny found that by taking a con- 
centrated drink of the liquid he could alter the cellular 
properties of his tissue and so stretch any part of his 
body to incredible length. Gingold's only drawback was 
its tendency to lose its effect after twenty-four hours, 
resulting in all manner of hilarious scrapes. 

After his first appearance, reader response 
was so positive that the Elongated Man became a 
regular guest in the Flash strip for the next couple 
of years. Not only was the character unusual in his 
lighthearted approach to life but he had also, by his 
third appearance, abandoned his secret identity 
and married his girlfriend, glamorous socialite Sue 
Deerbom. With a rosy outlook on life matched by a 
colossal, fame-seeking ego, Dibny decided to earn 
his living by making personal appearances across 
the country. Nearly every story started with Dibny 
and Deerborn driving into a fresh town and coming 
across a quirky mystery or a robbery of some sort; 
in a nice touch, his nose would begin to twitch 
whenever a puzzle was about to present itself. 

When Fox and Infantino were recruited to 
revamp the flagging Batman titles, they brought the 
Elongated Man with them, and for six years the 
"stretchable sleuth" was a welcome backup strip in 
Detective Comics (starting in issue #327). The first 
story set the tone for years to come: When Dibny 
and Deerborn stumble across a diamond-smuggling 
racket, the Elongated Man uses his special talent 
to eavesdrop on the hoods, leading to the immortal 
line "An ear in the fireplace! He must be up on the 
roof!" As the strip's run developed, the intrepid duo 
continued to foil ingenious crimes and to solve com- 
plex conundrums, but they never once acquired the 
lineup of supervillains that plagued other, more seri- 
ous heroes. In fact, much of the strip's appeal lay in 
its low-key charm, which was perfectly complement- 
ed by Infantino's sophisticated line work. 



In the 1970s, Elongated Man enjoyed occa- 
sional spots in the back pages of The Flash and 
Detective Comics, and finally joined the Justice 
League of America; his membership had previously 
been rejected on the grounds that Dibny exploited 
his powers for monetary gain. It was as a regular 
member of the Justice League, and later the Justice 
League Europe, that he gained his greatest popular- 
ity, allowing his constant cheerfulness to brighten 
up an otherwise somewhat dour group. This expo- 
sure culminated in the character's own solo comic 
(in a 1992 miniseries), a full thirty-two years after 
his first appearance; this proved to be a jolly romp 
through Europe. He also found a suitably bizarre 
supervillain of his own, Calamari, who was clad in a 
giant squid costume. This series did not lead to any 
further solo outings, but to this day the Elongated 
Man remains a member of the Justice League, 
where he is always a welcome sight. — DAR 



E-Aflan 



"I think, therefore I am, but what am I?" In a market 
dominated by neurotic heroes, creatures of the 
night, bloodthirsty barbarians, and horror comics by 
the score, E-Man was a breath of fresh air in the 
mid-1970s. E-Man was the creation of editor/writer 
Nick Cuti and up-and-coming artist Joe Staton, who 
were given permission to dream up a new super- 
hero by the unfashionable Charlton Comics, almost 
as a reward for good work on the company's Mys- 
tery Comics line. Drawing on their interest in sci- 
ence and love for the legendary Plastic Man strip of 
the 1940s, the pair concocted a funny, inventive, 
and genuinely warm-hearted hero who quickly 
established a cult following. 

E-Man #1 (October 1973) reveals how an 
exploding supernova, off in the furthest reaches of 
the universe, created a ball of sentient energy that 
proceeds to float through space for the next thou- 
sand years or so, finally stumbling across a passing 
spaceship, manned by the malevolent "Brain" (per- 



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Everyday Heroes 



haps not surprisingly a giant, disembodied brain). 
The entity hitches a ride. After inadvertently causing 
the ship to crash on Earth, the energy creature trav- 
els through electrical cables to end up in the dress- 
ing room light bulb of exotic dancer Nova Kane and 
assume human form. The newly named E-Man ("E" 
for energy, of course) is very much an innocent 
force abroad, albeit a powerful one. Inspired by a 
poster of Albert Einstein in Kane's apartment, E- 
Man fashions himself a yellow-and-orange costume 
with "E = MC 2 " embroidered on the front, and 
becomes a superhero. He takes on everyday life in 
his alter ego of private detective Alec Tronn. 

E-Man's powers were seemingly limitless. He 
could shoot energy bolts from his fingertips, trans- 
form himself into any shape he wanted, fly, travel 
through telephone cables, and sleep in a car bat- 
tery. He soon encountered a bizarre collection of 
enemies, including the Battery, the Boar, the 
Entropy Twins, aliens, hillbillies, and killer theme 
parks. The third issue of E-Man introduced the 
grime-encrusted, low-life private investigator 
Michael Mauser, who soon befriended E-Man, much 
to the disgust of Kane; she preferred her newly dis- 
covered boyfriend (the relationship flowered pretty 
much from their first meeting) to be unspoiled by 
the world around him. In fact, E-Man's naive, opti- 
mistic, relentlessly cheerful personality, together 
with Kane's endless reserves of pluck, determina- 
tion, and flirtatiousness, provided much of the 
strip's appeal. In time, Kane herself became a 
superhero — named, appropriately enough, "Nova, 
the Energy-Being that Walks Like a Woman" — after 
she became caught in an exploding star (in issue 
#8), while Mauser starred in his own feature in the 
Vengeance Squad comic. However, despite the best 
efforts of Cuti and Staton, along with a loyal band of 
fans, the E-Man comic simply failed to resonate 
with a wide audience. 

E-Man's initial run sadly lasted for only ten 
issues, plus a one-off appearance in the Charlton 
Bullseye fanzine, but eight years later (in 1983) he 
was back as one of the stars of First Comics' entry 



into the specialty market. The revival by Staton and 
new writer Marty Pasko was more of a parody title 
than an out-and-out superhero comic and included a 
spoof of the X-Men. Later issues eventually 
returned to the charming stories of the Charlton 
era, bringing back Mauser and introducing E-Man's 
mischievous sister, Vamfire. After twenty-five 
issues, First pulled the plug but Staton — now with 
Cuti once again — fashioned further adventures for 
Comico (in 1989) and Alpha (in 1993), all much in 
the classic tradition. 

Though not published with any consistency 
since the 1990s, there remains a wonderful fresh- 
ness and sense of fun in the many E-Man stories, 
particularly those of the original Charlton run. As 
late as 2001 E-Man starred in a new strip (in Comic 
Book Artist #12), so there is always hope that his 
time still might come. — DAR 

tveryday Heroes 

Realism and superheroes. It sounds like an oxy- 
moron, but at least since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 
revolutionized the genre in the early 1960s, comics 
creators have been pursuing the principle. 

"Realism" has meant different things to differ- 
ent writers and artists. To Lee, Kirby, and their con- 
temporaries it meant giving believable flaws and 
self-doubts to character types once known for their 
impossible purity and confidence, even if the real- 
life emotions were played out in an alien dimension 
by people with green and orange skin. Spider-Man 
was a guilt-ridden neurotic, the Fantastic Four were 
not so much a superteam as comics' first dysfunc- 
tional family, the rageaholic Hulk was the quintes- 
sential anti-hero, and so on. 

Since the 1990s, "realism" has meant some- 
thing else: A whole genre has emerged exploring 
the lives of the ordinary people in the universes 
superheroes inhabit. These are neither paragons 
whose problems readers can relate to nor stock 



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Everyday Heroes 



sidekicks and girlfriends who have too little person- 
ality to identify with, but people with everyday lives, 
regularly threatened by forces beyond their control. 

The genre began in earnest — and was given a 
daunting model to match — with Marvels (1994), a 
miniseries by two current comics superstars who 
were then virtually unknown, writer Kurt Busiek and 
artist Alex Ross. Taking in the whole sweep of the 
twentieth century, both historical and fictional, Mar- 
vels presented the Marvel Comics universe as seen 
freshly through the eyes of a photojournalist, Phil 
Sheldon. Ross' own dazzlingly photographic style (in 
which each panel is fully painted and remarkably 
believable), and Busiek's knowing knack for down- 
to-earth treatment of incredible subject matter, 
made readers feel as if they were reading an actual 
documentary of the imaginary Marvel characters — 
and the ambivalent mix of awe and fear that such 
characters (and the real-life conflicts they symbol- 
ize) inspire in ordinary people. 

Marvels cast a long shadow in which few suc- 
cessors flourished (though Busiek himself has 
occasionally returned to the series' person-on-the- 
street structure in his acclaimed independent comic 
Astro City, 1995-present). But by the end of the 
1990s it was time for the next landmark in the 
"everyday heroes" genre. Image Comics' Powers 
(2000-present), by fan-favorite writer Brian Michael 
Bendis and artist Michel Avon Oeming, is a gripping 
costumed crime-drama in which the secrets and 
shortcomings of superbeings are seen from the per- 
spective of the ordinary cops who clean up after 
their scandals, which range from disillusioning to 
disastrous. The series is heavy on political paranoia 
and celebrity-bashing disdain, but also rich in humor 
from the Dragnet dialogue and Mars/Venus inter- 
play between stolid veteran detective Christian 
Walker and brash rookie Deena Pilgrim. 

Bendis single-handedly perpetuated the genre 
with his own series from 2001 to 2003, Alias (no 
relation to the TV show, which serendipitously 
debuted at the same time) for Marvel's MAX imprint 
(with artist Michel Gaydos). The comic concerns 



Jessica Jones, a second-tier superhero turned 
struggling civilian private investigator. The series' 
plain, cynical heroine is rare for a medium oriented 
toward uncomplicated babes, and her adventures 
cover the underbelly of the Marvel universe, from 
farcical superhero-sidekick impostors to frightening 
drug-addict thrill-seekers who mainline mutant 
blood. Resonantly squalid and often surprisingly 
funny, Alias tells the subtly moving story of a power- 
ful woman who, rather than protecting regular peo- 
ple from on high, has chosen to live as they do. 

The success of such books opened the spigot 
on similar concepts, from Marvel's 2002 miniseries 
Deadline (following the misadventures of superhero- 
hating junior reporter Katherine Farrell, who strug- 
gles with a man's world as well as a Superman's), 
to DCs Gotham Central (2003-present), focusing 
on the police force of Batman's fair city. 

Another addition to the genre fizzled out from 
the most promising of beginnings. After the 9/11 
tragedy, Marvel published three interlocking mini- 
series under the general title The Call of Duty 
(2002), each dealing with a different cast of first- 
responders (The Brotherhood featured firefighters; 
The Precinct, police; The Wagon, ambulance 
teams). Though nominally set in the Marvel uni- 
verse, with some supernatural and sci-fi elements 
involved, the books were best at realistically por- 
traying human nature in unusual situations under 
extraordinary pressures. These were the heroes 
people wanted to read about, and in a baffling 
botch, the miniseries were followed by an ongoing 
(but swiftly canceled) comic (The Call, 2003) that 
turned the everyday stars into more standard 
superheroes. 

But never fear; after that book's demise, Jessi- 
ca Jones was set to return in The Pulse! (also by 
Bendis and Gaydos), a 2004 series in which she 
feeds exposes of costumed characters' less-heroic 
episodes to an investigative reporter, thus bringing 
the genre full-circle — and no doubt opening up a 
whole new horizon. — AMC 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Extreme Studios Heroes 



ttfxeme 
Studios Heroes 

In February 1992, six of the hottest artists in the 
comics medium announced that they had formed 
Image Comics, a collective publishing house in 
which they would own all of their creations, sink or 
swim. Over the next several years, the artist who 
would do the most sinking and swimming would be 
Rob Liefeld, the head of the Extreme Studios 
imprint. Liefeld first garnered industry attention on 
DC Comics' Hawk & Dove miniseries in 
1988-1989, but it was his work on Marvel proper- 
ties such as New Mutants and X-Force that won him 
a hardcore fan base who would follow him any- 
where. They liked his ultra-line-filled art, and didn't 
care that many of his characters — and some of the 
art — seemed awfully familiar. It was Liefeld's 
extreme style that caught fandom's attention. 

Liefeld's first book for Image was Youngblood 
#1 (April 1992), in which he introduced a group of 
government-sponsored heroes who were as com- 
fortable being publicity-friendly celebrities as they 
were stopping supervillains. Badrock is a stony 
giant with great strength, but inside he is just a 
teen. Chapel is an African-American marksman with 
dark secrets. Shaft is the arrow-firing hero who 
would grow into leadership. Vogue is a Russian 
gymnast whose deadly aim with throwing weapons 
is surpassed by her fortunes as the head of a cos- 
metic empire. Riptide is a water-wielding beauty. 
Others on the Youngblood roster — which soon split 
into two books, Youngblood and Team Youngblood— 
included werewolf-like Cougar, fire-headed Photon, 
and armored Sentinel, as well as Brahma, Psi Fire, 
Combat, and Diehard. The first issue saw the group 
battling villains such as Strongarm, Gage, Dead- 
lock, and Starbright, and Psi-Fire killed Middle East- 
ern leader Hassan Kussein. 

The Youngblood team formed the core of the 
Extreme universe. Many of the characters had 




Supreme #2 © 1993 Rob Liefeld. 

COVER ART BY BRIAN MURRAY. 



appeared in fan stories illustrated by Liefeld for 
Titan Talk, a Teen Titans fan publication in the 
1980s; their first comic appearance was actually in 
Megaton Comics Explosion (June 1987). Extreme 
soon expanded its line and hired artists who could 
ape Liefeld's style. Books included other hero 
teams like Brigade and New Men, and solo series 
such as the violent Bloodstrike; futuristic science 
fiction hero Prophet; comedic space barbarian 
Bloodwulf; and more. Several Youngblood charac- 
ters were given their own titles, which often 
crossed over with other Image series; Chapel was 
a part of Spawn continuity, Troll mixed stories with 
The Maxx, and Badrock and Company was an actu- 



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Extreme Studios Heroes 



al team-up book featuring Badrock meeting other 
Image denizens. 

The most lasting of the Extreme books is 
Supreme, featuring a lead character that started 
out as a Superman rip-off, but became a beloved 
homage once renowned author Alan Moore came 
aboard to script the stories, beginning with issue 
#41 (August 1996). Moore took the outrageous ele- 
ments of Silver Age (1956-1969) Superman sto- 
ries — alternate dimensions, multiple permutations 
of the hero — and brought them into Supreme's 
world, with fascinating spins that made the out- 
landish seem real. 

Although many Extreme titles were solid sellers, 
and action-figure and toy licensing was taking off, 
Liefeld himself — the highly public face of Extreme — 
was getting a critical backlash in the industry. When 
he would take steps forward — he appeared in a 
Levi's commercial and optioned film and television 
rights on a regular basis to Tom Cruise's production 
company, Cruise-Wagner Productions, as well as 
actor Will Smith and Fox television — the industry 
would shoot back with tales of his copied artwork, 
his inability to meet deadlines or keep character 
costumes consistent, and battles with his fellow 
Image creators and with animators who worked on a 
prospective Youngblood series. At a time when a 
near-bankrupt Marvel had farmed out several of its 



lead titles to Liefeld and fellow Image creator Jim 
Lee to produce — Captain America, Avengers, Iron 
Man, and Fantastic Four were theirs for a one-year 
experiment called "Heroes Reborn" — Liefeld's 
standing in the comics world was unsteady. 

In September 1996, Liefeld announced he was 
stepping down as Image's CEO, and relocating all of 
his titles to the self-published Maximum Press. 
Image stated that Liefeld had been voted out of the 
group non-voluntarily, and a battle of press releases 
and spin control began. Extreme Studios continued 
publishing some titles under the Maximum Press 
banner, including Moore's Supreme, and a run of 
the warrior women series Avengelyne and Glory. As 
the new millennium began, Liefeld had mostly 
stopped publishing his own comics, licensing some 
titles out, and eventually changing imprints again, to 
Awesome Comics, then Arcade Comics. Dabbling in 
work sporadically for Marvel, Liefeld finally released 
new issues of Youngblood in 2003. The return was 
bittersweet, however; a series of resolicitations and 
missed shipping dates meant that Youngblood did 
not get distribution from the industry's largest dis- 
tributor, Diamond. Whether Liefeld and his Extreme 
heroes can once again regain fan-favorite status is 
still in doubt, but the effect that Extreme Studios 
had on the comics industry will definitely be remem- 
bered in comic-book history. — AM 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*(* 




Fantastic Four 

"The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" — the 
immodest subtitle displayed above the logo of Fan- 
tastic Four since its fourth issue — is no mere hyper- 
bole. Still going strong in its fifth decade of publica- 
tion, Fantastic Four, the series that spearheaded 
the Marvel universe, has become its cornerstone. 

Fantastic Four was the product of editorial 
decree and creative desperation. Beginning in the 
late 1950s, DC Comics had successfully resuscitat- 
ed the superhero genre through its reintroduction of 
classic heroes like the Flash and Green Lantern. 
The Silver Age of comics (1956-1969) was under- 
way. Martin Goodman, publisher of Marvel Comics, 
was informed during a golf game with DCs publish- 
er Jack Liebowitz that DCs superhero books were 
selling exceptionally well, particularly their new Jus- 
tice League of America series, which united Super- 
man, Batman, and other popular characters. Marvel 
was known mainly for its monster comics, and 
Goodman realized that his line would benefit from a 
title starring a supergroup. He ordered his editor, 
Stan Lee, to create one. This directive came at an 
opportune time for Lee, who was tiring of writing 
and editing disposable pap for children and was on 
the brink of resigning from the company. Lee longed 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



to script material with more profundity — stories fea- 
turing real people, with realistic foibles — and his 
wife encouraged him to make this mandated 
superteam the trial project for his aspirations. 

Fantastic Four#l (November 1961) introduced 
a quartet of new characters: Dr. Reed Richards, a 
pompous scientist and aerospace engineer; Susan 
(Sue) Storm, his lovely and somewhat reserved 
fiancee; Sue's hotheaded teen-age brother Johnny 
Storm, a car-racing enthusiast; and Richards' beefy 
and snappish longtime friend, pilot Ben Grimm. This 
group of four commandeers an untested spaceship 
of Richards' own design from the U.S. military, in a 
frantic but unsanctioned effort to beat "the Com- 
mies" (as Sue calls them) in the Space Race. Grimm 
protests, concerned over inadequate research into 
the effects of space radiation, but is sweet-talked 
into participation by Sue, for whom he carries an 
unrequited passion. In orbit, the craft is flooded by 
cosmic rays ("I warned you about 'em!" yells Grimm) 
that genetically alter its passengers. Once returning 
to Earth, the quartet discover that they have been for- 
ever changed: Sue can fade in and out of view (and 
before long, project force fields) as the Invisible Girl; 
Grimm mutates into a freakish, rock-skinned power- 
house dubbed the Thing; arrogant Richards elon- 
gates into a plastic man who calls himself Mr. Fan- 
tastic; and Johnny erupts into flame, blazing through 



** 



Fantastic Four 



the skies as the Human Torch. "Together we have 
more power than any humans have ever possessed," 
submits Richards, who persuades this group to join 
forces as the Fantastic Four (FF). 

Author Lee's co-architect was artist Jack Kirby, 
an industry superstar who, like Lee, was looking for 
a chance to stretch beyond the monster comics 
he'd recently illustrated for Marvel. Kirby's energetic 
and cinematic storytelling ("Nobody drew a strip like 
Jack Kirby," beamed Lee in his 2002 autobiography, 
Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee) earmarked 
Fantastic Four as something new, as did Lee's boun- 
cy dialogue, which often placed the series' team- 
mates in verbal conflict with each other — and physi- 
cal conflict, too, via the playful ruckuses sparked by 
practical joker Torch and his target, the Thing. They 
were more than a team: They were a family, and a 
dysfunctional one at that. 

Fantastic Four quickly became a triumph for Mar- 
vel, and Lee and Kirby's imaginations burst into 
hyperdrive. An array of fearsome foes appeared and 
reappeared, including, but certainly not limited to, the 
oafish Mole Man, enslaver of a subterranean race; 
Golden Age (1938-1954) anti-hero Sub-Mariner, also 
known as Prince Namor of the undersea kingdom of 
Atlantis, whose hatred of "surface dwellers" was 
quelled only by his love of the Invisible Girl; the alien 
Super-Skrull, who possessed all of the FF's awesome 
abilities; the manipulative Puppet Master, who could 
control the FF via miniature proxies; and the towering 
Galactus, who gained sustenance by absorbing the 
life forces of planets. Yet no menace was more inso- 
lent than Doctor Doom, whose hideously scarred 
face was hidden behind an ominous iron mask (it is 
rumored that Doom was the template for Darth Vader 
in George Lucas' Star Wars movies). Originally 
Richards' colleague Victor Von Doom, this despotic 
mastermind habitually returned to plague not only 
the FF but to engage Mr. Fantastic in intellectual bat- 
tles, always with dire consequences. 

Lee and Kirby ushered the FF — who operated 
from the Baxter Building, a skyscraper in midtown 



Manhattan — into a dizzying array of exciting adven- 
tures to exotic locales: the center of the earth, the 
past, the subatomic Micro-World, and the treacher- 
ous void called the Negative Zone. Mr. Fantastic's 
unending array of technological gadgets assisted 
the FF in their exploits, most notably the aero- 
dynamic Fantasti-car, which in its earliest incarna- 
tion resembled a flying bathtub, and the FF's own 
malleable uniforms, woven from "unstable mole- 
cules" that mimicked each hero's power (for exam- 
ple, the fabric stretched with Mr. Fantastic). Despite 
his brilliance, Richards could never find a perma- 
nent reversal of the Thing's tragic condition. 

In Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), Reed and 
Sue were married (in a wedding crashed by a cadre 
of criminals), and a few years later their son Franklin 
was born. The Richards family was far from tradition- 
al, however: Franklin displayed dangerous superpow- 
ers, and Mr. Fantastic repeatedly ignored his wife 
and son by spending days holed up in his laboratory. 
A growing supporting cast was introduced: the Black 
Panther, Marvel's first African-American superhero; 
the Inhumans, a race of outcast superbeings; the 
Watcher, a chronicler of intergalactic events sworn to 
observe but not participate; and the Silver Surfer, 
the space-spanning herald of Galactus who turned 
against his master at the urging of the Thing's blind 
girlfriend, Alicia Masters. Alicia, the daughter of the 
Puppet Master, became part of the FF's extended 
family, and helped soften the Thing's morose 
demeanor by "seeing" what only she could: the kind 
inner soul of Grimm. 

Two renowned comics catch phrases were born 
early in Fantastic Four's run: Johnny's "Flame on!," 
which he exclaimed when soaring into action as the 
Torch, and the Thing's high-spirited battle charge, 
"It's clobberin' time!" The Human Torch was the ini- 
tial breakout member, starring in solo adventures in 
Strange Tales and routinely appearing in The Amaz- 
ing Spider-Man, but as the Thing's personality 
changed from bitter outsider to lovable grouch, by 
the mid-1960s Grimm emerged as the FF's most 
popular player. 



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Fantastic Four 



In 1967, the FF's acclaim extended beyond 
comic books. The Fantastic Four (1967-1970), an 
animated television series produced by Hanna-Bar- 
bera, borrowed heavily from the Lee/Kirby comics. 
The cartoon ignited a firestorm of merchandizing, 
including storybooks, flicker rings, coloring books, 
Halloween costumes, and puzzles. 

In the 1970s, changes disrupted the status 
quo of Fantastic Four. A dispute involving story con- 
tributions divided the Lee/Kirby team, and before 
long both vacated the book. For years, a variety of 
creators ventured in and out of the title (artist John 
Buscema distinguished himself by his lengthy run 
on the series in the 1970s), some making minor 
contributions to the canon, others leaving a larger 
mark. The Thing headlined the long-running team-up 
title Marvel Two-in-One (1974-1983), Reed and Sue 
suffered marital problems, and members came and 
went from the team, temporarily replaced by heroes 
like Power Man and Medusa. 

By the late 1970s, several Marvel superheroes 
were starring on live-action television on CBS. The 
Human Torch was optioned for an unrealized live- 
action film, precluding his inclusion in the FF's sec- 
ond animated series, The New Fantastic Four 
(1978), on rival network NBC. (A comics urban leg- 
end contends that the Torch wasn't allowed on the 
'toon due to the network's concerns that impres- 
sionable children would set themselves ablaze in 
emulation.) Johnny Storm was replaced in the show 
by a comical robot named Herbie. The following sea- 
son, NBC aired Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, a 
Flintstones continuation that included shorts featur- 
ing a teenage version of "Benjy" Grimm who trans- 
formed into the ever-lovin' Thing by uniting two sep- 
arated pieces of a ring and shouting, "Thing Ring, 
do your thing!" Both cartoons strayed too far from 
the FF source material and died quickly. 

Writer/artist John Byrne's 1980s run on the 
Fantastic Four comic book (#232-#292, July 
1981-July 1986) spanned half the decade and fea- 
tured such memorable events as the induction of 
the She-Hulk as a temporary member, the evolution 




Fantastic Four #82 © 1969 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JACK KIRBY AND JOE SINNOTT. 



of the once-meek Invisible Girl into the forceful and 
liberated Invisible Woman, the shocking romance 
between the Torch and the Thing's girlfriend Alicia, 
and the transformation of Sue into the villainess 
Malice. Grimm segued from Marvel-Two-in-One into 
his own monthly title, The Thing (1983-1986), which 
took him into the cosmos as a space explorer and 
into the sports arena as a professional wrestler. 

The 1990s did not bode well for Fantastic Four. 
Convoluted story continuity impeded the series, and 
sales dropped. A 1994 low-budget live-action FF 
movie was deemed unworthy of release, yanked 
from distribution, and denied home-video availabili- 
ty, although bootleg copies are common among col- 



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Fantastic Four in the Media 



lectors. (Another FF movie, with Chris Columbus 
[Home Alone] at the helm, was later bandied about 
but shelved.) At least a new FF cartoon stayed on- 
air for two seasons, as part of The Marvel Action 
Hour, from 1994-1996. 

After rebootings in both 1996 and 1998, Mar- 
vel's Fantastic Four eliminated some problematic his- 
tory and returned the series to more accessible and 
stable ground. In the 2000s, the Human Torch was 
spun off into his own series, and Fantastic Fourwas 
restored to its former glory by fan-favorite writer Mark 
Waid and artist Mike Wieringo. A 2003 corporate 
decision to remove Waid and Wieringo from FF was 
met by such overwhelming backlash from readers 
that the move was soon reversed. An alternate-uni- 
verse title featuring a younger version of the team, 
Ultimate Fantastic Four, premiered in early 2004, and 
a third ongoing FF series, 4 (a.k.a. Knights 4), a hard- 
er-edged interpretation produced by the creative 
team originally contracted to replace Waid and 
Wieringo, bowed in 2004. A major live-action Fantas- 
tic Four motion picture has been in development for 
years, and is targeted for a mid- 2005 release date. 
Another FF milestone: In continuous publication 
since 1961, the Invisible Girl/Woman has earned the 
distinction of being in print longer than every comics 
superheroine except for Wonder Woman. 

Although disagreements and personal quests 
have often separated the Fantastic Four, their mutu- 
al affection inevitably reunites them. It's that bond 
between Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the 
Thing, and the Human Torch that will always make 
their series "The World's Greatest Comic Maga- 
zine!" — ME 



Fantastic Fovv in 
the Media 

They are the world's greatest dysfunctional family. 
Exposed to cosmic rays while traveling in an experi- 



%& 



mental rocketship, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, John- 
ny Storm, and Ben Grimm return to Earth with aston- 
ishing powers. The stretchable Richards dubs him- 
self Mr. Fantastic, while the see-through Sue Storm 
is the Invisible Girl, and her now-flammable brother 
Johnny is the Human Torch. Poor Grimm gets the raw 
end of the deal, becoming a superstrong orange- 
skinned creature known as the Thing. As created by 
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Fantastic Four#l 
(November 1961), the quartet known as the Fantas- 
tic Four would become almost as popular for their 
squabbling relationships as they would for their 
efforts to protect the world from such cosmic 
threats as planet-devouring Galactus, dictator Doctor 
Doom, angry underwater monarch Sub-Mariner, and 
the shape-changing alien invaders known as Skrulls. 

It would be a mere six years after their comic 
debut that the Fantastic Four would make their first 
media appearance. Hanna-Barbera saw that Filma- 
tion's DC Comics-based superhero cartoons were 
popular, as was Grantray-Lawrence's limited-anima- 
tion Marvel Super-Heroes series. Hanna-Barbera 
quickly licensed The Fantastic Fourfor a cartoon 
series, basing many of the scripts directly on comic- 
book storylines of the day. 

The Fantastic Four debuted on September 9, 
1967, with a half-hour slot. The animation was ade- 
quate; though it lacked the power of Kirby's comics, 
the characters were designed by comics legend 
Alex Toth and art direction was by Marvel Comics 
artist John Romita Sr. Voice work was by several 
popular voice actors of the day, including Gerald 
Mohr, JoAnn Pflug, Jack Flounders, and Paul Frees. 
During the series' twenty episodes, the "FF" faced 
familiar villains such as Doctor Doom, Klaw, the Red 
Ghost, Galactus, and others. The final show aired 
on March 15, 1970, though the series would later 
be revived for syndication. 

In late 1975, The Fantastic Fourwas a nation- 
ally syndicated radio program, with each weekday 
segment running a scant five minutes. This was 
part of a new program called Marvel Comics Radio 
Series, but the show proved costly to produce and 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Fantastic Four in the Media 



was canceled after thirteen five-part episodes of 
the FF were released. Adapted directly from the 
comics, the radio show is almost completely forgot- 
ten by fans, save as a trivia question: Who played 
the Human Torch on the 1975 Fantastic Four radio 
show? A pre-Saturday Night Live Bill Murray! 

In the late 1970s, animation studio DePatie- 
Freleng began work on The New Fantastic Four, an 
animated series revival that debuted on NBC on 
September 9, 1978. Stan Lee and comics scribe 
Roy Thomas worked on many scripts, while Jack 
Kirby did storyboards. Although the stories were rel- 
atively faithful to their comic counterparts — if a bit 
updated for the times — one major change was 
made: The Human Torch was replaced by a flying 
miniature robot named HER-B, or "Herbie." Although 
legend has it the change was made because the 
producers feared kids would set themselves on fire 
in an effort to emulate the Torch, the main reason 
for the switch was that Universal Studios had 
optioned the Human Torch character for an Irwin 
Allen-produced live-action feature film. The New 
Fantastic Four lasted thirteen episodes, ending its 
run on September 1, 1979. 

One FF member didn't stay off the air for too 
long. On September 22, 1979, NBC premiered the 
new Hanna-Barbera series Fred and Barney Meet 
the Thing. The show was a bizarre mixture, with Flin- 
stones stars Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble hav- 
ing their own adventures, and only really "meeting" 
the Thing for brief "joke bumpers" between 
episodes or preceding and following commercial 
breaks. The twenty-six twelve-minute episodes of 
The Thing (shown two per episode) saw the Thing 
as a teenager named Benjy Grimm (the voice of 
Wayne Morton) who had a magic "Thing Ring." 
When he rams its two separated parts together and 
chants, "Thing Ring, do your thing," he transforms 
into the familiar orange-skinned hero, the Thing (Joe 
Baker's vocalization, doing a Jimmy Durante impres- 
sion). Most of the Thing's adventures were spent 
foiling the dastardly plans of the biker thugs known 
as the Yancy Street Gang. Although the title of the 



series changed to Fred and Barney Meet The 
Schmoo on December 8, 1979, The Thing episodes 
continued until the show's ultimate demise on 
November 15, 1980. 

The Fantastic Four had been licensed for a fea- 
ture film throughout much of the 1980s. After years 
in development, Neue Constantin Productions was 
about to lose the rights to make a movie, unless 
they began production on a feature film by Decem- 
ber 31, 1992. They hired low-budget producer Roger 
Corman to create a $2 million live-action produc- 
tion, written by Craig J. Nevius and Kevin Rock and 
directed by Oley Sassone. Work on the picture 
began on December 28, 1992, three days before 
the license would have expired! 

The story showcased the origin of the quartet, 
with Mr. Fantastic (Alex-Hyde White), the Invisible 
Woman (Rebecca Staab), the Human Torch (Jay 
Underwood), and the Thing (Carl Ciarfalio, voiced by 
Michael Bailey Smith) facing off against Dr. Doom 
(Joseph Culp) and the Jeweler (Ian Trigger). Although 
Thing's bodysuit (complete with animatronic head) 
was impressive, less interesting were Reed 
Richard's stretching powers, and Johnny Storm 
"flamed on" only in the film's finale. 

Although a movie poster was released and a 
charity premiere was announced for January 19, 
1994, at Minneapolis, Minnesota's Mall of the 
Americas, The Fantastic Four was scuttled before it 
could be released. It remains unreleased to this 
day, although bootleg recordings of it flourished 
throughout the late 1990s. 

In September 1994, The Marvel Action Hour 
debuted in syndication, courtesy of Marvel Films and 
New World Entertainment. The animated series was 
composed of a half-hour Fantastic Four segment 
combined with a half-hour Iron Man series. Stan Lee 
introduced and narrated the episodes, which utilized 
stories inspired by the comics. The first season of 
thirteen episodes saw multi-part stories for the ori- 
gin of the FF, as well as the introduction of the Silver 
Surfer, Galactus, and Doctor Doom. The second sea- 



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*Op 



Femforce 



son featured drastically improved character designs 
and animation, as well as guest appearances by the 
Inhumans, Daredevil, Thor, Black Panther, Ghost 
Rider, the Hulk, and the Impossible Man. The series 
used lots of stunt voice-casting, including the voice 
of Dick Clark as himself, as well as Michael Dorn 
(Gorgon), Kathy Ireland (Crystal), Mark Hamill (Max- 
imus), Ron Perlman (Wizard, Hulk), Richard Greico 
(Ghost Rider), and John Rhys-Davies (Thor). 

Although The Marvel Action Hour was canceled 
in fall 1996, some of the FF characters reappeared 
in animated form. The Thing showed up in a first- 
season episode of UPN's The Incredible Hulk. In 
1997, the Fantastic Four guest-starred in two 
episodes in the fifth season of Fox's animated Spi- 
der-Man series. Finally, in 1998, Fox aired one sea- 
son of The Silver Surfer, which featured the title 
character and Galactus, and would have also fea- 
tured the Fantastic Four if the in-production second 
season had not been canceled. 

A second live-action Fantastic Fourfeature film 
has been in development for years at Twentieth 
Century Fox — as has a Silver Surfer movie — but it 
has been plagued by multiple screenwriters and 
defecting directors. Scripts have been turned in by 
Michael France, Chris Columbus, Philip Morton, 
Sam Hamm, Doug Petrie, and Mark Frost. Although 
Peyton Reed (director of Bring It On) once had a 
lock on directing, he resigned those duties in 2003. 
Still, the film has been announced to debut in mid- 
2005. Will the quartet make their date, or will cos- 
mic rays interfere? Only time will tell. — AM 



Fawcett Comics: See Bulletman; Captain Mar- 
vel Jr.; Captain Marvel/Shazam!; Golden Age of 
Superheroes (1938-1954); Mary Marvel 



Femforce 

The culmination of many long years spent laboring 
in the vineyards of comics fandom, mainstream 



publishing, and independent publishing, Femforce 
was the brainchild of AC Comics founder Bill Black. 
Noted by AC writer and editor Mark Heike as being 
the first successful all-female superhero team, Fem- 
force evolved out of the explosion of inexpensively 
produced — and for a brief time, highly profitable — 
black-and-white comics publishing that occurred in 
the mid-1980s, a period of wild growth for the 
industry, its publishers, and its direct-market (spe- 
cialty shop) retailers. 

As the market for such titles quickly grew glut- 
ted, Black established a unique publishing niche for 
AC by focusing on a conspicuously underrepresent- 
ed area of the superhero genre: female protago- 
nists, which, thanks to his earlier publishing ven- 
tures, Black possessed in abundance. In 1985, the 
ongoing Femforce series, created largely by utilizing 
characters from earlier AC comic books, landed on 
America's comics racks. The title quickly distin- 
guished itself from most other contemporary super- 
heroic fare by portraying its powerful female leads 
in an appealingly cheesecake "Good Girl" art style, 
replete with characterization and humor. The regular 
series also bucked the era's prevailing independent 
comics trend by printing in full color. 

Femforce, which quickly became AC's flagship 
title, was mainly composed of female characters 
from the universe of Black's principal superhero, 
Captain Paragon. The team, whose membership 
has fluctuated over the years, was led by the 
blonde, statuesque Ms. Victory, a patriotic heroine. 
Victory's alter ego, Dr. Joan Wayne, was a U.S. gov- 
ernment biogeneticist during the 1940s, when she 
invented a pumped-up vitamin compound known as 
V-47. This discovery granted her superstrength and 
the power of flight, as well as giving her perpetual 
youth while she was in her superheroine guise, thus 
affording her an excellent disguise. As the years 
wore on, Wayne aged into an old woman while Victo- 
ry remained young. Originally known as "Miss Victo- 
ry," she adopted the more contemporary "Ms." hon- 
orific as the years went on. Kept strong and youth- 
ful by the V-47 compound, Ms. Victory (now 



#0 



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Femforce 



Paragon's wife) can look forward to many more 
decades of service as one of America's most stal- 
wart protectors. 

Among the rank-and-file members of Femforce 
are She-Cat, a free spirit whose feline powers origi- 
nated from an encounter with the evil cat goddess 
Sekhmet. Savage and noble natures are constantly 
at war within She-Cat, and the feline metaphor accu- 
rately describes both her razor-sharp claws and her 
well-honed sexuality. Nightveil (a.k.a. Laura Wright, 
the Blue Bulleteer), an Earth heroine who gained 
sorcerous abilities on the extradimensional world of 
Dark Dhagor, is a brooding woman of mystery and 
beauty. Evolved from a Fox Comics Phantom Lady 
look-alike of the 1940s, Nightveil derives her mystic 
powers partly from her arcane Cloak of Darkness, 
which she struggles to control and use for good pur- 
poses, though she realizes that its dark nature may 
cause her demise. One of the more popular mem- 
bers of the group, Nightveil has headlined several 
comics of her own. 

Silver-tressed Silva Synn has big hair, big 
brains, and a major sweet tooth; not only can she 
teleport using subspatial wormholes, she also has 
the ability to create mentally generated objects 
called "synnestrophic constructs" that remain solid 
as long as she maintains her concentration. "Too 
Tall" Tara Fremont, an environmentalist, marine biol- 
ogist, and latter-day "jungle girl" (though not in the 
Sheena mold, since she never wears animal skins), 
uses the enormous wealth of her father (industrial- 
ist T. C. Fremont) to protect the planet's many 
endangered species from extinction; thanks to a 
variant of Ms. Victory's V-47 serum, Fremont has 
also acquired the power to grow to enormous pro- 
portions, a la the 50-Foot Woman of the classic 
1950s sci-fi film. Stardust is a pacifist extraterres- 
trial scientist who hails from the matriarchal world 
of Rur; her body gathers and concentrates stellar 
energy, which she can use either as a weapon or as 
a means of flight. An outsider among humans, 
"Dusty" continually struggles to understand Earth's 
aggressive, conflict-ridden culture. Colt (Valencia 




Femforce #120 © 2003 AC Comics. 

COVER ART BY MARK AND STEPHANIE HEIKE. 



Kirk), the diminutive mistress of all manner of 
weaponry and martial arts, and Rayda (Dyna 
Morisi), a "human dynamo," are auxiliary members. 

Other characters that have seen action as mem- 
bers or allies of Femforce include Kitten, the female 
partner of Catman (Holyoke Publishing's Golden Age 
hero, revived by Black), as well as such forgotten 
Golden Age (1938-1954) heroines as Yankee Girl, 
Miss Masque, and Jetgirl. Femforce's ranks some- 
times swell nearly to Avengers proportions, mainly 
because of a surfeit of eager and evocatively named 
villains, including Alizarin Crimson, the Black Shroud, 



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Feminism 



Capricorn, Darkfire, the Fearforce, Fern-Paragon, Lady 
Luger, the Shimmerer, and Stella Stargaze, as well as 
ambiguous sometime-allies who as often as not are 
foes, such as the antisocial Rad (actually Ms. Victo- 
ry's daughter) and the giantess Garganta. 

By the late 1980s, as independent comics 
sales declined, Black converted Femforce into a 
black-and-white format; the title (along with its sever- 
al spin-off miniseries and one-shots) remained AC's 
only consistently solid seller, both in the direct-sales 
market and via mail order. By 1990 AC Comics, 
along with the rest of the industry, was growing 
steadily. AC's staff grew as well; Femforce acquired 
a new writer-artist known only as "The Count," and 
artist Brad Gorby also began contributing to the pos- 
itive fan-reaction the series was receiving. With the 
further assistance of new associate editor Heike (a 
major contributing factor as the multi-talented Heike 
wrote, drew, and inked stories), Black was able to 
begin releasing Femforce on a monthly schedule. 

The year 1990 also saw the launch of two new 
Femforce-related titles: Good Girl Art Quarterly 
(which consisted largely of color reprints of Golden 
Age cheesecake stories, led by a new Femforce tale, 
also in color), and She-Cat (a black-and-white comic 
devoted to the feral feline Femforce member). In an 
effort to improve the quality and consistency of AC's 
Femforce line, Black took over all the writing chores 
on the property, even as the rest of the AC stable 
continued to expand. Femforce Up Close, a color 
title that focused on individual Femforce members, 
debuted in 1992, complementing Jungle Girls, which 
began its sixteen-issue run in 1988 and presented 
black-and-white Golden Age reprints as well as new 
tales of Tara, Femforce's jungle queen. To address 
the increased demand for Femforce artwork, Black 
hired veteran Marvel Comics great Dick Ayers, 
whose work Black had admired for decades. 

While sales of most of the AC Comics line 
declined during the lean times of the mid-1990s, the 
up-and-coming "Bad Girl" trend — exemplified by such 
lucrative characters as Marvel's Elektra, DCs Cat- 
woman, Dark Horse's Barb Wire, and Crusade 



#> 



Comics' Shi — helped keep Femforce and its spin-offs 
afloat. All the while, the property somehow managed 
to hang onto an upbeat, relatively nonviolent image, 
despite the increased prevalence of "gritty" superhero 
fare that was becoming almost de rigueur across the 
comics industry. By 1998, against all odds, Black's 
relatively tiny company released the one-hundredth 
issue of Femforce (only 228 previous comic-book 
series have attained the century mark). AC was also 
reaping considerable profits from Femforce T-shirts, 
art portfolios, and other paraphernalia bearing the 
likenesses of AC's well-upholstered heroines. 

As the third millennium unfolds, Femforce's 
future remains bright, due in no small part to Black's 
nostalgic Golden Age preservationist vision and his 
continued hands-on involvement with the stories. 
Still published as an ongoing title today, a summer 
2003 story arc titled "Femforce: Superbabes" — 
spanning issues #120-#122 — heated up summer 
sales. Spearheaded by Heike, who enlisted such 
artistic luminaries as Joe Staton and Will Meugniot 
(among others) to contribute stories demonstrating 
their own creative visions of Femforce-like charac- 
ters, the three-issue arc proved popular. 

Today Femforce fans remain fascinated with 
Black's unique characterizations of Ms. Victory, 
Nightveil, Synn, She-Cat, Tara, and Stardust, the core 
members of the team. Among the newest members 
of the Femforce creative stable are artists Jeff 
Austin, Mark Glidden, and Ed Coutts, and writers Paul 
Monsky and Chris Irving. Meanwhile the company 
has plans to produce an as-yet untitled independent, 
direct-to-video Femforce feature film spotlighting the 
exploits of a fan-favorite Femforcer, Nightveil. As of 
early 2004, principal photography has been complet- 
ed and the project is in the editing stage. — MAM 



Feminism 

Does the classic superhero headquarters have a 
glass ceiling? It's certainly true that superheroines 



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Feminism 



have had a mightier task to perform than their 
male counterparts just to get noticed in the comic- 
book medium, let alone thrive. Still, over the years 
the identities of superwomen, even more so than 
the traditional costumed men, have been subject 
to change. 

After a handful of obscure predecessors, the 
era of the superheroine entered an auspicious 
phase with DC Comics' Wonder Woman, who leaped 
onto the printed page in All Star Comics #8 (Decem- 
ber 1941-January 1942). Conceived as a draw for 
female readers (in the days before comics publish- 
ers wrote this entire audience off), the character — 
though like most such heroines, written and drawn 
by men — was an Amazonian archetype in whose 
adventures males were decidedly the less capable 
sex, and in which fantasias of matriarchal rule 
played out. 

Of course, the fact that it was so fantastic may 
have undermined the empowering effect of the 
series on little girls reading it, and Wonder Woman 
would remain one of relatively few stand-alone 
superheroines for some time. Much more common 
were female versions of established male charac- 
ters — and ones seldom with their own books, as 
Wonder Woman rated. Everyone knows Supergirl 
and Batgirl, though fewer people remember Bullet- 
girl and Batwoman — and perhaps that's no acci- 
dent. The heroines created as diminutives of male 
heroes seemed to stay afloat; grown women on a 
potentially equal footing with their counterparts — 
like the forgotten 1950s Batman colleague Bat- 
woman and the regular teammate of Fawcett 
Comics' Bulletman, Bulletgirl — sank thoroughly 
from view. 

Of course, times change, and husband-and-wife 
teams took hold more firmly as the 1950s and 
1960s progressed, from DC Comics' Hawkman and 
Hawkgirl to Marvel's Ant-Man (later Giant-Man) and 
the Wasp. By the 1970s, superwomen were liberat- 
ed enough to be portrayed in extra-marital team- 
ups, including DCs Black Canary with Green Arrow 
and Marvel's Black Widow with Daredevil — in the 



latter case, the woman even took co-billing in the 
book's title. 

But where were the women standing on their 
own two feet? In the 1950s Marvel had had Venus, 
a self-reliant career woman who just happened to 
be the Greek goddess of the same name. But did a 
gal have to be from Olympus to get star billing? It 
seemed sadly so, sisters, when, by the 1970s, Mar- 
vel tried a brand-new (if Catwoman-derived) heroine 
in her own book, the Cat. Unusually (and even more 
so for the time) both written and drawn by women 
(Linda Fite and Marie Severin, respectively), the 
series was a moody, intriguing innovation that with- 
ered within a few issues. 

The gender dynamic was slowly changing when 
the superheroes pulled off their garish work clothes 
and got home, especially in the case of Spider-Man, 
whose alter-ego Peter Parker is raised in a matriar- 
chal household by his widowed Aunt May and would 
end up spending most of his series dating — and 
later married to — the uncommonly gutsy and inde- 
pendent Mary Jane Watson. But they were still the 
proverbial women behind the man. 

Superheroines were having better luck on the 
TV screen, from the Saturday-morning live-action 
Egyptian deity Isis to primetime's Bionic Woman 
and, again, Wonder Woman. Back in comics, female 
heroes found a haven in Marvel's more offbeat 
ensemble books like The Defenders, which featured 
another Amazonian character (this time, of the 
Northern European variety), the Valkyrie, and a 
retooled Cat named Hellcat (though this time, 
empoweringly if a bit surreally, it was Marvel's for- 
mer prom-queen romance-comic character Patsy 
Walker under the mask). Team books in general 
seemed to be a more hospitable workplace for 
women, with Marvel's mega-popular late 1970s X- 
Men reboot featuring such powerful female images 
as Storm and Jean Gray (if never democratizing the 
book's male-centric name). 

The latter character is pivotal — the telekinetic 
Gray, who had been able to take back her name 



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Feminism 



after being called "Marvel Girl" years before, is one 
of comics' few instances of a heroine whom male 
and female fans alike admire for her abilities rather 
than her appearance — a dignified, brainy humanitar- 
ian and leader, she gained god-like powers and met 
a tragic end (though various popular-demand resur- 
rections have inevitably followed) in the X-Men 
book's classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" (issues 
#129-#137, 1980). 

But can a superheroine be powerful and actual- 
ly live? Some have been trying it. The Wasp has 
gone from air-headed socialite sidekick in the 
1960s to leader of Marvel's team the Avengers in 
the 1980s and 1990s; in the same time span the 
Fantastic Four's Invisible Girl finally got promoted to 
Invisible Woman, and a stronger position in the 
team (a more permanent change than when she 
briefly left her husband, Mr. Fantastic, and the book 
itself in the l-am-woman early 1970s); Catwoman 
has gone from titillating vamp (and villain of the 
piece) to champion of the downtrodden (and star of 
her own book). 

Meanwhile, the Amazon archetype introduced 
to comics by Wonder Woman has marched on, with 
ambiguous results. These characters always tread 
a line between role models of power and role play- 
ers of dominatrix male fantasy, from Marvel's Thun- 
dra (a one-shot "Femizon" from a matriarchal 
future) to Jack Kirby's Barda (steely and scantily 
clad interdimensional warrior woman) and beyond. A 
subset of this type has been the sexy assassin. 
From Gamora in Jim Starlin's mid-1970s Marvel 
series Warlock to Elecktra in Frank Miller's early 
1980s Daredevil, the line between power and pin- 
up has always blurred — and all the more so in such 
characters' modern equivalents, from Buffy the 
Vampire Slayer to Lara Croft. 

Mixed blessings like these have long been 
superheroines' lot. The elderly Agatha Harkness, 
strong-willed and somewhat supernatural governess 
of the Invisible Girl and Mr. Fantastic's son Franklin, 
was introduced in 1970, becoming perhaps comics' 
first super senior citizen. Oracle, the contemporary 



heroine who used to be Batgirl, is a technological 
mastermind whose abilities are indispensable 
though the use of her legs has been lost. But neither 
of these characters is the first woman — in comics or 
real life — to have her strength and know-how appreci- 
ated only after developments (age, disability) that dis- 
qualify her as a conventional sex symbol. 

Legendary underground cartoonist and femi- 
nist comics historian Trina Robbins tried taking mat- 
ters into her own hands with the 2000-2001 series 
Go Girl! for Image Comics. Written by Robbins and 
drawn by Anne Timmons, the book follows the 
adventures of a hip-hop era teen taking up the man- 
tle of her mod seventies-superheroine mom ("Go-Go 
Girl"!). Aimed at youngsters in an attempt to depict 
more three-dimensional females in comics and wel- 
come more real ones into the medium's audience, 
the book wavers a bit between charming and cloy- 
ing, but is a worthy and refreshing read. Its short, 
stormy run — previewed with high-profile fanfare and 
then delayed in its release and downgraded to an 
infrequent black-and-white due to low preorder inter- 
est among comic-shop dealers — said less about 
the book's quality than about the unsalability of 
women-starring series that is axiomatic in the 
industry (if self-fulfillingly so). 

It is probably no coincidence that the most 
famous female comic-book artists have been 
humorists, deflating the self-importance of a male- 
centric genre. Marie Severin was known for satire 
books like Not Brand Echh! in the 1960s; Ramona 
Fradon for wacky heroes like Metamorpho and Plas- 
tic Man in the 1960s and 1970s; and Amanda Con- 
ner for the outlandish prostitute-turned-super- 
heroine book The Pro in the early 2000s. 

That last book's relentlessly unglamorized look 
at a low-respect female occupation may be a signal 
of things to come. No-nonsense portrayals of 
domestic abuse have appeared in Marvel's inti- 
mates and Spider-Girl (the latter of which has drawn 
some fire for its sympathetic characterization of les- 
bian moms — and drawn a larger female readership 
than most comics have in years); well-rounded char- 



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Fighting American 



acters like Brian Michael Bendis' Jessica Jones in 
Alias (no relation to the TV show) and Frank Miller's 
reluctant urban warrior Martha Washington have gar- 
nered feminist praise; companies are trying out 
books starring non-male-derived, non-cheesecake- 
oriented heroines again (like Alan Moore's acclaimed 
goddess epic Promethea and Peter David's mature 
and enigmatic noire drama Fallen Angel); and even 
honest-to-gosh women writers like Devin Grayson 
and Gail Simone are bringing new spins to charac- 
ters from the Black Widow to Birds of Prey. 

High-profile movies like the Halle Berry Cat- 
woman and the Jennifer Garner Elektra are in the 
pipeline, which will boost the box office for super- 
women and may either help or hurt super-sister- 
hood — but whatever happens, both on the page and 
behind the scenes, the female population of a 
male-dominated medium will keep pressing forward, 
even if it's not in a single bound. — AMC 

Fighting 
American 

The 1950s comics scene was dominated by horror 
and crime comics, witch hunts and scare stories, 
and was characterized by long-established comic- 
book companies going under. Into this unpromising 
environment Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launched The 
Fighting American in 1954 (published by Prize 
Comics), which the creative duo hailed as the first 
superhero satire in comics history. Interestingly, Mar- 
vel Comics had revived Captain America just eight 
months earlier, and it is intriguing to ponder if Simon 
and Kirby created the Fighting American as a riposte 
to their earlier superhero creation. Indeed, the pair's 
avowed aim was to make the public forget Captain 
America entirely; clearly, this did not happen. 

The first issue of Fighting American introduced 
readers to patriotic television newscaster Johnny 
Flagg, a war hero much given to warning America 



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Fighting American #1 © 1966 Harvey Comics. 

COVER ART BY JACK KIRBY AND JOE SIMON. 



about the dangers of communism. Those self-same 
communist agitators promptly beat him close to 
death, but on his deathbed he asks his feeble 
brother Nelson (who had been scripting Johnny's 
red-baiting speeches all along) to carry on his fight. 
Days later, the army summons Nelson to a secret 
lab where Johnny's revitalized body has been 
dressed in a stylish red-white-and-blue costume. In 
the ensuing operation, Nelson's brain is transferred 
to Johnny's body and the fearless Fighting American 
is born; what happened to Nelson's body is never 
revealed (and Nelson himself does not refer to the 
event again). 

Just as Captain America had a sidekick, the 
Fighting American soon acquired his own young 



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Firestorm 



assistant, Speedboy, a young pageboy who stum- 
bled across Johnny/Nelson's secret identity and 
was instantly recruited to the cause. Again like Cap- 
tain America's 1950s adventures, the Fighting 
American was rabidly anticommunist, although 
Simon and Kirby played it all strictly for laughs. 
Indeed, there has never been a stranger collection 
of bizarre villains in comics history. Among the var- 
ied villains on display, the unsuspecting reader 
could come across the likes of Invisible Irving, Dou- 
ble Header (with, naturally, his two heads), Hotsky 
Trotsky, Poison Ivan, Count Yuscha Liffso, 
Superkhakalovitch, and Square Hair Malloy. Not 
content with outlandish bad guys, the strip also fea- 
tured weird guest stars like Uncle Samurai, Shisk- 
abob the Sorcerer, and Yafata's Moustache, along 
with a bevy of buxom femme fatales including Chari- 
ty Bizarre, Scarlet O'Haircut, and Lucy Liverwurst. 

Simon and Kirby were long-established comics 
pros but their roots were in the unsophisticated, 
hard-living slums of New York and the comic reflect- 
ed this environment. The humor was broad, slap- 
stick comedy, full of joke Yiddish names, ethnic 
stereotypes, and resolute political incorrectness. In 
spite of (or because of) this, the feature was gen- 
uinely funny. However, the mid-1950s were not a 
good time for superheroes, and Fighting American 
lasted a mere seven issues. Eleven years later (in 
1966), Simon revived the comic during his short- 
lived stint as an editor at Harvey Comics; this comic 
combined reprints with strips intended for the old, 
unpublished eighth issue. Harvey pulled the plug on 
its superheroes with only one issue released, even 
though a second issue was ready for printing, but 
Simon retained his copyright on the character, wait- 
ing for the right moment to unleash his hero again. 

After a long wait, the character returned in 
1989 in a deluxe hardback compilation of his 
1950s strips, issued by Marvel Comics. This herald- 
ed a decade of bizarre miniseries. The first of 
these, published by DC Comics in 1994, retold the 
character's origin story but updated it to the pre- 
sent day, dumping the treacherous commies but 



£\b 



keeping the strange villains (such as the Media Cir- 
cus and the Gross National Product). The Fighting 
American's next outing had as convoluted an origin 
as any comic of recent years. In the mid-1990s, 
Marvel revamped a host of its comics in a cam- 
paign called "Heroes Reborn." One of these — Cap- 
tain America — was produced by the controversial 
Rob Liefeld. The Heroes Reborn line was jettisoned 
after a year but Liefeld had already drawn some 
more issues that he was determined to use, and so 
he made some art changes, renamed the hero 
Agent America, and prepared to release it under his 
own company, Awesome Entertainment. Marvel 
immediately sued over the blatant similarities to its 
legendary Captain America, but Liefeld countered by 
licensing Fighting American from Joe Simon, chang- 
ing his leading characters (again) and redrawing the 
Nazis as communists. Such was the fervor for 
superheroes at the time that the Fighting American 
miniseries (in 1997) led to two further outings over 
the next couple of years. Neither added much to the 
hero's reputation, but the idea that new Fighting 
American stories came out of old Captain America 
strips was deliciously ironic. 

While no new comics have appeared since 
1999, the Fighting American was the inspiration 
behind Alan Moore's hilarious superhero spoof, 
"The First American" in Tomorrow Stories, and so 
his legacy lives on. — DAR 

Firestorm 

Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Allen Mil- 
grom for DC Comics (Firestorm #1, 1978), 
Firestorm is unique among nuclear-powered super- 
heroes, representing a transition between the atom- 
ic-generated heroes of the 1960s (mainstays such 
as Spider-Man and the X-Men, characters for whom 
nuclear power is a potent yet ultimately benign 
force) and the distrust of all things nuclear that 
marked the post-Three Mile Island 1980s. 
Firestorm stands astride the mushroom clouds of 



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Firestorm 



the Nuclear Age's heyday and the postmodern 
Earth-goddess spiritualism of the 1990s New Age. 

On the eve of the opening of the controversial 
and experimental Hudson Nuclear Facility, the Earth 
Spirit (known alternatively as Gaia or Maya) selects 
nuclear physicist Martin Stein to be Earth's latest 
fire elemental. When radical environmentalist 
Edward Earhart attempts to destroy the plant, Stein 
is knocked unconscious. One of Earhart's confeder- 
ates, a high-school jock named Ronnie Raymond, 
has a change of heart and tries to stop the sabo- 
tage, only to be irradiated along with Stein, to whom 
Earhart has shackled him inside the main reactor 
room. Stein and Raymond find themselves com- 
bined into a single, nuclear-powered form — that of 
the flame-headed superbeing known as Firestorm. 

Because Raymond is conscious at the time of 
his melding to the insensate Stein, the teen's 
impulsive, wise-guy personality dominates 
Firestorm's consciousness; Stein's calmer, more 
staid mind runs in the background, lending its 
expert scientific guidance to Raymond in the use of 
his power to alter the atomic structure of inorganic 
matter (Firestorm later forswears this ability 
because of its tendency to make the objects he 
transmutes unstable). Firestorm can also fly at light 
speed, release intense blasts of nuclear-generated 
fire and heat through his hands and eyes, pass 
through solid objects, control flames and fire (which 
he can also use as an energy source to enable him 
to grow or shrink), and even teleport himself to any 
open flame on Earth. In addition, he has the ability 
to transform back into his two human forms — with 
Stein at first having no recollection of Firestorm's 
adventures afterward, unlike Raymond. Operating 
initially as a fairly standard villain-foiling costumed 
superhero — albeit a hero with an awkward, twofold 
secret identity — Firestorm at first knows nothing of 
his status as a fire elemental, and must learn to 
master his powers gradually overtime (with Stein's 
help). Firestorm's one major weakness is a tendency 
to suffer mental "attacks" during which the bond 
between Raymond and Stein suddenly weakens, 



requiring intense concentration on Raymond's part in 
order to maintain Firestorm's powers. 

Unfortunately for the fused fissile hero, his 
first series lasted only five issues before succumb- 
ing to the so-called "DC implosion" of 1978, a 
bleak time characterized by slumping comics sales 
and the cancellation of a multitude of DC titles (the 
aborted sixth issue of Firestorm was published in 
1978 under the title Canceled Comics Cavalcade 
#1). Firestorm was subsequently relegated to 
guest-star status in such series as DC Comics Pre- 
sents, Justice League of America, Flash, and The 
Brave and the Bold. Four years later, the burgeoning 
comics specialty shop (or direct-sales) market had 
significantly increased sales across the comics 
industry, allowing The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear 
Man to flourish as a monthly series. Initially written 
by Conway with pencils by Pat Broderick, this comic 
(whose title was shortened in 1987 to Firestorm, 
the Nuclear Man with issue #65) lasted until its one 
hundredth issue (1990), demonstrating a longevity 
that is remarkable in modern superhero comics. 
During this run, Firestorm becomes a key member 
of the Justice League of America and fights such 
adversaries as Black Bison (a superpowered Native 
American), Killer Frost (a cold-themed Justice 
League villain with the ability to freeze her ene- 
mies), the Pied Piper (based on the fairy tale), the 
explosive Plastique, a foul-weather foe called the 
Typhoon, the nuclear-powered Soviet superhero 
Pozhar, and even Jack Kirby's nigh-omnipotent con- 
queror Darkseid. 

Under the creative tenure of writer John Ostran- 
der and such artists as Joe Brozowski, J. J. Birch, 
Ross Andru, and Tom Mandrake, Firestorm (with 
Stein, now an aware and willing participant in 
Firestorm's trifold existence, suffering from an inop- 
erable, radiation-induced brain tumor) attempts to 
disarm the Soviet Union to bring about world peace; 
this leads to a clash with the Russian hero Pozhar 
(Mikail Denisovitch Arkadin, who gained his powers 
during the nuclear mishap at Chernobyl, is intro- 
duced in Fury of Firestorm #63, 1987), bringing on a 



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The Flash 



"mental attack" that splits Firestorm into his two 
component entities. Caught in a subsequent nuclear 
explosion with Arkadin, Raymond becomes melded 
with the Russian (Firestorm Annual #5, 1987). This 
re-fusion yields a second, all-new Firestorm who 
resembles an incendiary god out of myth more than 
a traditional spandex-clad superhero. The revamped 
champion also has his own independent personality 
(based upon Stein's), into which Raymond and 
Pozhar are submerged as Firestorm takes his place 
among the pantheon of Earth's elemental protec- 
tors. He also becomes aware for the first time of his 
status as a divinely selected fire elemental and 
becomes increasingly distant from other super- 
heroes; protecting the environment is now his prima- 
ry focus. Firestorm's new persona is cold and analyt- 
ical at first, gradually learning over time to trust his 
developing emotions and "go with his gut" during cri- 
sis situations. Despite these radical changes and 
new priorities, Firestorm never hesitates to assist 
any human being in distress. 

Cured of his brain tumor years later, Stein 
helps the Raymond-Arkadin Firestorm fight an atom- 
ic villain named Brimstone, who tries to use the 
sun's energies to incinerate Earth. During the battle 
Firestorm is split into his constituent parts (Ray- 
mond and Pozhar), and Stein is caught in a nuclear 
blast that transforms him into another Firestorm — 
all by himself, as the Earth goddess had intended 
all along. The reborn Firestorm ultimately uses a 
black hole to defeat Brimstone after a fierce con- 
tretemps on the surface of the sun itself. 
Stein/Firestorm then becomes the Universal Fire 
Elemental, which amounts almost to an ascension 
to godhood, and leaves Earth behind entirely for 
cosmic parts unknown. 

Bereft of his nuclear powers, the earthbound 
Raymond retains enough of his superheroic good 
looks to garner some success as a male model. 
Unfortunately, Raymond also develops a drinking 
problem (a result of the years of stress that 
Firestorm had inflicted upon Raymond and his family, 
and a common plight of heroes' alter egos) and dis- 



covers that his days of nuclear derring-do have left 
him with a nasty surprise — a rare type of leukemia, 
echoing Stein's earlier brain tumor. Raymond's illness 
forces him to seek the help of his old Justice League 
associates (Extreme Justice #1, 1995), which leads 
to the discovery that Firestorm's powers still lay dor- 
mant within his cells. Stein eventually returns to 
Earth, using his fire elemental powers to reignite Ray- 
mond's slumbering abilities, thereby eliminating his 
cancer and allowing Raymond to return to super- 
heroics (and Justice League reserve status) in 
Firestorm's original form (appearing more or less as 
he did in his 1978 debut, while Stein returns to 
space as a fire elemental). Raymond's alcoholism 
remains a persistent problem, however, giving the 
nuclear-powered hero an enduring human dimension. 
Another difficulty he faces is learning how to use his 
powers without access to Stein's scientific expertise. 
To make up for this lack, Raymond calls on superhero 
colleagues such as Oracle for advice (JLA #40, 
2000), and enrolls as a physics student at Ivy Univer- 
sity, where he is tutored in the mysteries of nuclear 
science by Ray Palmer, who leads a double life as the 
Atom (Day of Judgment miniseries, 1999). 

Though the early years of the new millennium 
found Firestorm still dispossessed of a series to call 
his own, the nuclear man continued to appear as 
what his crime-fighting confrere Batman described 
as a "heavy hitter" in the current Justice League 
series (JLA, which debuted in 1997), in which writer 
Joe Kelly hinted that Firestorm may have once again 
evolved multiple personalities (JLA #71, 2002). His 
future seemed as ambiguous as the real-world 
prospects of atomic energy, but in spring of 2004 
the nuclear man regained his monthly marquee sta- 
tus in an ongoing solo series. — MAM 



the flash 



In an industry characterized by almost constant 
change, it is reassuring that the Flash has stayed 
true to his comics roots, even through his three dif- 



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The Flash 



ferent incarnations. The first version of the character 
was as DC Comics' fifth superhero (tying with Hawk- 
man for the honor) and as the first super-speedster 
in comics history — though of course Superman was 
also rather quick on his feet. The Flash's origin in 
Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) recounts how stu- 
dent Jay Garrick is experimenting one night in the 
lab at Midwestern University when he is overcome by 
hard-water fumes and passes out. Reawakening 
weeks later, he finds that he can move incredibly 
fast and is even able to pluck a bullet out of the air. 
("Swifter than the speed of light itself — faster than a 
bolt of lightening in the sky — is the Flash!) In an 
unusual display of self-aggrandizement, his first 
action is to play in the college football team, single- 
handedly winning the game and impressing the 
socks off his girlfriend, Joan Williams. 

The strip's creator, writer Gardner Fox, was 
inspired by Mercury, the Roman god of speed, and 
the Flash shared Mercury's winged helmet and 
boots, combined with a red shirt and blue slacks 
ensemble, topped off with a lightning-bolt insignia 
on his chest. For its first few years, the strip was 
rather lighthearted in tone, reflected in the cartoony 
art of Harry Lampert and Everett E. Hibbard and 
adventures that pitted America's beloved hero 
against witches and fairies. He also acquired some 
bumbling assistants — the Three Stooges-inspired 
Winky, Blinky, and Noddy — who eventually got their 
own strip in All-Amehcan Comics. 

After World War II, the Flash's more comedic 
elements were downplayed by new editor Julius 
Schwartz, who, along with writers John Broome and 
Robert Kanigher, introduced a colorful lineup of 
supervillains into the strip. These included the Rag- 
doll, the Thinker, Star Sapphire, the Fiddler, and the 
flirtatious Thorn (who was deemed too suggestive 
by DCs management and promptly banished from 
the feature). Visually, too, the introduction of 
dynamic young artists Carmine Infantino and Joe 
Kubert ensured that the strip was one of the most 
attractive of the Golden Age (1938-1954). The 
powerful simplicity of the Flash's powers — what kid 




The Flash #145 © 1964 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY CARMINE INFANTINO AND MURPHY ANDERSON. 



wouldn't want to be the fastest runner in his 
school, for instance? — made him one of DCs top 
sellers. In addition to Flash Comics, he was also 
featured in All-Flash Comics, Comic Cavalcade, and, 
as a member of the Justice Society, All Star 
Comics, making almost 200 appearances altogeth- 
er. Only Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman 
made more appearances than the Scarlet Speed- 
ster, as he was nicknamed. 

Jay Garrick's last Golden Age adventure was in 
All Star Comics #57 in 1951, but a little more than 
five years later a new Flash hit the newsstands in 
what was to be one of the pivotal moments in 
comics history. Showcase #4 (September-October 
1956) introduced police scientist Barry Allen, who 



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The Flash 



suddenly acquired superspeed powers when a light- 
ning bolt hit his chemical cabinet, drenching him 
with a cocktail of chemicals. Inspired by an old copy 
of Flash Comics, Allen made himself a red, rubber- 
ized costume that could compress itself into a 
chamber in his ring, and suddenly a new Flash was 
born. Like Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker to 
come, Allen exemplified the very human faux pas of 
real life outside of a costume: As the Fastest Man 
Alive, he could run faster than the speed of light, 
but as Barry Allen he could never show up for a 
date on time. After the postwar collapse of the 
genre, there had been the occasional attempt to 
revive the superhero concept, but the Flash was the 
first revival that actually worked, and its success 
single-handedly inspired the Silver Age comics 
boom (1956-1969). 

The team behind the new Flash included the 
same people who had worked on him before: 
Schwartz, Kanigher, Broome, and Infantino; all had 
matured and improved, especially artist Infantino, 
who brought a sleek sophistication to the strip. After 
four issues of Showcase, the Flash was given his 
own comic in 1959, resuming numbering at #105 — 
the point at which the previous Flash Comics had 
been canceled. Barry Allen and Jay Garrick shared 
several common features: they were both scientists, 
both had girlfriends who knew their secret identities 
(though Barry kept his girlfriend Iris West guessing 
for several years), and both were laid-back, mature, 
almost fatherly figures. As before, the new Flash 
strip cleverly sustained the lighthearted tone of its 
stories, mixing humor with adventure in a way that 
was quite unique for the time. 

Again like the Golden Age Flash, the new strip 
featured villains by the score, more so in fact than 
just about any other superhero comic. Over three 
decades, the Flash pitted his wits and his fists 
against the likes of Mirror Master, Super-Gorilla 
Grodd, Professor Zoom, the Pied Piper, Weather Wiz- 
ard, the Top, Captain Boomerang, Abra Kadabra, the 
Trickster, and Captain Cold. In fact, where most sto- 
ries embraced "relevance" in the 1970s or became 



dark and violent in the 1980s, the Flash remained for 
the most part the same. Similarly, he had a remark- 
ably stable creative team: Infantino drew the strip 
until 1968 and then returned in the early 1980s, 
while Irv Novick drew most of the other issues; 
Broome and Kanigher were replaced by Cary Bates, 
who then wrote the comic for more than ten years. 

While Barry Allen and Iris West never actually had 
any children (they were married in 1966), the strip nev- 
ertheless acquired its own family of sorts. The first 
arrival was Wally West, Iris' kid brother, who was award- 
ed his own superspeed powers in Flash #110, in a 
repeat of the original accident while he was visiting 
Barry in his lab. He thus became Kid Flash and accom- 
panied the Flash on numerous adventures, before later 
going on to join the Teen Titans. Ralph Dibny, the Elon- 
gated Man, introduced himself two issues later and 
teamed up with the Flash on many occasions, as did 
the Green Lantern and a long-lost friend: Jay Garrick, 
the original Flash. Garrick re-entered the comics world 
in Rash #123, ten years after his last appearance in 
print. The popularity of that issue led to the gradual 
reintroduction of many other Golden Age heroes, 
including the Justice Society of America. From 1976 
on, Garrick has been a stalwart of numerous Justice 
Society comics and crossovers, and remains a trea- 
sured star of the DC universe — which is more than can 
be said for Barry Allen. 

The 1970s were a hard time for a lot of DCs 
Silver Age warriors and, although the Flash weath- 
ered the storm, as the years went by his world 
began to crumble away. First, his beloved Iris was 
murdered by Professor Zoom, who in turn was later 
killed by the Flash, leading to years on the run and 
a tumultuous court case. In 1985, his comic was 
canceled (with issue #350) and finally, in the Crisis 
on Infinite Earths miniseries, poor old Barry died 
trying to save the planet. At this point, DC decided 
to let the sidekick take over — to date the only time 
this has happened — and in 1987 Wally West, Kid 
Flash, became the one and only Flash. 

West was a different, edgier, and more youthful 
Flash; he shared none of his mentor's modesty and 



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reticence. He was brash, bold, and somewhat self- 
centered — the perfect hero for the 1980s, in fact. 
West was not as quick as Allen and needed to con- 
sume vast quantities of food to keep going, but 
luckily money was not a problem, since he had won 
the lottery. While initially trying to steer things away 
from the old Flash, the comic's various writers, 
including William Messner-Loebs and Mark Waid, 
soon found themselves bringing back the old vil- 
lains one by one, proving that what worked in the 
1960s could work just as well in the 1990s. 

The new decade also brought with it an entirely 
unexpected development: The Flash television show 
that ran for twenty-two episodes on CBS in the 
1990-1991 season. John Wesley Shipp made a 
charismatic Flash and Amanda Pays, who portrayed 
Dr. Christina McGee, a convincing pseudo love inter- 
est who knew about the Flash's secret identity. With 
story editors from the comics industry (Howard 
Chaykin and John Francis Moore), a budget of $1 mil- 
lion for each hour-long episode, and unprecedented 
special-effects techniques, The Flash redefined the 
way that superheroes had previously been portrayed 
on television. Critics cite the poor time slot (opposite 
NBC's The Cosby Show and Fox's The Simpsons) as 
the reason for the show's brief lifespan. 

Today's Wally West has surrounded himself 
with his own cast of thousands, including interdi- 
mensional pal Chunk and Asian journalist (and 
future wife) Linda. For the most part, however, his 
companions are fellow speedsters, such as Johnny 
Quick, Jessie Quick, Jon Fox (the Flash of the twen- 
ty-seventh century), and the "Zen master of speed," 
Max Mercury. The most significant hanger-on has 
proved to be Impulse (introduced in Flash vol. 2 
#92), a hyperactive speed demon from the thirtieth 
century, sent back in time to counteract a fatal 
super-aging disease and to learn how to "chill out" 
with the help of Max Mercury. 

The hyperkinetic Impulse struck a chord with 
fans and was soon granted his own comic 
(1995-2002) and a starring role in the Young Jus- 



tice group (1998-2003), though perhaps his endur- 
ing legacy will be as one of the first major DC char- 
acters drawn in a manga-inspired style. Impulse 
may not have had real staying power, but the Flash 
seems likely to run and run. West has been a long- 
time member of the Justice League, just as Jay Gar- 
rick continues as a mainstay of the Justice Society, 
and it seems likely that fans will continue to be cap- 
tivated by the fastest man (or men) for years to 
come. — DAR 

Funny 
Animal Heroes 

It's a dog-eat-cat world in the land of animated car- 
toons. Endangered by falling anvils and ubiquitous 
dynamite, as well as ravenous predatory toons 
loony for a meal of a weaker species, anthropomor- 
phic animals need their superheroes, too. 

The first big cheese was Mighty Mouse, origi- 
nating as "Super Mouse" in the theatrical short The 
Mouse of Tomorrow (1942). If Terrytoons animator 
"Izzy" Klein had his way, this diminutive dynamo 
would have been "Super Fly." Head honcho Paul 
Terry, seeing dollar signs in a merger of Mickey 
Mouse and Superman, appropriated and altered 
Klein's idea, little realizing that Standard Comics 
had just beaten him to the punch with its own 
Supermouse (whose comics ran until 1958), lead- 
ing Terry to change his character's name. Bursting 
into action by singing an operatic strain of "Here I 
Come to Save the Day," Mighty Mouse rescued his 
sweetie Pearl Pureheart or other random rodents 
from the clutches of a cagey cat named Oil Can 
Harry through decades of cartoons and comic 
books published by St. Johns, Pines, Dell, and Gold 
Key Comics. He was a staple of Saturday morning 
television for many years, including CBS's Mighty 
Mouse: The New Adventures, Ralph Bakshi's sub- 
versive 1987 interpretation, peppered with double- 



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Super Mouse from Super Mouse #14 © 1951 Standard Comics. 



entendres that flew over the heads of children — but 
not their parents. Watchdog groups incensed over a 
flower-sniffing sequence that allegedly mimicked 
cocaine use lobbied Bakshi's Mouse off the air. 

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, a Bugs Bunny/Cap- 
tain Marvel amalgamation, bounced into Fawcett 
Comics in 1942. Two different Super Rabbits pre- 
miered in 1943: the first, an original character 



published by Marvel Comics and the second, a 
Superman parody in a classic Bugs Bunny short. 
DC Comics' McSnurtle the Turtle, the slow-as- 
molasses alter ego of the Terrific Whatzit, a 
funny-animal version of DCs own speedster the 
Flash, bowed in 1944. From the ashes of the 
post-World War II atomic age rose Charlton 
Comics' Atomic Mouse in 1953, joined by spin- 



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offs Atom the Cat and Atomic Rabbit. Cartoonist 
Henry Boltinoff's Super Turtle, a half-page humor 
strip, appeared in the 1950s and 1960s as filler 
in many of DCs titles. 

Funny-animal heroes arrived on the budding 
medium of television in 1948 in the form of Cru- 
sader Rabbit. This low-budget series starred a 
clever bunny hero and his lumbering, dim-bulb 
buddy Rags the Tiger in narrated comical capers 
with cliff-hanger endings. Sound familiar? Co-cre- 
ator Jay Ward later recycled this concept with Rocky 
and Bullwinkle. In the 1960s, the boob tube 
became a super zoo: Quick Draw McGraw paraded 
about as the Zorro clone El Kabong, and Bob Kane, 
the father of Batman, parodied his own creation 
with Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. "Humble 
and loveable" Shoeshine Boy popped power pills to 
change into Underdog (1964), spending his series 
rescuing the demure Polly Purebread; Hyram Fly 
slipped on his "supersonic glasses" to become 
lightening-fast hero Fearless Fly on the Milton the 
Monster Show (1965); Hanna-Barbera's invincible 
insect Atom Ant debuted in 1965; Batfink (1966) 
featured a steel-winged rodent with a sidekick 
named Karate; and Ward's wacky George of the 
Jungle featured Super Chicken (1967), whose pow- 
ers came from guzzling a concoction called "Super 
Sauce." More toon titans would follow, including 
Hong Kong Phooey (1974), Danger Mouse (1981), 
and Darkwing Duck (1991). 



A new crop of caped critters continued to fill 
comic-book pages through the latter twentieth centu- 
ry. Underground comics artist Gilbert Shelton creat- 
ed Wonder Warthog in 1962, and in 1965 Disney's 
Goofy donned a blue cape and red long Johns as 
Super Goof, a stint that lasted almost twenty years. 
Howard the Duck became "trapped in a world he 
never made" (the Marvel Comics universe) in 1973, 
enjoying several years of popularity and a 1976 bid 
for the U.S. presidency before becoming mired in 
the oil slick of George Lucas' 1986 live-action film 
adaptation. (To avenge an earlier indignity, Howard 
creator Steve Gerber teamed with comics-art legend 
Jack Kirby for Destroyer Duck [1982-1984], a farci- 
cal allegory of— and fundraiser for — Gerber's court 
battle to retain ownership of Howard.) DCs Captain 
Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, a funny-animal 
superfeam, launched in 1982 and Marvel's porcine 
version of Spider-Man — Peter Porker, the Spectacu- 
lar Spider-Ham — wallowed into comics in 1983. 
Stan Sakai's samurai "rabbit bodyguard" Usagi 
Yojimbo got his start in 1985, and occasionally 
appears today. But no funny-animal heroes in recent 
memory have scored a larger success than the 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Premiering in 1984 as 
a black-and-white comic, these "Heroes in a Half 
Shell" quickly blasted into a mega-media empire, 
including television animation, a live-action movie 
franchise, and a line of action figures. After a period 
of dormancy, the Turtles returned to the TV screen 
and toy shelves in 2003. — ME 



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Gay Heroes: See Northstar 



Gen 13 



Often seen as the slacker heroes of the WildStorm 
universe, Gen 13 are a group of teenage super- 
heroes who have Gen-Active powers. Created in the 
Project Genesis program, a part of the secret gov- 
ernment group known as International Operations 
(I.O.), the teens escape an uncertain future to live 
as a surrogate family for each other, all while fight- 
ing aliens and criminals such as Ivana, the Keep- 
ers, Bliss, and Threshold. The Gen 13 team is men- 
tored by an ex-operative for the government, John 
Lynch, a man with mysterious powers and a shady 
past. The team lives at his La Jolla, California, 
home, where he has an android maid named Anna. 
Eventually, Lynch is revealed as team member 
Burnout's father. Others in the group include 
Fairchild, Rainmaker, Freefall, and Grunge. 

Fairchild is Caitlin Fairchild, a very tall college 
student who developed superstrength and an 
extremely dense body while at Project Genesis. 
After she helped the others escape, Fairchild 
became the de facto leader of the group. The Ama- 
zon-like Fairchild is rarely able to stay dressed, as 



her clothes are constantly being shredded, 
vaporized, or otherwise destroyed. 

Burnout is Bobby Lane, a sullen high-schooler 
who is inducted into Project Genesis, gaining the 
power to generate heat and plasma fire blasts, and 
to fly. Sarah Rainmaker uses her last name as her 
code name, and is an Apache who first discovered 
her powers while on the San Carlos Reservation. 
Rainmaker is able to fly and control the weather, and 
uses ampli-bands on her forearms to direct lightning 
strikes at her opponents. She is openly bisexual. 

Freefall is Roxanne Spaulding, a girl who tries 
to cultivate a "bad girl" image, and who is romanti- 
cally linked with Grunge. She has the power to levi- 
tate herself or almost any mass, negating gravity. 
Grunge is Percival Edmund "Eddy" Chang, a muscu- 
lar, immature youngster with a taste for skate- 
boards, surfing, pizza, tattoos, and women. Although 
stronger than average humans, he has the ability to 
assimilate properties from anything he touches — 
steel, water, concrete — and become a living version 
of that property. He is sometimes able to transform 
into other people as well, has a photographic memo- 
ry, and knows multiple forms of the martial arts. His 
roving eye for romance doesn't sit well with Freefall. 

Fairchild, Burnout, and Freefall first appeared in 
Deathmate #2 (a.k.a. Deathmate Black, September 



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Gen 13 




Genl3: Ordinary Heroes #1 © 1996 Jim Lee/WildStorm 
Productions. 

COVER ART BY ADAM HUGHES. 



1993) an inter-company crossover between Image 
Comics and Valiant Comics. Rainmaker appeared in 
Stormwatch #8 (1994), while Grunge made his 
debut in Gen 13 #1 (February 1994), the first of a 
five-issue miniseries from Image imprint WildStorm. 
Drawn by fan favorites J. Scott Campbell and Jim 
Lee, and written by Brandon Choi, Gen 13 was given 
a regular series starting in March 1995, and a sec- 
ond series, Gen 13 Bootleg, ran twenty issues plus 
an annual from November 1996 to July 1998. The 
series were very popular not only because of the 
kinetic art and humorous stories, but also because 
the book was laden with cheesecake and beefcake; 
the hormones of the characters rivaled any soap 



opera stud or vixen, and thongs and shorts seemed 
acceptable crime-fighting apparel. 

In addition to the two regular Gen 13 series, 
there were almost twenty one-shot issues and 
almost as many miniseries. Gen 13 became one of 
the hottest properties for WildStorm, leading to 
crossover stories with Fantastic Four and Genera- 
tion X (Marvel), Monkeyman & O'Brien (Dark Horse), 
Superman (DC), and The Maxx (Image). A planned 
and partially completed crossover with Batman (DC) 
never appeared. Spin-offs such as Gen 12 and Gen- 
Active also appeared. Besides spin-offs, Gen 13 
was infamous not just for its cheesecake covers, 
but also for its alternate ones; issue #1 of the sec- 
ond series would have fifteen different covers total, 
and it wasn't rare for other issues to have at last 
one alternate cover and sometimes more. 

When WildStorm Studios was bought by DC 
Comics in 1999, Gen 13 moved under the DC/Wild- 
Storm publishing umbrella with issue #37 (1999). 
The popularity of the series began to wane — critics 
often blamed overexposure — and Gen 13 was final- 
ly canceled with issue #77 (July 2002). In that final 
issue, it appeared that the original teen heroes 
were dead. 

Gen 13 was relaunched with issue #0 (Sep- 
tember 2002), written by past X-Men author Chris 
Claremont. Several new multicultural teens showed 
up to fight evil — Dylan York, Ethan York, Gwen Mat- 
sura, Ja'nelle Moorhead, Hamza Rashad — with 
some of them having gotten their Gen-Active powers 
from the mysterious Herod. The new team faced vil- 
lains such as the Triad, Purple Haze, Chrome, and 
G-Nome. Predictably, Caitlin Fairchild returned, sig- 
naling the eventual return of her other previous 
teammates. By the time the series ended again, 
the original Gen 13 team was reinstated. The final 
issue was #16 (February 2004). 

Comics were not the only place that Gen 13 
were seen. Assorted action figures and models have 
been released, as well as three novels. In 1998, an 
eighty-minute Gen 13 animated feature film was writ- 



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ten and directed by Kevin Altieri. An all-star cast 
recorded voices, including Alicia Witt (Fairchild), John 
de Lancie (Colonel Lynch), Elizabeth Daily (Freefall), 
musician Flea (Grunge), Mark Hamill (Threshold), 
and Cloris Leachman (Helga). The PG-13-rated film 
was never released in the United States by Holly- 
wood Pictures (an arm of Disney), though it was 
shown at some comic-book conventions, and 
released direct-to-video in England, Australia, Ger- 
many, Hungary, Iceland, Brazil, and other countries. A 
live-action Gen 13 film, slated to be produced by 
Courtney Solomon, went through several script 
drafts before being mothballed at Disney. — AM 

Ghost Wcfer 

After the enormous superhero boom of the 1960s, 
the following decade was characterized by a big 
upswing in horror comics. Marvel Comics respond- 
ed to this demand with a major line of horror sto- 
ries, adopting the same sort of continuity and char- 
acterization that had made their superhero stories 
so successful. Only rarely, however, did they com- 
bine the two genres to create horror superheroes; 
Morbius the Living Vampire was their first attempt, 
although he started life as an out-and-out villain, 
while the Son of Satan was, despite his name, a 
genuine hero. However, it was the Ghost Rider who 
would prove to be by far the most popular of this 
type of specialty character. 

The first Ghost Rider was a macabre Western 
lawman from the 1950s, inspired by the hit Vaughn 
Monroe song, "Ghost Riders in the Sky." Despite that 
character having been created by a rival company 
(M.E.), Marvel revived the comic in the 1960s, but it 
was not a great success. Somehow, however, the 
name still hung around. In 1972, editor Roy Thomas 
decided to use it for a bike-riding hero that he had 
been thinking up and, with artist Mike Ploog in tow, 
the new Ghost Rider was born. With his sleek blue 
leather costume, custom-built chopper, and blazing 
skull for a head (Ploog's idea), he was one of the 







Ghost Rider #4 © 1974 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY GIL KANE AND FRANK GIACOIA. 



most visually arresting characters in comics — though 
Ploog apparently only signed up for the project think- 
ing that it was going to be a Western strip! 

The new Ghost Rider was Johnny Blaze, who 
had been raised since the death of his father by 
Crash Simpson, a daredevil stunt rider in the circus 
(as Blaze's father had been). Over the years, Blaze, 
too, learned to be an expert motorcyclist, but his 
life changed when he found out that Crash was 
dying of an incurable disease. Naturally, this being 
the 1970s, Blaze sold his soul to the devil, though 
at the last minute his half-sister stepped in and at 
least partially prevented the spell from working. The 
result was that, as night fell, Johnny Blaze became 



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Golden Age of Superheroes (1938-1954) 



a living skeleton, possessed with the power of hell- 
fire, which he used to battle evil, faced with the 
dread prospect that he, too, could go over to the 
dark side at anytime. 

Soon, leaving the circus behind, he moved to 
Hollywood and briefly spent time (with former mem- 
bers of the X-Men) in a superhero team called the 
Champions, before hitting the road as a drifter. 
Along with most of Marvel's horror stars, Ghost 
Rider fought all types of grade-Z villains, including 
his nemesis the Orb, a motorcycling goon who wore 
a giant eyeball helmet. After a short run in Marvel 
Spotlight, the Rider was given his own title in 1973, 
but by then Ploog had left. By most measures, Ghost 
Rider was rarely one of Marvel's better-crafted 
comics, but somehow it outlasted all the other hor- 
ror books to run for an incredible ten years. If noth- 
ing else, it showed the potency of the horror/super- 
hero/easy rider hybrid and just how far you can go 
with a character of truly startling appearance. 

As the 1980s turned away from horror, Johnny 
Blaze more or less vanished from sight. Then, out 
of the blue, in 1990 a new Ghost Rider comic 
appeared with a new star. This incarnation was 
teenager Danny Ketch, who happened upon the 
Ghost Rider's motorcycle in a graveyard and was 
transformed into another flaming-skulled hero. 
Much as before, this Rider was soon enjoying enor- 
mous popularity and quickly became very much one 
of the hot characters of the 1990s. The combina- 
tion of crunching action and the ultimate in teenage 
alienation (forget acne, imagine how you would feel 
if you suddenly became a fiery skeleton!) clearly 
struck a chord with fans. 

It was not long before Johnny Blaze himself 
returned, this time simply called Blaze, and soon 
both he and Ketch were co-headlining in a second 
Ghost Rider comic called Spirits of Vengeance. That 
was followed by another spin-off, Ghost Rider 2099, 
which starred a futuristic, computer-enhanced ver- 
sion of the hero, potently mixing science fiction and 
horror. For a while, Ketch and his fellow bikers were 
everywhere — in spin-offs and one-shots, and guest- 



tffi 



starring with classic superheroes such as Captain 
America, Wolverine, and the Punisher. Sometimes, 
however, you can have too much of a good thing, 
and this overexposure disheartened fans and even- 
tually led to the comic's cancellation in 1998. A 
brief comeback in 2001 led to serious discussions 
regarding Ghost Riderthe film, due to start shoot- 
ing in 2004, directed by Mark Steven Johnson 
(Daredevil) and starring Nicolas Cage as Johnny 
Blaze/Ghost Rider. The endurance of the hero in his 
various incarnations only shows that each genera- 
tion of readers needs to have its own Ghost Rider, 
so fans eagerly await the next time he will ride 
again. — DAR 

Golden Age 
of Superheroes 
0938-195$) 

In the view of many, the superhero and the comic 
book are interchangeable, but historically, the comic 
book came first. 

TH£ FIJ2ST COMIC BOOKS 

Collections of newspaper comic strips and car- 
toons had been published as early as the late nine- 
teenth century, printed on low-grade pulp paper in a 
variety of sizes and generally distributed as promo- 
tional items. The characters featured in these edi- 
tions — The Yellow Kid and The Katzenjammer Kids 
were among the more popular early features — were 
almost entirely comical, earning the nicknames "the 
funnies" or "funny papers" (which ultimately morphed 
into "funny books," a moniker vehemently loathed by 
many superhero readers and collectors). An anthology 
of Sunday newspaper strips, Famous Funnies #1, 
debuted as a monthly periodical in May 1934, and is 
acknowledged as the precursor to the conventional 

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Golden Age of Superheroes (1938-1954) 



comic book (although this series was preceded a year 
earlier by two similarly formatted one-shots, Funnies 
on Parade and A Carnival of Comics). 

Pulp magazines catered to readers craving 
adventure and thrills. The "pulps," collections of 
prose short stories published on pulp paper with an 
illustrated (usually painted) cover image, emerged 
in the early twentieth century and grew to tremen- 
dous popularity, particularly in the 1920s through 
the 1940s. From anthologies like Weird Talesio 
solo titles featuring mysterious heroes like The 
Shadow (whose pulp series lasted an astounding 
326 issues from 1931 to 1949), the pulps offered 
breathtaking action and chilling suspense. 

It was only a matter of time before these two 
modes of popular culture converged. Major Malcolm 
Wheeler-Nicholson, a retired soldier and author of 
pulp stories in the late 1920s and early 1930s, 
started his own publishing house in 1935 — Nation- 
al Allied Publications — and in February of that year 
released New Fun #1, the first comic-book series 
exclusively consisting of new material; in this case, 
comic strips. Adventure-oriented comics with new 
material followed, most notably Detective Comics 
#1, released in March 1937 by Nicholson and his 
new partners, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz, 
who had previously run Detective Comics, Inc. and 
then soon bought out Nicholson's interest in his 
own company, renaming it National Comics — even 
though it was (and still is) commonly called DC. 

TH£ COMING 
OF TH£ SUPZPHZPO 

DC Comics introduced the first costumed super- 
hero, Superman, in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). 
The creation of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe 
Shuster, Superman had unsuccessfully been market- 
ed to newspaper syndicates as a daily strip. Although 
Superman was chosen by television network VH1 as 
the second most recognizable figure in its 2003 
"200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons" poll, DC took an 
enormous risk in 1938 by publishing the untried 



character, given the depressed economic climate of 
the day. DCs Donenfeld suspected that the concept 
would quickly perish: "He felt nobody would believe 
it, that it was ridiculous — crazy," Sheldon Mayer, a for- 
mer DC editor and artist, once revealed. Siegel and 
Shuster's unwavering faith in their superpowered 
champion never faltered, and readers of the day reci- 
procated the creators' enthusiasm: Action #1 sold 
phenomenally well; with subsequent issues its circu- 
lation figures were boosted to meet reader demand. 
Superman, the first superhero, was a hit. 

At the time, however, Superman was not 
labeled or marketed as a "superhero," even though 
he perfectly personified the term as it is defined by 
many comic-book scholars today: a heroic character 
with an altruistic mission who possesses superpow- 
ers, wears a defining costume, and functions in the 
"real world" in his or her alter ego. According to 
author Mike Benton, in his book Superhero Comics 
of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History (1992), 
"Although the term 'superhero' was used as early 
as 1917 to describe a public figure of great talents 
or accomplishments, the early comic book heroes 
of the 1940s were usually referred to by their cre- 
ators as 'costumed characters' or as 'long-under- 
wear' or 'union-suit heroes.'" Nonetheless, the 
superhero had been established, and was about to 
be cultivated. 

IN BUPSPMAN'S FOOTSTEPS 

Encouraged by Superman's success, DC intro- 
duced the Crimson Avenger in Detective #20 (Octo- 
ber 1938), the Sandman in New York World's Fair 
Comics #1 (April 1939), and Batman in Detective 
#27 (May 1939), and published Superman #1, spin- 
ning off the "Man of Steel" into his own solo series, 
in the summer of 1939. 

Victor Fox was an accountant for DC Comics 
who knew a good thing when he saw it. After wit- 
nessing the profits generated by Superman in 
Action, Fox quit his day job and started his own pub- 
lishing company, Fox Features Syndicate. The overly 



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Golden Age of Superheroes (1938-1954) 



ambitious Fox was sued by his former employer 
upon the May 1939 release of Wonder Comics #1, 
which featured "the daring, superhuman exploits" 
of Wonderman, a superpowered character too close 
to Superman for DCs comfort. Wonderman did not 
return for a second appearance, but Fox continued 
to publish comics, introducing the Flame, the Green 
Mask, and the Blue Beetle. 

Entrepreneurs other than Fox also took notice 
of the success of Superman, and comic-book pub- 
lishers — from talented visionaries to fly-by-night 
shysters — sprouted up instantly, with a flood of new 
"long-underwear heroes" spilling forth, including Lev 
Gleason Publications' Silver Streak; Quality Comics 
Group's Doll Man; Brookwood Publications' Shock 
Gibson; Centaur Publications' Amazing-Man, the 
Archer, the Iron Skull, and the Fantom of the Fair; 
and MU Publications' the Wizard. 

A publisher that would later become DCs chief 
competitor entered the field in November 1939: 
Timely Comics. Its first superheroes — the Human 
Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and the Angel — premiered 
that month in an anthology that bore the eventual 
name of the company: Marvel Comics #1. 

Comic books were the perfect entertainment 
form for the Depression: Their heroic, larger-than- 
life characters stirred the demoralized masses, and 
the very format of the magazines themselves — usu- 
ally sixty-four pages of original material for a mere 
dime — was a bargain during those times of eco- 
nomic hardship. 

THE SUPeBHZZO SXPLOSTON 

The years 1940 and 1941 heralded an eruption 
of new comic-book superheroes. Included among 
their legion: DCs the Flash, Hawkman, the Spectre, 
Hourman, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, the Atom, Star- 
man, Green Arrow, and Aquaman; radio stars the 
Green Hornet, the Shadow, and Captain Midnight; 
Fawcett Publications' Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Ibis 
the Invincible, and the "World's Mightiest Mortal," 



Captain Marvel; plus Cat-Man, Blue Bolt, Sub-Zero 
Man, the Black Terror, Hydroman, the Black Owl, the 
Ray, Plastic Man, Midnight, the Human Bomb, Magno 
(the Magnetic Man), Daredevil, the Black Hood, the 
Comet, and the Spirit (who starred in a comic sup- 
plement appearing in newspapers). 

Superhero sub-genres quickly arose. There 
were the sidekicks, pre-teen or teenage junior 
superheroes who worked alongside their adult men- 
tors. Starting this trend was Robin the Boy Wonder, 
"the sensational character find of 1940," first seen 
in Detective #38. Robin was introduced by Batman 
creator Bob Kane as a gateway for young readers to 
live vicariously "inside" the hero's adventures, and 
as a means to soften the rather gruesome tone of 
Batman's first year of publication, in which the char- 
acter, originally more anti-hero than superhero, 
hurled mobsters off of rooftops. The concept of the 
superhero sidekick was yet another first for DC 
Comics, and another success. More kid heroes fol- 
lowed, like Toro, Captain Marvel Jr., Speedy, Davey, 
and Roy the Superboy. Superheroines began to 
appear in the man's world of superheroics: Wonder 
Woman, the Woman in Red, Phantom Lady, Lady 
Luck, and Black Cat were among the first. These 
two sub-genres dovetailed with the introduction of 
female sidekicks to superheroes, such as Flame 
Girl, Bulletgirl, Hawkgirl, Mary Marvel, and Cat-Man's 
partner Kitten. And in the winter of 1940, the 
superteam was born, as the Flash, Green Lantern, 
Hawkman, and other DC superheroes joined forces 
as the Justice Society of America. 

These early superheroes (except for Timely's 
anti-hero, the erratic Sub-Mariner, and its flaming 
android, the Torch) had secret identities; they 
obtained superpowers through bizarre, often scien- 
tifically based occurrences, or through acquisition 
of power-inducing devices; they hid their actual iden- 
tities behind a mask, a costume, and, often, a 
cape; they adopted a flamboyant appellation; they 
engaged in bizarre or outlandish escapades; and 
they dedicated their lives and their abilities to fight- 
ing crime. Or to fighting Nazis. 



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Golden Age of Superheroes (1938-1954) 



suPBPHepoes help fight 

WOPIP WAP IX 

"As World War II spread across Europe in the 
late 1930s, comic books began to take notice," 
commented author Ron Goulart in Comic Book Cul- 
ture (2000). Superman, a symbol of American patri- 
otism in his blue-and-red uniform, fought tyrants 
and dictators, and apprehended both Adolf Hitler 
and Joseph Stalin in a special comic prepared in 
1940 for Look magazine — not surprising since the 
Man of Steel was called "the champion of the 
oppressed" in his Action #1 debut. Captain Marvel 
and other superheroes also clobbered Nazi and 
Japanese soldiers on the covers of their comics, 
even before the December 1941 bombing of Pearl 
Harbor brought the United States into the conflict. 

It was ML) Publications — the company that 
would later be known as Archie Comics — that creat- 
ed the first specifically patriotic superhero: the 
Shield, in Pep Comics #1 (January 1940), a red- 
white-and-blue-garbed crime fighter who used his 
superpowers, obtained from a secret formula, to 
protect American soil from enemy saboteurs and 
spies. The best-known patriotic superhero pre- 
miered in March 1941: Timely (Marvel)'s Captain 
America. "Cap," originally a weakling intensely loyal 
to his country, took a government-invented "super 
soldier serum" to permanently transform into the 
superhero who remains in print as a terrorist-buster 
in the post-September 11 world of the 2000s. The 
Shield and Captain America were merely two of a 
contingent of starred-and-striped heroes who 
appeared prior to and after America's entering the 
war: Miss Victory, U.S. Jones, the Star-Spangled Kid 
and Stripesy (a kid hero with an adult sidekick), Pat 
Patriot, Captain Victory, the Fighting Yank, Captain 
Flag, and Minute-Man (the One Man Army) were just 
some of the superpatriots of the World War II era. 
Even Uncle Sam, the symbol of U.S. Army recruit- 
ment, was a superhero during the 1940s. 

A superhero was not required to wear stars and 
stripes to fight the Axis. The grimly clad Hangman 



qe&iun**?: THE BLRtH TERROR ,-.„J 001 5TRBI1GE! 




America's Best Comics #19 © 1946 Standard Comics. 

COVER ART BY ALEX SCHOMBURG. 



punched out Nazis, Batman and Robin sold war 
bonds, the Black Terror — who bore a skull and cross- 
bones as his costume insignia — rallied to the cause 
by carrying U.S. flags on his covers, and even the 
fussy Sub-Mariner — dressed in nothing but green 
swim trunks — redirected his aggression from attack- 
ing New York landmarks toward sinking Japanese 
subs. Comics became pro-war propaganda, and 
were even mailed abroad to American servicemen. 

The comic-book industry flourished from a mere six 
comics companies in the pre-Superman days of 1936 to 
two dozen by the early 1940s, some of them manufac- 
turing comics pages in unsavory, assembly-line condi- 
tions that resembled sweatshops. A 1943 Newsweek 
article cited 25 million copies of comic books being sold 



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Golden Age of Superheroes (1938-1954) 



each month; "They were selling 102 percent; that is, 
beyond their spoilage rate," former comic-book writer 
William Woolfolk once revealed. By the mid-1940s, 
eager would-be publishers were blockaded from entering 
this expanding field by the paper shortages of World War 
II. Kids were encouraged to donate their used comics to 
paper drives, resulting in their rarity in the 2000s, where 
high-grade copies of 1940s comics command prices, in 
some cases, of tens of thousands of dollars. Despite 
paper rationing, the existing publishers continued to pro- 
duce, produce, produce. 

"Every civilization and its arts has a period in 
history of great accomplishments and flourishing 
activity," observed comics historian Benton. "From 
the golden age of Ancient Greece to the golden age 
of silent movies, there is a time (often enhanced by 
nostalgia) which is judged to be the best of an era 
or the seminal period for an art form." Although no 
one at the time referred to it as such, this era of 
comics, particularly superhero comics, is consid- 
ered the medium's Golden Age (1938-1954). 

In retrospect, the era is better remembered for its 
novelty and profusion, not for the quality of its materi- 
al. Most superhero stories of the Golden Age were 
primitively scripted and crudely drawn, yet at the time 
the audience was less discerning, seeking escapism 
rather than artistic or intellectual engagement. 

GOLPBNAGZ GZ£ATS 

Some Golden Age superhero comics, however, 
brilliantly exemplify superlative storytelling and artis- 
tic excellence. One such series is Quality Comics' 
Kid Eternity. First seen in Hit Comics #25 (December 
1942), Kid Eternity is rumored to have been inspired 
by the film Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), which 
was later remade into Heaven Can Wait (1978) and 
Down to Earth (2001). The "kid" — he is never given 
an actual name — dies, along with his grandfather, 
when the merchant marine ships they are on are tor- 
pedoed by Nazis. The boy's death is deemed a heav- 
enly mistake, and he is returned to Earth, accompa- 
nied by a ghostly guardian, Mr. Keeper. As Kid Eterni- 



ty, he commands a magic word ("Eternity!") to 
become invisible, and to summon famous historical 
figures into the present to fight crime for him. Sever- 
al lauded Golden Age artists rendered the charac- 
ter's adventures in Hit and in the Kid Eternity solo 
series, including Al Bryant and Alex Kotsky. 

Other standouts, highly regarded by collectors 
and historians: the charming Captain Marvel tales 
whimsically drawn by C. C. Beck, Kurt Schaffenberg- 
er, and other illustrators; Captain Marvel Jr., a char- 
acter who, under the guidance of artist Mac Raboy, 
was rendered in a manner much more realistic than 
Captain Marvel's; Matt Baker's voluptuously ren- 
dered "Good Girl" art pinups on Phantom Lady and 
other covers, plus covers drawn by artists extraordi- 
naire Alex Schomburg and L. B. Cole; Jerry Robin- 
son's creepy interpretation of the villainous Joker in 
his first appearance in Batman #1 (1940); Bill 
Everett's breathtaking underseascapes in Sub- 
Mariner; Jack Cole's ingeniously lively layouts on 
Plastic Man; Alex Schomburg's bombastically bold 
covers on Captain America and other patriotic 
series; Will Eisner's groundbreaking splash-page 
designs in The Spirit; and virtually anything drawn by 
virtuosos Jack Kirby, Reed Crandall, and Lou Fine. 

postwar woes 

The end of World War II nearly marked the end 
of the superhero. With the Axis forces eliminated as 
the menace dujour, "comic-book heroes and hero- 
ines had nothing to do," noted Fawcett Comics 
artist Beck. One by one, superhero titles were can- 
celed. Publishers went out of business, and those 
that survived did so from the success of new gen- 
res like funny animals, Westerns, horror, crime, 
romance, and science fiction, although those titles 
sold, at best, roughly half of circulation figures from 
the World War II boom. 

Postwar America, despite its illusion of prosperi- 
ty, was gripped by the fear of nuclear war and the 
spread of communism. Comics publishers scrambled 
to take advantage of the audience's awareness of 



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both. The cover of Captain Marvel Adventures #66 
(1946) depicts the hero standing amid a decimated 
city, with warheads sailing his way, its blurb proclaim- 
ing, "Captain Marvel Battles the Dread Atomic War!" 
Similarly, Superman, Fighting Yank, and other super- 
heroes lamented nuclear warfare, while neo-heroes 
Atomic Man, Atoma, Atoman, and the Atomic Thun- 
derbolt capitalized on it. Radiation-spawned mon- 
sters became a recurring theme in superhero comics 
by the 1950s; Plastic Man fought giant ants, and Bat- 
man and Robin were plagued by giant bees. Marvel 
Comics, which had canceled its superhero comics in 
the late 1940s, resurrected Captain America, Sub- 
Mariner, and the Human Torch as "commie busters" 
in the early 1950s, and superstar artist Jack Kirby 
and his partner Joe Simon launched a short-lived 
superhero parody, The Fighting American, taking on 
the red scare with tongue placed firmly in cheek. But 
readers did not seem to care. Comic-book con- 
sumers had a new pastime: the Golden Age of super- 
heroes had given way to the Golden Age of television. 

By the mid-1950s, only DCs Superman, Bat- 
man, and Wonder Woman continued to star in their 
own titles, and they were about to meet a real-life 
supervillain who would endanger them further: Dr. 
Fredric Wertham. A psychologist, Wertham pub- 
lished a 1954 book titled Seduction of the Inno- 
cent, indicting comic books for causing juvenile 
delinquency and moral decay among youth. A U.S. 
Senate hearing followed that targeted graphic con- 
tent in horror and crime comics. Sales shrunk even 
more, as many parents forbade their children from 
reading comics. It was comics' darkest hour. A cen- 
sorship board was implemented, more publishers 
closed shop, and DCs remaining superheroes 
limped along under stringent new guidelines. The 
Golden Age of superheroes was over. — ME 



Good Girl Art 

Good Girl art is a genre that dates back to comics' 
Golden Age (1938-1954), during which a range of 




Men of Mystery Spotlight Special #1 © 2001 AC Comics. 

COVER ART BY ALEX SCHOMBURG AND BILL BLACK. 



comic-book heroines were rendered in the Betty 
Grable and Rita Hayworth pin-up tradition of World 
War II. Good Girls were a departure from the popular 
femmes fatales of the era, such as the seductive vil- 
lainess the Dragon Lady. Sporting a spunky attitude 
and dressed in the provocative sexiness of the 
1940s, Good Girls were adventurers, heroines, side- 
kicks, or girls who stumbled into, and then escaped 
from, danger. While many of the Good Girls were 
early superheroines, others came from a range of 
genres. Classic Good Girls include Sheena, Queen 
of the Jungle; Senorita Rio, Queen of Spies; Flamin- 
go, the Gypsy Gal; pilots like Flying Jenny and Sky 



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Girl; and heroines such as Mysta of the Moon, Miss 
Victory, the Phantom Lady, and Lady Luck. Regard- 
less of origin, all these women share the qualities of 
beauty, strength, and independence — albeit fighting 
crime in a scanty evening gown and high heels (or, in 
Sheena's case, a leopard-skin miniskirt and bikini 
top with leopard-skin slippers). 

Early comics publishers like Fiction House 
(1938-1954) specialized in Good Girl art within the 
pages of their Wings Comics, Rangers Comics, and 
Fight Comics. Sheena came alive in 1937 when the 
Jerry Iger/Will Eisner art studio invented the jungle 
heroine for Fiction House publisher T. T. Scott. 
Beautiful, strong, smart, knife-wielding Sheena was 
a heroine who could think on her feet, rescue men, 
even carry a male sidekick — a novel role reversal 
for the time. Sheena starred in Fiction House's 
Jumbo Comics, which also featured the zany 
exploits of Ginger McGuire, whose strip was titled 
Sky Girl. Drawn by popular Good Girl artist Matt 
Baker, in every story would-be fly-girl McGuire took 
to the air, revealing a long-leggedness second only 
to her determination. For the same publisher, Lily 
Renee and Bob Lubbers drew Sehorita Rio, a sexy 
American spy who operated in Central and South 
America. Said comic-book historian Ron Goulart in 
his Great History of Comic Books (1986), "In [Fic- 
tion House] stories, you encountered amply con- 
structed and sparsely clad young women on the 
land, on the sea, and in the air. Deep into the jun- 
gles, you ran into beautiful blondes wearing leopard- 
skin undies; off on some remote planet there would 
be a lovely redhead sporting a chrome-plated bra." 
Interestingly, many of these "pin-up" strips were 
rendered by women, at least one of whom (Ruth 
Atkinson) used a male pseudonym ("Ace Atkins"). 

After World War II, girly strips continued in 
comics, with added attention to plunging necklines 
and high-slitted hemlines, often revealing a fuller, 
more curvaceous figure than in issues past. Fox Fea- 
tures Syndicate premiered notable Good Girls Phan- 
tom Lady and Rulah of the Jungle together in All Top 
Comics in November 1947. The Baker-rendered 



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Phantom Lady embodied the Good Girl tradition — 
glamorous debutante Sandra Knight fought crime in 
a halter top, trunks, and cape, touting her "blackout 
ray" as secret weapon. Women's physical attributes 
were amplified in Fox's comics, with Rulah's legs 
often hanging over the panels of the page. Soon the 
late 1940s Good Girl gave way to the romance hero- 
ine, with titles like My Desire and My Love Secret 
(both published by Fox) flooding the market. Though 
it is largely a product of a bygone era, certain artists, 
such as Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens, pay 
homage to Good Girl art in their work. Stevens' use 
of the iconic 1950s model Betty Page as inspiration 
for The Rocketeer's leading lady created a resur- 
gence of general interest in the Good Girl art period 
during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. 
Even contemporary titles like AC Comics' Femforce, 
still going strong after one-hundred-plus issues, often 
show the inspiration of the Good Girl tradition. 

Although the early decades of the twentieth cen- 
tury were an unenlightened era for women both in 
and out of the comics pages, some social historians 
have argued that the introduction of Good Girl art 
allowed for the emergence of feminism — albeit a 
stunted version — in print form. Others have main- 
tained that such portrayals of women trivialized femi- 
nism and impeded its growth. Despite these conflict- 
ing conclusions, early female heroes who possessed 
superhuman strength, powerful weapons, an indepen- 
dent spirit, and exotic back stories can be found by 
those social archeologists willing to dig. — GM 



The Greatest 
American Hero 

Ralph Hinkley (portrayed by William Katt) is not hav- 
ing a good week. As a new teacher at Whitney High 
School, he is given charge of the worst class in 
school. But when he takes the teen delinquents on 
a field trip, Hinkley's life gets weirder. When the 

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school bus stalls in the desert, 
Hinkley goes looking for help, 
only to be almost run over by an 
angry FBI agent named John 
Mackie (Robert Culp), who is 
searching for his partner. The two 
are astonished when a UFO 
appears, and Mackie's partner — 
who, unbeknownst to Mackie, is 
dead — delivers a special red 
supersuit to Hinkley. He is told 
that the aliens are giving him this 
special suit, and only he can use 
its powers to help humanity! 

When Mackie drives off in a 
huff, Hinkley walks back to the 
bus, not noticing that he has 
dropped the suit's instruction 
booklet in the desert! Shortly 
thereafter, a reluctant Hinkley 
dons the supersuit and helps 
Mackie avenge his partner and 
stop terrorists. Unfortunately, 
Hinkley cannot control the powers 
he has and, when flying, he often 
crashes into buildings! Mackie 
and Hinkley form a reluctant part- 
nership, with Hinkley's girlfriend 
Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca) 
keeping them from strangling 
each other, and the world has a 
new — if uncoordinated and some- 
what reluctant — superhero. 

Debuting on ABC on March 
18, 1981, The Greatest American 
Hero was the creation of Stephen 
J. Cannell, best known for such action fare as TheA- 
Team and 21 Jump Street. The series mixed humor 
and action in a fun way, and the lead characters 
played off each other brilliantly. Culp's pressure-cook- 
er-about-to-blow style and Katt's laid-back help-human 
ity act were a great mix, and Sellecca balanced them 
out with the right amount of feminine power. 




William Katt stars as Ralph Hinkley, reluctant hero, in The Greatest American Hero. 



The Greatest American Hero had one problem 
right out of the starting gate: On March 30, 1981, 
John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President 
Ronald Reagan. The studio and network scrambled 
to cover their lead character's sound-alike name, 
and Hinkley suddenly became "Hanley" or "Mr. H" 
to his students (though his original last name was 



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restored for the second season). To make matters 
worse, DC Comics threatened legal action over what 
the company deemed too many similarities to its 
Superman character, but DC lost in court. 

Nevertheless, The Greatest American Hero was 
a hit with audiences. Its theme song, "Believe It or 
Not," sung by Joey Scarbury and written by Stephen 
Geyer and Mike Post, rose to number two on the 
pop music charts in 1981. Geyer and Post also 
wrote and recorded original songs for twenty-three 
of the show's episodes. Actor Culp wrote and direct- 
ed some second-season episodes. 

During the third season of the series, Hinkley 
and Davidson married, and Hinkley got a bit better 
at using his various superpowers. But ABC's deci- 
sion to move the series to Friday nights — a death- 
knell for science fiction-oriented series — proved 
too villainous an act for Hinkley to triumph over. The 
show ended its run on February 3, 1983, with four 
episodes unaired. Those shows later popped up 
when The Greatest American Hero hit syndication, 
and the series drew good ratings yet again. 

With NBC expressing interest in a relaunch, the 
main cast members reunited in 1986 to film a new 
pilot, titled The Greatest American Heroine. In it, 
Ralph's secret is exposed to the world, and when 
the fame goes to his head, the aliens "fire" him. 
The suit is given to a young girl named Mary Ellen 
Stuart (Holly Hathaway), who drives Mackie crazy 
with her grand plans to save the whales and then 
solve the rest of the world's woes. NBC passed and 
the pilot never aired, but it was expanded to a full 
hour and put into the syndication package, along- 
side the previous forty-three episodes. 

Although an animated series was rumored to 
be in development for years, it was in March 2000 
that a feature-film development deal for The Great- 
est American Hero was announced, with Stephen J. 
Cannell producing for Film Roman productions and 
Touchstone Pictures. Three screenwriters worked 
on a script — Paul Hernandez, Abby Kohn, and Marc 
Silverstein — that found comic-book fan/teacher 



Ralph Hinkley given a supersuit by aliens, and fac- 
ing the prospect that other humans had been given 
supersuits as well. Whether this potential new ver- 
sion of The Greatest American Hero will actually be 
made into a feature film is probably something that 
only someone with superpowers can answer. — AM 

Green Arrow 

From the very earliest days of superheroes, there 
have been "super-archers." While DC Comics' 
Green Arrow was not the first, he was certainly the 
longest lived. Created by writer Mort Weisinger and 
artist George Papp, the Green Arrow first appeared 
in 1941 in More Fun Comics #73, and was from the 
start a transparent attempt to replicate one of the 
company's biggest successes. Like Batman, Green 
Arrow had a wealthy playboy alter ego (Oliver 
Queen), a plucky kid sidekick called Speedy 
(Queen's ward, Roy Harper), a secret underground 
workshop beneath his estate, and his own Arrow 
car, Arrow plane, and Arrow boats. Where Batman 
had his seemingly limitless utility belt, Green Arrow 
had an almost inexhaustible supply of gimmicky 
arrows, including boxing glove, trip-wire, lariat, jet, 
tightrope, and acetylene types. His origin, however, 
was different from other superheroes and very 
straightforward: After being shipwrecked on a 
desert island, Queen makes himself a bow and over 
the following months becomes an expert bowman. 
After saving a ship that anchors offshore, Queen 
arrives at his purpose in life: "I knew then, in that 
split-second, that my existence on the island could 
now serve a useful purpose! When I returned to civi- 
lization, I would fight crime with my trick arrows!" 
Back home, Queen creates a suitably heroic cos- 
tume and pairs up with young Speedy, who in "real 
life" as Roy Harper has been trained in archery by 
Indians and so is himself an expert archer. 

The strip was usually well crafted if a little lack- 
ing in personality, but that DC believed in it is clear 
from its transfer to Adventure Comics, where it ran 



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until 1960. A simultaneous backup slot in World's 
Finest Comics lasted several years longer (until 
1964). Within a few months of their creation, the 
intrepid duo were inducted into the Seven Soldiers of 
Victory in Leading Comics, where they enjoyed rather 
improbable adventures throughout the war. The Emer- 
ald Archer, as he was often called, and Speedy tan- 
gled with minor villains like the Wizard, Clock King, 
and the Rainbow Archer throughout the 1940s and 
1950s, but the 1960s superhero boom rather 
passed them by. With little in the way of character 
development or depth, Green Arrow had to make do 
with membership in the Justice League of America, 
while Speedy joined the Teen Titans. However, by the 
turn of the decade both archers were to become 
among the most talked-about heroes in comics. 

In late 1969, Green Arrow first gained a new 
costume and goatee beard (courtesy of artist Neal 
Adams in The Brave and the Bold #79), and then 
lost his fortune to a crooked business partner 
(thanks to writer Denny O'Neil in Justice League 
#75). In that same issue of Justice League he 
moved to the ghetto and met the Black Canary, who 
would become his love interest for the next few 
decades. Finally, he co-headlined with Green Lantern 
in a series of comics by O'Neil and Adams that tack- 
led such "relevance" issues as race relations, ecolo- 
gy, politics, business corruption, and drugs in an 
award-winning series of strips that generated vast 
amounts of publicity. Readers now enjoyed an older 
Oliver Queen — passionate, belligerent, hot-headed, 
and radical. Here was a character that had gone 
from a one-dimensional cipher to an embodiment of 
the Zeitgeist, equal parts hippie, hero, and rabble- 
rouser. Speedy, on the other hand, personified the 
era's darker side as he descended into drug addic- 
tion in a story that garnered widespread praise (in 
Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 and #86), including 
an endorsement from New York City's mayor at the 
time, John Lindsay. 

Despite all this attention, the Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow partnership lasted only a cou- 
ple of years, and the archer had to be content with 



numerous backup features, invariably with Black 
Canary, in such books as World's Finest, Action 
Comics, and The Flash, as well as numerous Jus- 
tice League comics throughout the 1970s. These 
shorter tales gradually saw a mellowing of the 
rhetoric and a penchant for wisecracks emerging in 
its place, but more recent stories have chronicled a 
steady descent into darkness. Green Arrow was 
given his first (short-lived) solo comic in 1983, fol- 
lowed a few years later by Mike Grell's hard-hitting 
Longbow Hunters series, which was set in Seattle's 
mean streets and featured a harrowing sequence in 
which the Black Canary was brutally tortured. 

The Longbow Hunters went on to a long-running 
"mature readers only" series that continued in much 
the same violent, seedy vein and became a big-sell- 
ing cause celebre for its grim, violent tone. The 
Canary and Arrow finally split up and new cast mem- 
bers Shado (a female Japanese assassin) and Eddie 
Fryes (a sort of dissolute secret agent) were intro- 
duced, along with a long-lost — and previously 
unknown — son, Connor Hawke. As part of its wide- 
ranging Zero Hour series in the mid-1990s, DC killed 
off Oliver Queen in an airplane explosion, and Hawke 
became a new, more youthful Green Arrow. Hawke's 
idealism and inexperience breathed new life into the 
strip, but few doubted that his father would one day 
return. True to form, in 2001 new writer (and cult 
film director) Kevin Smith (Clerks; Chasing Amy) duly 
resurrected him from the dead. Smith was replaced 
by best-selling author Brad Meltzer and other suc- 
cessors, ensuring that the comic, now starring two 
generations of Green Arrow, will continue to excite 
interest for some time to come. — DAR 



Green Hornet 

Heroes who operate on both sides of the law have 
long been popular in comics and crime fiction. Such 
a character is the masked mystery man called the 
Green Hornet, a crime fighter who gamboled with 
gangsters in order to sting them for apprehension. 



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The Green Hornet and Kato first appeared in a 
1936 radio drama produced by George W. Trendle, 
whose previous program, The Lone Ranger, was a 
tremendous (and perennial) success. Revisiting The 
Lone Ranger's proven formula — an enigmatic 
masked hero accompanied by a loyal ethnic partner 
(in the Ranger's case, his Native American compan- 
ion, Tonto) — The Green Hornettook the concept one 
step further, linking the two series into a genera- 
tional saga. Historians acknowledge radio 
scriptwriter Fran Striker as the principal creator of 
the Green Hornet. 

The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, whose 
father Dan is the Lone Ranger's nephew. The 
Ranger's penchant for silver bullets (and even his 
horse's name) was derived from the family's silver 
mine, which dispassionate Britt inherits and begins 
to squander as a playboy. He picks up a manser- 
vant on an excursion to Japan after rescuing a 
young man named Kato from peril; Kato returns the 
favor by dedicating his life to his redeemer. Back in 
the States, Reid assumes the family business — The 
Daily Sentinel newspaper, which targets organized 
crime — and rises beyond his flippancy as he 
matures into its publisher. On a nighttime jaunt to 
collect evidence against mobsters for a Sentinel 
expose, Reid and chauffeur Kato are spotted at the 
scene of the crime in their unique sedan — the Black 
Beauty — and the car is added to the police's most- 
wanted list. Reid — abetted by his executive assis- 
tant Lenore Case and a handful of confidantes with- 
in the police department — preserves that under- 
world brand by adopting the masked identity of the 
Green Hornet, and along with Kato, an accom- 
plished martial artist, begins a battle against crime 
by pretending to be on its side. 

The Green Hornet ran on radio for sixteen 
years, as the hero, clad simply in a trench coat, eye- 
mask, and fedora, used his steel-piercing, vibrating 
Hornet's Sting to burst through gangsters' walls and 
his Gas Gun to render them unconscious. High-kick- 
ing Kato was on hand to karate-chop the crooks his 
partner didn't gas. The heroes' popularity extended 



beyond the airwaves: They headlined a pair of quick- 
ly produced movie serials from Universal Studios — 
The Green Hornet and The Green Hornet Strikes 
Again (both 1940) — and a smattering of comic 
books from publishers Holyoke, Harvey, and Dell. 
During the 1940s, a handful of Big Little Books writ- 
ten by Striker were published, including The Green 
Hornet Strikes, The Green Hornet Returns, and The 
Green Hornet Cracks Down. 

By the early 1950s, the buzz around the Green 
Hornet had faded, and Kato parked the Black Beauty 
in the garage of pop-culture limbo — until September 
1966. The Green Hornet, a weekly live-action televi- 
sion series, premiered that month, courtesy of pro- 
ducer William Dozier, the man responsible for bring- 
ing Batman to the tube nine months prior. The 
show's handsome lead Van Williams was eclipsed by 
his two co-stars: in the role of Kato, Asian import 
Bruce Lee, an accomplished martial artist whose 
proficiency soon kicked off a series of 1970s kung- 
fu movies; and the Black Beauty, a customized 1966 
Chrysler Imperial Crown brimming with a hornet's 
nest of gadgets including a secret surveillance cam- 
era, laser cannon, and smoke screen. The Black 
Beauty and its costumed occupants were heavily 
merchandized in the form of trading cards, comic 
and coloring books, bendable figures, a lunchbox, 
and miniature cars. Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt's frenetic 
"Flight of the Bumblebee" theme was a pop-music 
hit, but the show was not: The Green Hornet was 
swatted from the schedule after one season. 

It took more than two decades before the 
Green Hornet and Kato reappeared. In 1989, Now 
Comics launched The Green Hornet, expanding the 
legend of both heroes with their sons and daugh- 
ters assuming their fathers' legacies. While briefly 
popular, Now's Hornet comic books disappeared in 
late 1994. Since that point, at least two attempts 
to bring the Green Hornet to the big screen (with 
George Clooney and Greg Kinnear, respectively, in 
the title role) have fizzled. Filmmaker Kevin Smith 
is, as of early 2004, attached to yet another 
attempt to resuscitate this project, which is partially 



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Green Lantern 



backed by Dark Horse Comics, the publisher 
responsible for comics-inspired movies The Mask, 
Barb Wire, Timecop, and Mystery Men. — ME 

Green lantern 

From humble beginnings, the Green Lantern con- 
cept has evolved through numerous revamps (with 
five Lanterns as of 2004), a complex mythology, 
and countless spin-offs. The character was first 
launched in July 1940 by artist Mart Nodell, with 
additional input from Batman writer Bill Finger, in 
the pages of All-American Comics #16 and immedi- 
ately became one of DC Comics' biggest and most 
powerful stars. Like many early superheroes, his ori- 
gin was based in magic; while working on a bridge, 
construction worker Alan Scott comes across a 
green lantern, which he later discovers was made 
out of a meteor. Somewhat improbably, the lantern 
speaks to Scott, instructing him to make a ring out 
of its extraterrestrial material. The ring would trans- 
form thought into reality as long as he touched the 
lantern once every twenty-four hours. Indeed, the 
power ring enables Scott to fly and take on any kind 
of superpower. In short order, Scott fashions him- 
self a garish red-and-green costume (duly acknowl- 
edging, "I must have a costume that is so bizarre 
that once I am seen I will never be forgotten") and, 
as they say, embarks on a career of crime fighting. 

Initial stories concentrated on the Lantern's 
dispatching ordinary hoods, often in a surprisingly 
ruthless manner, but as his powers became 
increasingly mind-boggling (from flying to mind-read- 
ing and, eventually, imperviousness to bullets) so, 
too, his villains needed to be more far-fetched. Col- 
orful criminals such as the Sportsmaster and the 
Harlequin (a female villain who was also in love with 
Green Lantern) began to predominate, but by far the 
most remarkable protagonist was Solomon 
Grundy — a giant reanimated corpse — created by 
noted science fiction author and regular Green 
Lantern writer Alfred Bester. By this point, DC had 




Green Lantern #171 © 1983 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY GIL KANE. 



limited the hero's abilities somewhat by making his 
ring powerless against wood, but he was still a very 
potent wish-fulfillment figure (literally) for his fans. 
In addition to appearing in more than eighty issues 
of All-American, he also starred in his own solo 
comic for eight years, in Comic Cavalcade and in 
many issues of All Star Comics as one of the princi- 
pal members of the Justice Society until that 
comic's cancellation in 1951. 

Alan Scott continued to appear throughout the 
1960s as part of the Justice Society and has been 
a constant member of the group in its many 
revivals, rebirths, and relaunches ever since. In 
fact, as of 2004 he is a regular guest star in the 



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Green Lantern 



Green Lantern comic (although he now goes by the 
name of Sentinel), largely unchanged since his 
debut sixty years ago, but the Green Lantern con- 
cept itself has expanded exponentially in that time. 

Following the successful revamp of the Flash in 
1956, editor Julius Schwartz (along with John 
Broome on scripts and Gil Kane on art) turned his 
sights on Green Lantern. The new Green Lantern 
premiered in September 1959 in DCs Showcase 
#22, with a new history: Test pilot Hal Jordan 
chances upon the crashed space ship of an emer- 
ald-garbed, red-skinned alien named Abin Sur. With 
his dying breath, the alien passes on his green ring 
to Jordan, whereupon he becomes transformed into 
an identically clothed superhero. Like his predeces- 
sor, this Green Lantern could use the ring to make 
his thoughts reality and he, too, needed a lantern to 
recharge the ring, but its weakness this time was to 
anything colored yellow (which inevitably was the 
cue for countless stories about yellow aliens, vil- 
lains, and monsters). When the Lantern (nicknamed 
the Emerald Crusader) recharged his ring every day, 
he recited an oath that soon became his mantra: 
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall 
escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's 
might, beware my power — Green Lantern's light!" 

It was the ring's background that differentiated 
the two strips; it seems that the later Green 
Lantern was but one of many ring-wielding super- 
heroes across the universe — members of a sort of 
intergalactic police force. The Green Lanterns were 
picked by small, blue-skinned aliens, known as the 
"Guardians of Oa," as the bravest individuals on 
their own planets, and with their almost omnipotent 
rings they were sworn to uphold justice and defeat 
evil wherever it may appear. The Lantern stories 
were dynamic and inventive, often revolving around 
some alien menace or scientific conundrum, but 
characterization was not a strong feature. Hal Jor- 
dan was based on Gil Kane's neighbor at the time, 
an up-and-coming actor by the name of Paul New- 
man, and despite an attractive supporting cast 
including girlfriend Carol Ferris and best buddy 



"Pieface," he was something of a loner. The princi- 
pal villains were the rogue Green Lantern, Sinestro, 
and the powerful Star Sapphire — in reality Jordan's 
schizophrenic girlfriend Ferris. 

Green Lantern started appearing in his own 
self-titled comic in 1960, soon became a regular 
member of the Justice League of America, and was 
very much one of DCs top characters throughout 
the 1960s. Kane developed into one of comics' 
most exciting artists but, when he left the title to try 
becoming a publisher himself, Green Lantern's pop- 
ularity dropped. Eventually the decision was made 
to boost sales by introducing the Green Arrow in a 
retitled Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic, featuring 
the creative team of writer Denny O'Neil and artist 
Neal Adams. Over the course of fourteen issues 
(#76-#89), the comic became one of the most 
talked-about titles of the 1970s, tapping into the 
radical politics of the era and the growth of the 
counterculture. The Green Lantern was portrayed as 
the arch-establishment figure whose complacency 
was constantly challenged by the anti-establish- 
ment firebrand, the Green Arrow. As the voice of the 
streets, O'Neil and Adams introduced the concept 
of "relevance" to comics, tackling a different social 
topic in each issue, including race relations, Native 
American rights, women's liberation, pollution, con- 
sumerism, drugs, and campus unrest — subject mat- 
ter previously untapped in the comic-book world. 

Surprisingly, despite enormous media interest, 
numerous industry awards, college tours, and 
Adams' outstanding draftsmanship, sales were 
never strong (though conspiracy theorists have sug- 
gested that issues were sidelined by organized 
crime and sold to fans later) and the comic was 
canceled in 1972. Backup strips in The Flash even- 
tually led to the Green Lantern series' revival in 
1976, and it continued in various guises until 
1988. Green Arrow left the comic in 1979 and it 
was retitled Green Lantern Corps for its last few 
years, but it was mostly a pale shadow of the pio- 
neering relevance period. The Green Lantern Corps 
retitling reflected the increasing number of Green 



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Guardians of the Galaxy 



Lanterns that had popped up over the years, many 
of them enjoying success in their own right. 

The first of the new Green Lanterns at around 
this time (though originally appearing in 1968) was 
Guy Gardner, who was Hal Jordan's replacement 
should anything happen to him. Gardner later took 
over Jordan's ring and became a rather bad-tem- 
pered (and occasionally villainous) superhero with 
an appalling, pudding-bowl haircut. The fans loved 
his bad attitude and in the 1980s he became a reg- 
ular in the Justice League, which led to his own 
comic in 1992; this ran for more than four years. 
The next replacement Lantern to star in a comic 
was John Stewart — one of the earliest African-Amer- 
ican heroes — who first appeared in the 
O'Neil/ Adams period and was portrayed as a proud 
defender of the black community. From the 1980s 
to the 2000s, he has periodically taken over the 
lead role in the Green Lantern comic and has made 
numerous appearances without ever building up a 
large fan base (though outside the comics medium 
he's had a shot at a whole new audience as the 
Lantern who got the call for Cartoon Network's pop- 
ular Justice League show). Even alien Green 
Lanterns have broken out of the background, with 
the pug-faced Kilowog joining the Justice League 
and another short-lived Green Lantern Corps comic 
running (albeit quarterly) from 1992 to 1994. 

In 1989 a miniseries called Emerald Dawn was 
meant to herald a new beginning for the character, 
but the following years have been almost impossi- 
bly complex, so that even the most devoted fan 
could be forgiven for becoming confused. Hal Jor- 
dan developed a drinking problem and then, having 
seen his home city destroyed, went mad and turned 
on his overseers, the Guardians of Oa. Not surpris- 
ingly, the Guardians resolved to replace him and 
discovered young artist Kyle Rayner (in Green 
Lantern vol. 2 #48, 1994), who has been DCs main 
Green Lantern ever since. Jordan, meanwhile, 
became a character called Parallax and flounced 
around the universe, killing people before being 



killed himself — only to be resurrected several years 
later as the Spectre. 

While longtime fans were outraged at the cava- 
lier treatment of an old favorite, a newer generation 
of fans has taken to Kyle Rayner, and the younger 
hero has undeniably reinvigorated the Green 
Lantern strip's popularity. The Guardians of Oa, on 
the other hand, have not fared quite as well; the 
Green Lantern Corps has been broken up and 
replaced by a group called the Darkstars, and the 
planet Oa itself has been destroyed. As these 
things tend to go in comics, Rayner acquired the 
massed powers of the dead Guardians and briefly 
became rather godlike before rebuilding the planet 
and returning to his "normal" self. The coming 
years will doubtless bring more plot twists and 
more Green Lanterns but, for many fans, Hal Jordan 
will remain the one true Lantern. — DAR 

Guardians of 
the Galaxy 

The idea of comrades-in-arms struggling against 
tyranny is a mainstay of fiction and folklore as old 
as Robin Hood. Superhero comics have long provid- 
ed a natural stage for stories of such underdog 
heroes. The Guardians of the Galaxy, originally cre- 
ated for a one-shot Marvel Comics story {Marvel 
Super-Heroes vol. 1 #18, 1969) by writer Arnold 
Drake and artist Gene Colan, carries this time-hon- 
ored tradition forward into the year 3007 A.D. By 
this time, Earth, the other planets of the solar sys- 
tem, and the human colony at Alpha Centauri have 
all fallen under the dominion of the Badoon, a hos- 
tile race of sentient alien reptiles. 

The Badoon invasion brings together a dis- 
parate group of humans who hail from points all 
across the solar system and beyond, echoing Akira 
Kurosawa's classic 1954 film The Seven Samurai 
(and its 1960 American clone The Magnificent 



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Guardians of the Galaxy 



Seven). Charlie-27, a human soldier who has been 
genetically enhanced (with gigantic muscles and 
natural body armor) for life on a Jupiter colony, 
returns from offworld duty to discover his Jovian 
home overrun by Badoon forces. Teleporting to 
Pluto, he encounters that world's only survivor, Mar- 
tinex (a crystalline human, genetically altered to 
survive the frigid Plutonian environment). To thwart 
the Badoon occupying Pluto, Charlie-27 and Mar- 
tinex work together to sabotage the planet's indus- 
trial infrastructure before teleporting to Earth, 
where they meet Vance Astro and Yondu. Astro 
(a.k.a. Astrovik) is an Earth-born twentieth-century 
astronaut recently awakened from a cryogenic sus- 
pension that has given him powerful psionic abili- 
ties while dooming him to live out his life inside a 
protective suit that keeps him from aging naturally; 
Yondu is a nonhuman native of Alpha Centauri, and 
the last of his kind. The pair have just arrived on 
Earth after fleeing the Badoon-overrun Alpha Cen- 
tauri system in a commandeered faster-than-light 
starship. Though Vance and Yondu fall into Badoon 
hands on Earth, Charlie-27 and Martinex rescue 
them, whereupon the quartet adopts the collective 
name the Guardians of the Galaxy (not to be con- 
fused with DC Comics' blue-skinned alien 
Guardians, who presided over the Green Lantern 
Corps in the Silver Age [1956-1969] and Bronze 
Age [1970-1979] of superhero comics). The sworn 
purpose of this small group of crusaders is to drive 
the Badoon from every one of their strongholds 
across the entire galaxy. They flit around the Milky 
Way in a spaceship called Freedom's Lady. 

Although the Guardians vanished from the 
comics spinner-racks after their 1969 debut, they 
reappeared half a decade later (Marvel Two-In-One 
#4 and #5, 1974), under the creative direction of 
writer Steve Gerber and penciler Sal Buscema. It is 
now 3014 A.D., and Captain America and the Fan- 
tastic Four's Thing (both from the twentieth century) 
become temporarily embroiled in the Guardians' 
ongoing battle for freedom, as do the Defenders 
(also from the twentieth century) a year later 



(Defenders #26-29, 1975), who help drive the 
Badoon from Earth's solar system and the adjacent 
regions of space. Inspired by Captain America 
(Astrovik is a particularly enthusiastic fan of Cap's 
wartime exploits), the Guardians name their star- 
ship after him and take the craft on an interstellar 
journey of discovery and adventure. 

During these wanderings, the group encounters 
and inducts other members: Nikki (a human woman 
genetically engineered to survive the heat of her 
homeworld Mercury), and a pair of physically/psy- 
chically melded Arcturians named Starhawk (a for- 
mer Defender now caught in a time-loop that forces 
him to relive his life repeatedly) and Aleta 
(Starhawk's former wife and present foster-sister, 
who has the ability to manipulate light energy). Now 
a septet, the Guardians explore the galaxy and 
defend it from the Badoon and other superpowered 
menaces in the pages of Marvel Presents (begin- 
ning in issue #3, 1976). Unfortunately, writers 
Steve Gerber and Roger Stern and penciler Allen 
Milgrom failed to sustain a large enough audience 
to continue the series, and the Guardians feature 
died a quick and ignominious death (along with Mar- 
vel Presents itself, whose twelfth and final issue 
was released in 1977). 

The Guardians subsequently reached their 
highest 1970s readership levels when they time- 
traveled back to the twentieth century to help 
resolve the "Korvac saga" of 1978, a story arc 
crafted by writers Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, and 
David Michelinie and artists George Perez, Sal 
Buscema, and David Wenzel. In this story, the 
Avengers struggle to prevent the sudden omnipo- 
tence of an ordinary man (Michael Korvac) from 
wreaking havoc across the cosmos (The Avengers 
#167-#168, #173-#177). Before returning to the 
thirty-first century following Korvac's defeat, Vance 
Astrovik meets his younger twentieth-century self 
and talks him out of becoming an astronaut in order 
to prevent his becoming forever trapped in the con- 
tainment suit. Unfortunately for both Astroviks, this 
action creates a psionic backlash between the two 



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men, prematurely awakening the younger man's psy- 
chic abilities, thereby allowing him to become Mar- 
vel Boy in the later series The New Warriors 
(1990-1996, 1999-2000). This development split 
the Guardians' future off from Marvel's main time- 
line, sequestering it in one of comicdom's many 
"alternate futures." Undeterred by being rendered 
effectively apocryphal, the Guardians forged a 
prominent one-shot partnership with Spider-Man 
the following year (Marvel Team-Up #86, written by 
X-Men scribe Chris Claremont with pencils by Allyn 
Brodsky), but made only infrequent guest appear- 
ances during the ensuing decade [The Avengers 
#264, 1986; The Sensational She-Hulk #6, 1989). 

But the Guardians were not destined for perma- 
nent obscurity. In 1990 Marvel placed the team in 
the hands of writer-artist Jim Valentino, who had pre- 
viously made his mark in the world of independent 
comics publishing in 1984 with normalman (pub- 
lished first by Aardvark-Vanaheim, and later by Rene- 
gade Press), a parody of the superheroes who had 
become so profuse in the universes of Marvel and 
DC since the dawn of the Silver Age; normalman is 
the only individual on Earth (known as "Levram," 
which is "Marvel" spelled backward) who lacks 
superpowers and a costume. Later in the 1990s, Jim 
Valentino would go on to join the ranks of writers and 
artists working at Image Comics on creator-owned 
properties (Valentino's semi-autobiographical 1997 
miniseries A Touch of Silver, which relates the trau- 
matic upbringing of a young comics fan, is undoubt- 
edly his most distinguished and personal work from 
that period). Of his own work, Valentino has said, 
"Since my influences are strongly in the DC and Mar- 
vel Silver Age — which is from when I was a kid — and 
then in underground comics when I was a teenager, I 
have strong influences on both sides. I am just as 
strongly influenced by Jack Kirby as I am by Robert 
Crumb; and by Vaughn Bode as I am by Steve Ditko, 
and neither influence touches me any stronger than 
the other. I just sort of smoosh them all together." 

Valentino's nearly three-year tenure with the 
Guardians reveals his abiding love for Marvel's 



superheroes and their history, delving more deeply 
than ever before into the motivations of the team's 
individual members. Returning the Guardians to 
their alternate thirty-first century, Valentino began 
the series by taking the team on a quest for the 
indestructible shield of Vance Astrovik's most 
revered hero, Captain America [Guardians of the 
Galaxy #l-#6, 1990). The quest succeeds, 
although the Guardians are faced along the way by 
such powerful foes as Taserface (whose powers are 
self-explanatory), Firelord (a former herald of the 
world-eating Galactus who subsequently becomes a 
reserve member of the group), and the Stark (aliens 
who have based their technology and weaponry 
upon the armored twentieth-century superhero Iron 
Man, a.k.a. munitions manufacturer Tony Stark). 

Valentino's run on the series lasted twenty- 
nine issues, culminating in a multi-issue 1992 
crossover with Marvel's cosmos-spanning Infinity 
War arc, an epic in which Jim Starlin's Thanos 
attempts to gain absolute power, and in so doing 
affects the continuity of virtually every title in the 
Marvel line (a storytelling-cum-marketing tactic that 
began gaining currency in the mid-1980s with such 
megasuccesses as Marvel Super Heroes Secret 
Wars and DC Comics' permanently universe-alter- 
ing Crisis on Infinite Earths). Under Valentino the 
Guardians became less a gang of ragtag freedom 
fighters and more a band of explorers and adven- 
turers, an amalgam of Avengers-type team super- 
heroics and Star Trek-style space opera. The 
Guardians still found the time to overthrow despot- 
ic rulers, however, unseating Rancor, a descendant 
of the X-Men's Wolverine who had taken over a lost 
human colony called Haven, which is ultimately 
destroyed by a future version of the world-devour- 
ing Phoenix after the Guardians evacuate the plan- 
et [Guardians of the Galaxy #9-#12, 1991). The 
Guardians subsequently add a shapechanging 
Havenite named Replica to their ranks (Guardians 
of the Galaxy Annual #2, 1992). In another memo- 
rable story arc, Valentino introduced the team to a 
futuristic iteration of the Ghost Rider; in addition to 



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Guardians of the Galaxy 



being a spirit of vengeance, this skull-headed 
demon also heads a religious cult whose own cler- 
gy he is secretly murdering until the Guardians 
negotiate a truce with him (Guardians of the Galaxy 
#13-#14, 1991). Thanks to time travel and 
Valentino's fascination with Marvel's 1970s 
mythos, the team also revisits the Korvac saga 
(1991's Fantastic Four Annual #24, Thor Annual 
#16, and Silver Surfer Annual #4). 

After Valentino's departure from Marvel for 
Image Comics, the Guardians' series continued 
under writer Michael Gallagher and such artists as 
J. J. Birch, Kevin West, Dale Eaglesham, Jeffrey 



Moore, Yancey Labat, Scot Eaton, Geoff Isherwood, 
Michael Bair, and Sandu Florea, finally concluding in 
1995 with issue #62. But the Guardians weren't 
quite ready to vanish into four-color oblivion, turning 
up again as guest stars occasionally during the 
1990s in various Marvel titles and headlining in a 
four-issue miniseries written by Valentino's succes- 
sor, Michael Gallagher, and penciled by Kevin West 
and Yancey Labat (Galactic Guardians, 1994). 
Although the Guardians have yet to reach the 
heights to which Valentino took them in the 1990s, 
it's a big galaxy, and one that frequently needs 
defending; someday the Guardians will surely 
answer the call to arms again. — MAM 



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ffarma-ftarbera 
Heroes 

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were pioneers 
of television animation. Having learned the ropes by 
producing Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons for 
MGM in the 1940s, they adapted their craft to the 
small screen, devising cost- (and quality-) cutting 
measures to make animation affordable for mass 
production (having running characters repeatedly 
pass the same background images, for example). 
From the humble beginnings of The Ruff and Reddy 
Show (1957), the Hanna-Barbera collaboration 
eventually launched a pantheon of cartoon greats 
(and some not-so-greats) including the Flintstones, 
Yogi Bear, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, and their first 
superhero (not counting Quick Draw McGraw's Zorro 
riff El Kabong, that is)— Atom Ant. 

With a battle cry of "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant!" 
this miniature muscle-mite first buzzed into action in 
The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965). Head- 
quartered in an anthill with a mailbox bearing his 
name, Atom Ant was a superhero parody, its tiny 
titan engaging in pun-filled clashes with menaces 
large (Crankenshaft's Monster) and small (Ferocious 

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Flea). A swarm of mid-1960s Atom Ant items were 
produced, including a Soaky figural bubblebath con- 
tainer, coloring book, View-Master reel, push puppet, 
Gold Key comic, and plush doll. Atom Ant aired, with 
and without Secret Squirrel, for several years before 
crawling into occasional syndication, and can be 
seen, as of 2004, on the Cartoon Network. 

Beginning in 1966, superhero mania swept 
America, ignited by the success of the live-action 
Batman television series (1966-1968). The 
Hanna-Barbera studios, always willing to capitalize 
on a trend, quickly cranked out a host of animated 
superhero shows all their own. Premiering on CBS 
in September 1966, Frankenstein Jr. and the 
Impossibles was cut from the same tongue-in- 
cheek cloth as Atom Ant. Frankenstein Jr. fused 
giant robots, monsters, and superheroes into one 
package: a masked and costumed computerized 
crime fighter who answered to his creator, trouble- 
prone prodigy Buzz Conroy. Appearing in the same 
half-hour program was another hybrid — of super- 
heroes and rock stars — The Impossibles. The 
Impossibles were a trio of pop musicians who, 
when summoned by their boss Big D via a guitar- 
based TV monitor, cheered "Rally-ho!" and trans- 
formed into ... the Impossibles, a supergroup com- 
posed of Fluid Man, Coil Man, and Multi Man, who 
zoomed to crime scenes in their Impossicar. The 



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Hanna-Barbera Heroes 



Impossibles — in their musician identities — per- 
formed a token tune in each episode. 

Debuting concurrently with Frankenstein Jr. and 
the Impossibles was Space Ghost and Dino Boy, 
also on CBS. Space Ghost, an intergalactic super- 
hero designed by legendary comic-book artist Alex 
Toth and voiced by Gary Owens (best known as the 
announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In), was 
abetted by junior partners Jan and Jayce and their 
monkey Blip (a staple of Hanna-Barbera adventure 
cartoons was the inclusion of pets for comic relief; 
witness Jonny Quest's pup, Bandit). Armed with ray- 
blasting wrist bands and his Invisibelt, Space Ghost 
tackled an army of alarming adversaries. Dino Boy 
was a contemporary kid lost in a dangerous stone- 
age society that had never evolved beyond its pre- 
historic state. Unlike Hanna-Barbera's satirical 
superhero programs, Space Ghost and Dino Boy 
was played straight, an attitude Space Ghost main- 
tained during a 1981 revival. Not so with the spec- 
tral hero's 1994 comeback, however: He is now a 
wacky talk-show host, backed up by former foes 
Zorak, Moltar, and Brak, in the hilarious Space 
Ghost Coast to Coast program on Cartoon Network. 

For the 1967-1968 television season, Hanna- 
Barbera released an unprecedented amount of orig- 
inal superhero fare, three new shows on CBS alone. 
The Herculoids, another series featuring Toth's 
designs, was set on the planet Quasar. It starred a 
family — King Zandor, Tara, and Dorno — who warded 
off assaulting monstrosities with the help of their 
unusual allies, the Herculoids: Tundro, a ten-legged 
rhino; Zok, a laser-beam-firing flying dragon; Igoo, a 
superstrong rock creature; and the malleable Gloop 
and Gleep. Shazzan also bowed during the 1967 
season. It featured a pair of kids from the 1960s, 
siblings Nancy and Chuck, transplanted into the 
past, where they and their flying camel Kabooie 
found themselves in conflict with a variety of 
thieves and cutthroats, only to be rescued each 
episode by an omnipotent, sixty-foot genie named 
Shazzan (while certainly not a superhero show in 
the strictest sense, Shazzan was marketed as 



such). Hanna-Barbera also unveiled Moby Dick and 
the Mighty Mightor that year. Mightor was a prehis- 
toric superhero, an homage to the original Captain 
Marvel. Each of his episodes began with a boy 
named Tor, who, when raising a magic club into the 
air (while exclaiming "Mightor!", not "Shazam!"), 
transmogrified into a powerful superhero. Also on 
the program, Herman Melville's formerly formidable 
great white whale became an amiable adventurer, 
joined by scuba-diving teens Tom and Tub (yes, he 
was a fat kid) and their seal, Scooby. 

On NBC, Hanna-Barbera produced two shows 
for the 1967-1968 season. Young Samson and 
Goliath offered another tale of wish-fulfillment and 
transformation, as an ordinary teenage boy and his 
pet dog were upgraded into the powerful hero Sam- 
son and his fierce lion Goliath whenever the lad 
locked together his wrist gauntlets and proclaimed, 
"I need Samson power!" Prolific designer Toth was 
back again with Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. The 
lead feature was a winged superhero, who, with a 
cry of "Bir-r-r-rdman!", soared into action with his 
eagle cohort Avenger. (Birdman, like Space Ghost, 
got a droll facelift in 2001 in Cartoon Network's 
Adult Swim program package as Harvey Birdman, 
Attorney at Law.) Also appearing in the show was 
The Galaxy Trio, about a mundane team of titans 
consisting of Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Galaxy 
Girl. A more fascinating supergroup was adapted 
from Marvel Comics to ABC that year by Hanna-Bar- 
bera in The Fantastic Four, a fondly remembered 
animated series that borrowed heavily from the 
Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comics for its adventures of 
Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Thing, and the 
Human Torch. 

By 1968, superheroes were falling out of 
vogue. While Batman and Robin twice guest starred 
with — of all characters — Scooby-Doo in the first 
season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies 
(1972-1974), Hanna-Barbera didn't produce a 
superhero program again until 1973 — and this time 
they struck gold. Super Friends, a kid-friendly ver- 
sion of DC Comics' Justice League of America, 



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Harvey Heroes 



began on ABC in September 1973, starring Super- 
man, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aqua- 
man, with their "junior Super Friends" teenagers 
Wendy and Marvin (with Wonder Dog!), later 
replaced by the shapeshifting alien teens the Won- 
der Twins (with the monkey Gleek!). In a variety of 
incarnations, Super Friends continued well into the 
mid-1980s. 

The success of Super Friends prompted 
Hanna-Barbera to try its hand at original super- 
heroes again with Hong Kong Phooey (1974-1976), 
a kung-fu superhero canine. Their next effort: Dyno- 
mutt, Dog Wonder, which began a successful run in 
1976. Dynomutt was a laughably clumsy robot with 
extending paws hero who, along with the no-non- 
sense, square-jawed Blue Falcon, tackled evildoers 
in Big City. Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels 
(1977) featured a mumbling, diminutive (and very 
hairy) stone-age superhero released (by teenage 
Charlie's Angels clones) into the present after a 
lengthy deep freeze. Captain Caveman (voiced by 
Mel Blanc, of Bugs Bunny fame) flew into action 
with a club like Mightor's and a deafening battle 
shriek ("Captain Ca-a-a-avema-a-a-an!") before being 
shuttled off his own series into supporting-cast sta- 
tus in The Flintstones Comedy Show (1980) and its 
offshoots. After appearing in their own Hanna-Bar- 
bera cartoon program from 1970-1973, basketball 
stars the Harlem Globetrotters got superpowers in 
the short-lived The Super Globetrotters (1979). 

Many of Hanna-Barbera's heroes have enjoyed 
exposure beyond their television roots. Space 
Ghost (in his original form and his Coast to Coast 
revamp) has materialized over the decades into 
comic books from several publishers, and Gold 
Key's Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes anthology 
(1967-1969) spotlighted not only the Ghost but 
also the Herculoids and several other characters. 
Space Ghost, Frankenstein Jr., and Shazzan each 
starred in Big Little Books, and most of the compa- 
ny's superheroes were merchandized in some fash- 
ion during the 1960s, from Give-a-Show projector 
slides to Whitman Publishing Company coloring 



books to perhaps the most unusual Hanna-Barbera 
collectible, the box of Space Ghost and Franken- 
stein Jr. "Bubble Club" bubble bath soap from 
Purex. Since the late 1990s, Space Ghost Coast to 
Coast pins, T-shirts, and coffee mugs have been 
available, as licensing and merchandising have 
become synonymous with successful animated 
properties. In the early twenty-first century, action- 
figure lines have immortalized Space Ghost and his 
villains; Blue Falcon and Dynomutt; and Birdman. 
Upscale coldcast porcelain sculptures of Space 
Ghost and "Harvey" Birdman were also released in 
2002 and 2003. 

Since the 1980s, reruns of the original car- 
toons starring Hanna-Barbera's heroes have 
appeared on television in syndicated anthology 
shows and on cable's Cartoon Network and 
Boomerang. With this recurring airplay, it is 
inevitable that these superheroes will maintain a 
long-lasting berth in pop culture. — ME 

tiaxvey Heroes 

To solely consider Harvey Comics as the home of 
Casper and Richie Rich is to undervalue a signifi- 
cant publishing and entertainment empire whose 
benchmarks far exceed friendly ghosts and poor lit- 
tle rich boys. 

Alfred Harvey — born Alfred Harvey Wiernikoff, 
later changing his surname to his middle name, 
with his parents, his brother Leon, and lastly, his 
brother Robert following suit — made his first profes- 
sional sale as a cartoonist in 1927. He was soon 
taken under the wing of publisher Victor Fox, and by 
the end of the 1930s had risen to Fox Features 
Syndicate's managing editor position, working with 
Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and other luminaries, as well 
as journeymen galore, in the early days of American 
comic books. 

Harvey branched out on his own in 1940, 
establishing Alfred Harvey Publications. Pocket 



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Harvey Heroes 



Comics #1, a one-hundred-page, digest-sized peri- 
odical, was Harvey's initial effort, seeing print in 
1941, with Fun Parade, a cartoon compilation, 
becoming the company's second title. Pocket was 
the home of Harvey's first superhero hit, the Black 
Cat. Secretly actress Linda Turner, the Black Cat — 
"Hollywood's Glamorous Detective Star" — turned 
heads as one of the first superheroines to grace 
this burgeoning entertainment medium. Black Cat 
was too big a star to be tucked away in Harvey's 
Pocket: She soon was awarded her own title, a rarity 
for female characters of comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954), with story and art contributions by Al 
Gabrielle (the character's creator), Pierce Rice, Joe 
Kubert, and Lee Elias, among others. 

Harvey's twin brother, Leon, became his partner 
in 1942 when Alfred served a military stint. The 
company purchased Speed Comics from Brookwood 
Publications. Speed was the home of two rather 
generic superheroes: Shock Gibson (a.k.a. the 
"Human Dynamo") and Captain Freedom. Shock, 
first seen in Speed Comics #1 (1939), was actually 
Robert Gibson, a wealthy tinker who stumbles 
across a means of "humanizing" electricity. Firing 
electrical bolts from his hands, Shock Gibson wards 
off Japanese invaders and clobbers bad guys as 
"America's champion of liberty and justice." Captain 
Freedom, a star-spangled stalwart, followed patriotic 
heroes like the Shield and Captain America by crack- 
ling into print in Speed #16 (1941). Behind his red- 
white-and-blue garb was Don Wright, a newspaper 
publisher, who dons his guise to charge to the aid of 
a kid gang known as the Young Defenders. 

Another early Harvey series was Champion 
Comics, later Champ Comics, an anthology that ran 
through the early 1940s and featured costumed 
and noncostumed heroes including the Champ, 
Duke O'Dowell, Neptina, the Liberty Lads, Jungle- 
man, the Human Meteor, and Doctor Miracle, Mas- 
ter of Magic. Harvey also published Spitfire Comics 
in 1941, starring the headlining hero, Spitfire, and 
other uniformed fighters like the Clown and Fly-Man. 
Black Cat and, arguably, Shock Gibson aside, Har- 



vey's early superhero comics were rather pedestri- 
an, as were most titles of the era, and no charac- 
ters attracted much of an audience. 

In 1942, Harvey acquired publication rights to 
the radio hero The Green Hornet (comic books star- 
ring the Hornet had previously been produced by a 
company called Holyoke). This licensed property 
inaugurated a trend for Harvey: Throughout the 
1940s, the publisher released titles based on a 
host of concepts from newspaper strips, including 
Joe Palooka, Blondie, Terry and the Pirates, Dick 
Tracy, Steve Canyon, and Li'l Abner. Most of these 
titles sold solidly, anchoring Harvey with profitable 
product in the superhero bust that followed World 
War II. Simon and Kirby, undeterred by this postwar 
attrition of caped crusaders, created another super- 
hero comic for the publisher in 1946: Stuntman, 
the "New Champ of Split-Second Action," a male 
counterpart to Black Cat. Stuntman was retired 
after three issues. 

Throughout much of the 1940s, Harvey was 
known in print as Family Comics, a reference to its 
innocent subject matter and, quite possibly, a nod 
to its familial business union. By the end of the 
decade, another brother, Robert, became a partner 
in the business. (Joked authors Steve Duin and 
Mike Richardson in their 1998 historical tome, 
Comics: Between the Panels, "Everything's relative. 
Or — as was the case at Harvey — everyone is.") 
Some historical sources have credited Alfred, Leon, 
and Robert as collectively launching Harvey Comics, 
but, in a September 2000 letter to Animation World 
Magazine, heir Alan Harvey wrote, "Harvey was NOT 
'founded in 1939 in New York City as a comic book 
company by brothers Alfred, Leon, and Robert Har- 
vey,' as your article states. Harvey was founded in 
1940 by Alfred Harvey as 'Alfred Harvey Publica- 
tions.'" The company was dubbed Harvey Publica- 
tions in 1946, and within a few years bore Harvey 
Comics logos on its covers. 

In the 1950s, Harvey Comics continued to pro- 
duce licensed titles based on newspaper strips, but 
temporarily veered from its wholesome publishing 



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Speed Comics #40 © 1945 Harvey Comics. 

COVER ART BY RUDY PALAIS. 



image by releasing five horror titles, one of which, 
Black Cat Mystery, bumped the book's former star- 
ring superheroine into limbo. Historians Duin and 
Richardson noted that Harvey's horror output 
exceeded the industry's titan of terror titles, EC 
Comics: "Between 1951 and 1954, Harvey pub- 
lished 96 horror comics, five more than EC." It was 
in the 1950s, however, that Harvey defined itself, by 
obtaining the publication rights for a handful of ani- 
mated series which it later purchased as its own: 
Casper the Friendly Ghost, Little Dot, Baby Huey, 
Wendy the Good Little Witch, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, 
and others. Harvey brought those characters to TV 
animation in the 1960s, and in the 1990s and 
2000s to live-action theatrical films, made-for-TV 
movies, and direct-to-video movies. 



Always willing to experiment with popular 
trends, Harvey continued to irregularly produce a 
smattering of superheroes. To capitalize on the 
3-D movie craze of the 1950s, Harvey published 
Captain 3-D #1 in December 1953. This rather 
nondescript superhero had the good fortune of 
being illustrated by Kirby and Steve Ditko (Ditko 
would, in 1962, become famous as the artist of 
The Amazing Spider-Man). Kirby's former partner 
Joe Simon, at one juncture during his long career, 
worked as a Harvey editor. When the live-action 
Batman television show (1966-1968) ignited a 
superhero explosion, Simon released such short- 
lived features as Jigsaw (the "Man of a Thousand 
Parts"), Spyman (the hero who employed an 
"electro-robot hand"), Unearthly Spectaculars (an 
anthology starring the ice-inducing Jack Q. Frost, 
dubbed "The Coolest Hero in Comics," and Tiger 
Boy, a teen who could morph into a tiger — while 
maintaining his human head!), and Thrill-O-Rama. 
The latter series premiered with a Mandrake the 
Magician clone, "The Man in Black Called Fate," 
then introduced an Aquaman-like hero named 
Pirana (the "Deadliest Creature in All the 
World"). Also during this period, Harvey pub- 
lished two issues of Will Eisner's The Spirit, and 
a one-issue reprint of Simon and Kirby's 1950s 
cold-war superhero satire Fighting American. The 
publisher concluded the decade with its oddest 
superhero effort, a one-shot starring a superpow- 
ered grocer: Fruitman (the "World's Peachiest, 
Berry Grapest Superhero"). 

Ultimately existing exclusively on its kid-friendly 
cartoon characters, Harvey Comics closed its doors 
in 1982, but reopened shop in 1986 with Alan Har- 
vey at the helm. The company was sold to an out- 
side party in 1989, and focused more on mass- 
media (mostly film) exposure of the characters, per- 
manently discontinuing its comics line in 1994. The 
classic Harvey characters are, as of 2004, repre- 
sented by Classic Media, with the exceptions of 
Sad Sack and the Black Cat, who are owned and 
occasionally published by Alan Harvey. — ME 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



**9 



The Hawk and the Dove 



IheHawk 
and the Owe 

The Hawk and the Dove could only have sprung 
from the tumult of the late 1960s, and the pair 
encapsulated the conflicting ideologies Americans 
felt about the Vietnam War. The strip was the brain- 
child of the great comics maverick Steve Ditko, who 
dreamed up the concept of an aggressive super- 
hero (the Hawk) teamed with a pacifist partner (the 
Dove). Ditko both plotted and drew the feature's 
first appearance in Showcase #75 (in 1968) but DC 
Comics paired him with writer Steve Skeates, who 
dialogued the strip. The first story introduced read- 
ers to brothers Hank and Don Hall, students during 
the time of the Vietnam War, who are transformed 
into a pair of superheroes by a voice in their heads 
(later revealed to be the Forces of Order — whoever 
they might be), the twist being that, while 
Hank/Hawk is more than happy to weigh in with 
both fists flying, Don/Dove refuses to fight. 

In a delicious irony, the Hawk and the Dove 
conflict was mirrored by the strip's creative team. 
Staunch conservative Ditko plotted the stories with 
the idea that the Dove was essentially a useless 
weakling, while arch-liberal Skeates sympathized 
with pacifism and effectively rewrote the tales to 
favor the Dove. The feature was a hit in Showcase, 
and five months later was given its own title, aptly 
called The Hawk and the Dove. However, Ditko quit 
after two issues, unhappy with the direction the 
comic was taking. The dilemma of what to do with a 
superhero who will not fight eventually came to a 
head when Ditko's successor, Gil Kane, finally 
bowed to the inevitable and had the Dove batter 
some hoods into submission, mistakenly believing 
them to have killed his brother. Despite this, the 
public seemed unsure of what to make of the team 
and the comic was canceled with its sixth issue (in 
mid-1969), but editor Dick Giordano believed in the 
concept and took the heroes over to another of his 



titles, the Teen Titans. After five issues as team 
members, the Hawk and the Dove were cast aside 
by an incoming editor and fell into obscurity. 

With the exception of a brief return to the Teen 
Titans in 1978, the duo's next significant appear- 
ance was in DC Comics' house-clearing exercise 
Crisis on Infinite Earths. Among the various heroes 
killed off in this miniseries was, inevitably, that 
perennial whipping boy, the Dove — crushed by a 
falling wall. Surprisingly, the Dove's death seemed 
to remind DC that it had a good concept going to 
waste and so, soon after, the husband-and-wife 
team of Karl and Barbara Kesel revived the strip 
with a five-issue miniseries in 1988. It seems that 
the ever-vigilant Forces of Order had noticed the 
Dove's demise and promptly gave his powers to a 
new hero, this time a girl: young student Dawn 
Granger. After his brother's death, the ever-volatile 
Hawk had become more violent than ever, but even- 
tually he accepted the new Dove, who in any case 
was a bit more proactive than the original had been. 

The miniseries contrasted crunchingly violent 
action with some zippy dialogue, and led to a regular 
series in 1989, but the fates were against it. DC had 
plans for a title called Armageddon 2001, which was 
to involve Captain Atom turning bad and becoming a 
villain called Monarch, but at the last minute word got 
out to howls of fan protest and, in their search for a 
replacement, the publishers settled on the Hawk. As 
Monarch, the Hawk was supposed to have killed just 
about all of DCs heroes, but a character called 
Waverider traveled back from the future to stop him in 
the nick of time. Perhaps inevitably, Armageddon 
2001 was followed by yet another earth-shattering 
miniseries in 1994: Zero Hour. Once again, the 
Hawk/Monarch was back, this time as the even more 
villainous Extant. In the ensuing battle, Extant killed or 
maimed various members of the Justice Society in a 
manner that would surely have horrified his creators. 

Never a company to abandon a concept for 
good, DC revived the The Hawk and the Dove title 
once more in 1997 for a five-issue run with a com- 
pletely different duo. Once again, the Forces of 



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Hawkeye 



Order bestowed their powers on two young people, 
but this time the genders were reversed, with the 
Hawk being army cadet Sasha Marten and the Dove 
a laid-back rock musician called Wiley Wolverton. 
Another new twist was that, on shouting out the 
name "Hawk" or "Dove" (the traditional method 
used by previous Hawks and Doves to transform 
themselves), the pair sprouted wings and devel- 
oped piercing shrieks. The inevitable personality 
clashes were tempered by a growing romance, but 
the amiable strip did not lead to any further starring 
appearances from this unique superhero team 
(though a version of Dove has been seen in the Jus- 
tice Society of America book JSA, and in early 2004 
fandom buzzed with the possibility of the duo's 
return in some form to Teen Titans). — DAR 



Hawkeye 



After a short career as a supervillain, Clint Barton, 
alias Hawkeye the Archer, has been a nearly con- 
stant fixture in the Marvel Comics firmament. His 
first appearance was in the Iron Man strip in Tales of 
Suspense #57 (1964), which relates how he leaves 
a successful career as a circus archer for the newly 
fashionable occupation of superhero. Stumbling 
across a jewelry heist, he is mistakenly taken by the 
police to be the gang's ringleader. Embittered by the 
experience, he turns to crime, spurred on by the 
deadly Russian spy, the Black Widow. Following sev- 
eral attacks on Iron Man, he sees the error of his 
ways when the Black Widow is seriously injured by 
her communist masters. As luck would have it, the 
Avengers are advertising for new members, and he 
is duly welcomed into the team. And so began Hawk- 
eye's decades-long association with this superteam. 

With his troubled background as an orphan, 
brought into the circus by the treacherous Swords- 
man, Hawkeye was something of a rough diamond, 
initially hot-headed, arrogant, and prone to wise- 
cracking. Inevitably, readers took him to their hearts, 
and he was one of the Avengers' most steadfast 



members for a good ten years. While not physically 
as imposing as his colleagues, he possessed a per- 
fect aim and, with his seemingly inexhaustible supply 
of trick arrows (acid spray, power blast, suction, deaf- 
ener, flare, knock-out gas), he made a valuable contri- 
bution to the group. However, throughout the 1960s, 
the ever-present Black Widow (whom he gradually 
convinced to defect) was a regular presence in the 
comic and on his mind. At the end of that decade, in 
order to rescue his beloved, Hawkeye took a swig of 
growth serum and became the giant-sized Goliath, a 
role he kept for the next several years. 

The next Hawkeye to hit the comics scene was a 
villain from an alternate Earth and a member of the 
Squadron Supreme (Avengers #85), a kind of anti- 
Avengers based satirically on DC Comics' Justice 
League; this Hawkeye later became known as Golden 
Archer. Despite his own formidable abilities, Clint Bar- 
ton/Goliath was always vulnerable to a sudden loss 
of growth serum, and when that finally happened dur- 
ing the renowned Kree-Skrull War (in 1971), he found 
that his old skills as an archer had not deserted him. 
Although he was briefly happy as Hawkeye once 
more, the ensuing decade (and indeed his subse- 
quent superhero career) was a restless one, which 
saw him leave, rejoin, and leave the team again. Dur- 
ing his various absences from the Avengers, Hawk- 
eye joined the Defenders, briefly adopted the Golden 
Archer's name to pose as a villain and coax a disillu- 
sioned Watergate-era Captain America out of retire- 
ment, and rode off into the West with the time-dis- 
placed cowboy hero the Two-Gun Kid. 

In the late 1970s, following yet another stint 
with the Avengers, he was rejected by a government- 
appointed advisor and quit superheroing in disgust, 
ending up as chief of security at Cross Technologies. 
This period is later described in Hawkeye's first solo 
outing (in a 1983 miniseries), which was followed by 
starring roles in Solo Avengers and Avengers Spot- 
light. Inevitably, Cross Technologies turned out to be 
a front for organized crime, but during the ensuing 
ruckus Hawkeye fell in love with and married the 
reformed criminal Mockingbird. Together, the pair 



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Hawkman 



recruited their own team, the West Coast Avengers 
(featuring Iron Man, Tigra, and Wonder Man), which 
contributed to making the 1980s probably Hawk- 
eye's finest hour commercially. 

Perhaps reasoning that nothing breeds apathy 
more than contentment, Marvel then decided to 
wreck poor old Hawkeye's life. The West Coast 
Avengers began to fall apart and his beloved Mock- 
ingbird was killed by the evil demon Mephisto (an 
uneven contest if ever there was one). The rest of 
the group split off to form the Force Works, while 
Hawkeye retreated to the wilderness to indulge in 
some serious brooding. Feeling the need for human 
company, he drifted back to the Avengers before 
becoming restless once more and deciding to throw 
in his lot with Marvel's newest team, the Thunder- 
bolts. This was one of the surprise hits of the 
1990s, and its premise of a group entirely made up 
of masquerading ex-criminals was clearly as innova- 
tive and tempting to an ex-baddie like Hawkeye as it 
was to its many fans. In 1998, his second solo 
comic hit the stands, but by 2003 the Thunderbolts 
concept was in trouble and the title was radically 
reworked into a supervillain equivalent of David 
Fincher's film Fight Club (1999). Hawkeye was out 
of a job once more, though yet another solo series 
(and Avengers slot) were ongoing as of early 2004. 

In an age where the cosmic is commonplace, 
the notion of a hero armed with nothing but a bow 
and arrow is almost impossibly quaint, but at the 
same time rather refreshing. Hawkeye's combative 
persona may have been a blueprint for generations 
of dysfunctional anti-heroes, but his essential hon- 
esty and charisma will doubtless inspire future writ- 
ers and readers. — DAR 

Hawkgirl: See Hawkman 

Hawkman 

A regular fixture in the DC Comics universe since 
his inception in 1940, Hawkman has gone through 



many changes over the years. The original Hawk- 
man first appeared as a backup feature in Flash 
Comics #1 but soon graduated to cover status, 
alternating with the comic's other star, the Flash. 
Hawkman was wealthy amateur archaeologist 
Carter Hall, who discovers that he is in fact the rein- 
carnation of Prince Khufu, one half of a pair of leg- 
endary ancient Egyptian lovers. Searching out his 
long-lost love, he comes upon Shiera Saunders; 
their meeting reactivates their memories of the 
past. As a result, Hall rediscovers the secret of the 
"ninth metal," which he uses to make an antigravity 
belt, and then dons a shirtless costume with 
hawk's-head mask and giant, feathered wings. 
Saunders is aware of Hall's secret identity from the 
beginning but has to wait two years before joining 
her beau (and future husband) as Hawkgirl. Need- 
less to say, she wears a shirt. 

The feature was created by the prolific writer 
Gardner Fox, with art initially by Dennis Neville. The 
latter was soon replaced by Sheldon Moldoff and 
subsequently, after World War II, by the teenage 
prodigy Joe Kubert. It is often said that the charac- 
ter was inspired by a race of Hawkmen prominently 
featured in the Flash Gordon newspaper strip; true 
or not, the Hawkman feature proved to be quite a 
hit in its own right. Hawkman was soon one of the 
founding members of the Justice Society, later 
becoming its chairman, and was the only hero to 
star in all 57 issues of All Star Comics, as well as 
appearing in more than 100 issues of Flash 
Comics. While the concept and artwork were 
strong, critics have noted that the feature lacked 
depth and had only a few memorable villains, such 
as the Human Fly Bandits and the Ghost. 

Along with many other DC heroes, the original 
Hawkman last appeared in 1951 and had to wait 
ten years before being revived as part of the com- 
pany's Silver Age (1956-1969) explosion. The new 
Hawkman was showcased in six issues of The 
Brave and the Bold in very impressive tales by the 
old team of Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert. After a 
series of backups in Mystery in Space, Hawkman 



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Hawkman 



was finally granted his own comic in 1964, though 
Kubert was then replaced by the elegant Murphy 
Anderson. As with so many other DC heroes, this 
new Hawkman was based in science; he was Katar 
Hoi who, along with his wife, Shayera, was a police- 
man from the planet Thanagar, hot on the trail of 
shape-changing villain Byth. Once on Earth, the pair 
decided to stay in Midway City, ostensibly to study 
local police techniques, and they soon settled down 
to day jobs as museum curators, in between crime- 
fighting capers as Hawkman and Hawkgirl. 

Like their 1940s predecessors, this pair flew 
with the help of antigravity belts but differed in 
being able to talk to birds and in their predilection 
for ancient weapons, such as bows and arrows, bor- 
rowed from the museum. They soon amassed a col- 
orful array of foes, such as the Shadow Thief, the IQ 
Gang, Matter-Master, the Crocodile People, and 
winged gorillas. However, unlike Marvel Comics' 
more three-dimensional heroes, Hoi and Shayera 
were a rather colorless, resolutely middle-class, 
middle-aged couple (not at all "alien"), and when 
Anderson left the comic it soon ran into trouble, 
ending with issue #27 in 1968. Hawkman joined 
the Justice League of America in the mid-1960s 
and was a staple of the team for ten years, but he 
had to be satisfied with backup slots in various DC 
comics (and a couple of Showcase issues) through- 
out the 1970s. 

From the mid-1980s on, DC Comics decided 
that, come what may, there should be a Hawkman 
comic out there, resulting in seven completely dif- 
ferent revivals. At various points in the 1980s and 
1990s, the publisher has tried to simplify the 
increasingly long and complex history of its main 
stars, often resulting in sheer confusion for their 
readers, and nowhere has this been more true than 
in the case of Hawkman. Following two revivals that 
pitted the Hawks against an imperialist Thanagar 
bent on invading Earth, a third title — Hawkworld— 
introduced a different Katar Hoi, dressed in a sort 
of body armour. The success of this miniseries led 
to a regular title in the 1990s that saw the new 




The Brave and the Bold #36 © 1961 DC Comics. 

Katar and Shayera Hoi travel to Earth as escorts to 
the Thanagarian ambassador; they were soon 
exiled as traitors. 

DC initially intended this Hawkman to super- 
sede the two earlier (revived) versions — which read- 
ers were meant to ignore — but soon enough the 
previous, Silver Age version was back on the scene, 
rewritten as an impostor. Fans of the hitherto noble 
and upright Hawkman 2 had a hard time accepting 
him as a treacherous spy, and recent writers have 
tried to forget that unfortunate plot twist. The most 
recent version of Hawkman follows on from DCs 
Zero Hour series, where all previous incarnations 
are somehow merged together; the new Carter Hall 
is once more a reincarnation of Prince Khufu, while 



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**s 



Hellboy 



his partner Kendra Saunders is somehow a reincar- 
nation of Shiera. However much DC has tested the 
patience of its readers, the elegance and simplicity 
of a superhero with wings should continue to entice 
readers of succeeding generations. — DAR 



Hellboy 



One of the surprise hits of the 1990s, Hellboy mixed 
horror, superheroics, and the darkest of humor, 
spawning a mini-merchandising industry in its wake. 
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, creator Mike 
Mignola was something of a journeyman artist, flit- 
ting from title to title and slowly evolving an increas- 
ingly dark and expressive style. The emergence of 
Image Comics prompted Mignola, Art Adams, Frank 
Miller, and other artists to set up their own imprint, 
Legend, but not wanting to self-publish, they 
arranged for Dark Horse to become their distributor 
while they retained ownership of their characters 
and their imprint. Remembering a sketch he had 
drawn in 1991 of a striking-looking character that he 
called Hellboy, Mignola developed the concept fur- 
ther, and by 1993 he was ready to be unleashed. 

Hellboy was first introduced to fans at the 
1993 San Diego Comic-Con, in a section of a Dark 
Horse giveaway comic (aptly called San Diego Con 
Comics), and was exposed to a wider audience 
through a guest shot in John Byrne's Next Men title 
later that year. Hooking up with Byrne as scripter, 
Mignola brought out the first Hellboy comic proper 
in early 1994, and such was its success that the 
four-issue miniseries, Hellboy: Seeds of Destruc- 
tion, has been in print ever since. 

Hellboy is a large, muscular, red-skinned 
apparition, half man and half demon, with a tail, 
horns (which he regularly saws off), and a gigantic, 
iron-gloved right hand. Much of his background has 
been left deliberately obscure, but it has been 
revealed that, during World War II, he was sum- 
moned to Earth — as a child — by a cabal of Nazi 




Hellboy #1 ™ & © 1994 Michael Mignola. 

COVER ART BY MIKE MIGNOLA. 



necromancers, in a ceremony that was broken up by 
allied troops and mystics. Adopted by a British para- 
psychologist, who was killed in the first story, Hell- 
boy grew up to be a force for good, and his constant 
battle against his demonic heritage has been very 
much a feature of the series. 

As the comic has progressed, more details of 
his past have slipped out, including the revelation 
that he was born to a human mother in hell, and that 
he is apparently the harbinger of the Apocalypse; this 
he was not happy to hear. For decades, Hellboy has 
apparently been a member of an international group 
of investigators, the Bureau for Paranormal Research 
and Defense (BPRD), which sends its investigators 



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Hellboy 




From Hellboy #1 ™ & © 1994 Michael Mignola. 



around the world to research the unknown and the 
terrifying. Like so many heroes of the 1990s, Hellboy 
breaks the tradition of the classic superhero, in that 
he has no alter ego, supercostume, or superheroic 
trademarks — save for incredible strength, which he 
metes out on unsuspecting criminals and villains. 

The first story, spread over four issues, set the 
tone for the succeeding tales with its collection of 
monsters, haunted houses, evil magicians (in this 



case Rasputin), Nazis, and the threat of world 
destruction. This and other stories co-starred Hell- 
boy's fellow BPRD members, most notably the pyro- 
kinetic Liz Sherman, Roger the Friendly Homuncu- 
lus, and Abe Sapien, a scaled amphibian who was 
originally placed in suspended animation by fright- 
ened townsfolk in the nineteenth century. Other 
episodes have featured werewolves, pig-men, 
harpies, gorgons, ghosts, giant rats, demons, 



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Heroes for Hire 



homunculi (man-made monsters, a la Frankenstein), 
world-destroying worms, and Nazis by the score. In 
fact, most of the Hellboy tales appear to involve left- 
over Nazis of some description or another, whether 
it be Nazi corpses returning from space, disembod- 
ied Nazi heads floating around, vampire Nazis, or an 
endless supply of deformed Nazi scientists. As 
outre as some of the material is, however, Mignola's 
mordant humor and taste for the absurd always 
make it eminently readable. 

Mignola has released his tales sparingly in a 
succession of miniseries, collections, and one- 
shots, in yarns ranging from a few pages to the epic 
1996 five-issue "Wake the Devil" story. As of 2004, 
more than twenty issues of the comic have 
appeared, all of which have been collected in book 
form, and they have proved to be consistent sellers. 
In the process of writing the comic solo since 
1995, Mignola has grown as a writer and artist, 
constantly paring his dialogue and art down to a 
striking minimalism. His Hellboy style is a mass of 
dark, menacing shapes, with figures rendered in an 
almost abstract way, and it has inspired many 
artists in its wake. Mignola always saw the series 
as an opportunity to combine his two great loves: 
the atmospheric horror milieu, full of menacing 
creatures, crumbling castles, and bleak locales, and 
the power and excitement of superhero comics. An 
avowed fan of legendary artist Jack Kirby, Mignola 
fills his strips with enormously muscular beasts 
engaging Hellboy in vast fight scenes, often reduc- 
ing all around them to rubble. 

The comic's success has led to all manner of 
tie-ins, crossovers, and merchandise, almost from 
its inception. Crossovers have included miniseries 
with Ghost, Batman, Starman, Savage Dragon, and 
the little-known Pain Killer Jane. Spin-off titles have 
ranged from several BPRD series to an Abe Sapien 
one-shot and Hellboy Junior. In addition, noted hor- 
ror writer Christopher Golden has taken the hero in 
a new direction with a series of prose novels, illus- 
trated by Mignola: Hellboy: The Lost Army; Hellboy: 
Odd Jobs; and Hellboy: Bones of Giants. As if all 



that were not enough, a bewildering amount of mer- 
chandise has tempted the devoted fan, including 
Hellboy caps, prints, games, lighters, calendars, 
watches, lunch boxes, figures, statues, and tum- 
blers. Even so, this is nothing compared to the 
deluge of tie-ins that accompanied the keenly antici- 
pated Hellboy movie. This live-action feature film, 
whose screenplay was co-written by Mignola, was 
released in April 2004. Directed by Guillermo del 
Toro, the film stars Ron Perlman. 

Since its inception, Hellboy has consistently 
been one of the most influential and finely crafted 
titles in the shops, and Mignola is still very much at 
the peak of his powers. His graphic style has already 
influenced one major movie: Disney's Atlantis the 
Lost Empire (2001) was clearly created in the image 
of his strips, Mignola himself consulting on the film's 
overall design and background settings. With the 
arrival of the Hellboy movie, Mignola's influence in 
both the comic-book world and American popular cul- 
ture will undoubtedly grow. — DAR 

Heroes for Hive 

A revival, continuation, and expansion of the "mer- 
cenary superhero" concept that Marvel Comics orig- 
inated in 1972 with its Luke Cage: Hero for Hire 
comic, Marvel's latter-day Heroes for Hire series 
began its brief run a quarter-century later. Written 
by veteran comic-book fabulist John Ostrander (with 
the collaboration of the equally august Roger Stern 
on the premiere issue) with pencils by Paschalis 
Ferry, Scott Kolins, Martin Egeland, and Mary 
Mitchell, Heroes for Hire reunited Marvel's first 
"professional" superhero Power Man (Luke Cage) 
with his 1970s and 1980s crime-fighting partner, 
the martial arts expert and "living weapon" known 
as Iron Fist (Danny Rand). In the fondly recalled 
pages of Power Man and Iron Fist (1978-1986), 
this pair of mismatched yet complementary heroes 
had founded Heroes for Hire, Inc., which allowed 
the duo and associates such as the Daughters of 



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the Dragon (female martial-arts adventurers Misty 
Knight and Colleen Wing) to make a living by selling 
(or as often by donating) their unique skills as body- 
guards, detectives, and superpowered fighters. 

Just as Marvel's editorial staff and publishing 
program had grown exponentially since the pre- 
miere of the original Luke Cage title, the superteam 
assembled by Stern and Ostrander for Heroes for 
Hire expanded greatly as well, bringing aboard the 
Hulk, Hercules (now no longer an immortal), Ant 
Man (Scott Lang), the Black Knight (Dane Whitman), 
and the White Tiger (another martial arts hero). As 
in its predecessor series, Heroes for Hire dealt with 
the conflict between doing good and doing well — 
the tension that inevitably arises between being 
heroic for ethical reasons and the need to keep pay- 
ing the bills. 

As the series unfolds, a diverse panoply of 
other Marvel characters strut across its stage, rang- 
ing from second-stringers such as the Golden Age 
(1938-1954) Human Torch (who joins the team in 
the second issue); Jane Foster, the human alter ego 
of Thor's old girlfriend (Heroes for Hire #5, 1997); 
Brother Voodoo (issue #13, 1998); She-Hulk (issue 
#17, 1998); Quicksilver (Heroes for Hire/Quicksil- 
ver Annual, 1998); and Shang-Chi, the Master of 
Kung Fu (issues #18-#19, 1998-1999) to such 
certified audience draws as the Punisher (issue #9, 
1998) and the X-Men's Wolverine (issues #18-#19, 
1998-1999). One significant plot thread recounts 
Iron Fist's misguided effort to bring the mystical city 
of K'un-Lun, the place where he was raised and 
trained, to Earth from its native dimension. This 
plan could have devastated the planet, and is finally 
resolved in the four-issue Iron Fist/Wolverine: The 
Return of K'un-Lun miniseries (2000-2001), written 
by Jay Faerber and drawn by Jamal Igle. 

Ultimately, Hero for Hire's revived supersquad- 
for-profit failed to click with comics audiences; the 
series was given its walking papers in 1999 after a 
mere nineteen issues. Though the Marvel universe 
still contains no dearth of wrongs to be righted, the 
agency established by Power Man and Iron Fist still 



has yet to reassemble. But like many real-world 
entrepreneurs, Power Man, Iron Fist, and many in 
their circle of working-stiff superheroes are no 
strangers to the occasional failure, series-cancella- 
tion, or even death; at some point in the future, they 
can be relied upon to bounce back and resume 
righting wrongs for love and money. — MAM 



The Hulk 



During the 1950s, Marvel Comics' publishing pro- 
gram consisted largely of bizarre monsters with 
names like Googam Son of Goom, Rommbu, and 
Fin Fang Foom; the era represents the nadir for the 
marketing of superheroes. But the immediate suc- 
cess of Marvel's Fantastic Four(FF) series (which 
debuted in November 1961) heralded an epochal 
change in the funnybook business, with costumed 
heroes supplanting monsters in much same the 
way mammals began to rule the planet after the 
dinosaurs died out. The FF's creators (scripter-edi- 
tor Stan Lee and plotter-artist Jack Kirby) were keen 
to follow up on their superteam's success, but did 
so in a counterintuitive manner by launching a 
bimonthly series titled The Incredible Hulk, the first 
issue of which bears a May 1962 cover date. The 
Hulk, a misunderstood, superstrong creature 
spawned by atomic science run amok and driven by 
rage, is uniquely transitional between the fading era 
of monsters and the nascent age of superheroes. 

In developing the Hulk, Lee and Kirby drew 
upon three principal sources. One was the Thing, 
the Fantastic Four's monstrous yet heroic strong- 
man. Another was the laboratory-spawned creature 
from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein (or 
perhaps more precisely, the conception of him from 
James Whale's 1931 film version). Robert Louis 
Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde (1886) was the third. "To me," Lee explained, 
"[Frankenstein's] monster was the good guy. We 
always saw that mob of idiots with torches chasing 
Boris Karloff, who played the monster, up and down 



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Shadows & Lightvo\. 1, #3 © 1998 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN BUSCEMA AND CLAUDIO CASTELLINI. 



the hills until he went berserk, remember? He never 
really wanted to hurt anybody. So I figured some 
sort of misunderstood monster would be fun to 
work with." But unlike the Thing, who was a warmly 
regarded member of the Fantastic Four's family, the 
Hulk's unrestrained rage made him a permanent 
outsider, a fearsome creature capable of evoking 
humankind's most atavistic nightmares. 

In the Hulk's premiere appearance (The Incredi- 
ble Hulk [IH] #1), Lee and Kirby introduced the emo- 
tionally repressed nuclear scientist Robert Bruce 
Banner, inventor of the gamma bomb. When teen- 
ager Rick Jones sneaks onto the bomb's test site at 
New Mexico's Desert Base, Banner races into 



harm's way to push him into a protective trench, 
only to absorb a vast quantity of gamma rays when 
the device detonates. The irradiated Banner conse- 
quently begins making nightly transformations into 
a seven-foot, thousand-pound, gray- (later green-) 
skinned monster with virtually limitless strength 
and destructive capability, who embodies the dark- 
est, angriest, and most antisocial aspects of Ban- 
ner's personality. Lee saw the Hulk's ability to 
change back and forth between his human form 
and his (initially quite evil) monstrous aspect as key 
to the character's success. "Why couldn't a mon- 
ster have a secret identity? Never done before, far 
as I knew. At least not in comics. It was wildly suc- 
cessful when Robert Louis Stevenson did it in Dr. 
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." 

The most important members of the series' 
supporting cast are in place from the very begin- 
ning: Air Force General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" 
Ross, who oversees security at Desert Base and 
despises Banner, whom he loudly disparages as a 
gutless "milksop"; Betty Ross, Thunderbolt's mousy 
daughter, who despite being oppressed by her over- 
bearing father is in love with Banner; and Rick 
Jones, the only one (at first) to become aware of 
Banner's dual nature, who repays the tortured sci- 
entist by helping to limit the amount of havoc the 
Hulk can wreak in a world that fears and hates the 
creature. All of these characters were destined to 
endure for decades. 

But the Hulk's first comic-book series was 
somewhat less fortunate; it lasted only six issues 
before being canceled. But audiences were suffi- 
ciently intrigued with the title character to justify his 
continued guest appearances in other Marvel titles. 
During his early visits to the pages of The Fantastic 
four (vol. 1 #12, 1963; vol. 1 #25-#26, 1964) the 
Hulk invariably fights that group's almost-as-strong 
Thing, and also crosses paths with Spider-Man in 
the wall-crawler's own title (The Amazing Spider-Man 
vol. 1 #14, 1964). The Hulk even becomes a charter 
member of another Lee-Kirby superhero team, the 
Avengers (The Avengers vol. 1 #1, 1963), alongside 



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Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp. Not a "team 
player" by nature, the Hulk leaves the inchoate orga- 
nization in the series' second issue. Thanks to read- 
er reaction to his sporadic guest appearances, the 
Hulk garnered a regular feature in Tales to Astonish 
beginning in issue #60 (1964). After sharing the title 
first with Giant-Man and later with the Sub-Mariner, 
the Hulk eventually took over the magazine com- 
pletely. With issue #102 (1968), the title was per- 
manently rechristened The Incredible Hulk. 

The characterization and appearance of the 
Hulk have undergone countless changes since the 
character's inception, and these transformations 
began almost immediately. In his debut appearance 
(though not in most reprints of same), the creature 
has gray skin. "Unfortunately," Lee recalled, "in our 
first issue the printer had trouble keeping the shade 
of gray consistent from page to page. On some 
pages his skin was light gray, on others it was dark 
gray, and on some it looked black. Too confusing. So 
for the next issue I changed his skin color to green, 
a color the printer had less trouble with. Although it 
was done on a whim, it turned out to be a fortuitous 
choice because it gave rise to many memorable 
nicknames for me to employ, such as the Jolly Green 
Giant, 01' Greenskin, the Green Goliath, etc." 

During the Hulk's Lee-Kirby run, the mechanics 
of Banner's metamorphosis into the Hulk — during 
which Banner initially retains his intellect, though 
his personality becomes warped and evil — also 
changed fairly early in the character's history. By 
issue #4 of the first series (November 1962), Jones 
is helping Banner to trigger his transformations by 
means of a focused gamma ray beam, which 
enables the Hulk to fight assorted villains (Tyran- 
nus; General Fang) and invading aliens (Mongu, the 
gladiator from space; the Metal Master) whenever 
the need arises. In late 1960s Tales to Astonish 
stories, Banner begins morphing into the Hulk 
whenever he is roused to extreme anger rather than 
because of the arrival of nightfall. Throughout the 
Hulk's first series, his speech contains none of the 
dumbed-down "Hulk Smash!" locutions that distin- 



guish the character's run in the late 1960s and 
throughout the 1970s. Initially his language has 
more of a blue-collar, almost Archie Bunker-like 
quality (he even calls an attacking soldier a "meat- 
head" in the first series' fifth issue). 

As his post-7a/es to Astonish series pro- 
gressed, the Hulk's secret identity became common 
knowledge, and the Green Goliath was increasingly 
portrayed (by such scribes as Gary Friedrich, Bill 
Everett, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, and such 
illustrators as Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe) as a 
misunderstood, childlike creature of diminished 
intellectual capacity and limited vocabulary (a la 
Lenny from John Steinbeck's 1937 novel Of Mice 
and Men) who turns his prodigious strength to 
mindless destruction most often when hounded by 
foes such as "Thunderbolt" Ross, who frequently 
pits the full fury of the United States military 
against him. And although he is often given to tem- 
per tantrums set off by relatively minor provoca- 
tions, the Hulk can also be peaceful and gentle 
when left alone, a status he enjoys only rarely. This 
characterization strikes a sharp contrast to the 
Hulk's first appearances, in which he appears to be 
evil and remorseless in his desire to attack humani- 
ty; the destruction this middle-period Hulk causes is 
actually more incidental than intentional. Underlying 
the Hulk's rage is a theme of mutual emotional 
repression — with Banner's personality attempting to 
hold the Hulk in check, and vice versa — that per- 
vades the series from its beginning. Countless 
scenes depicting the Hulk methodically pounding 
his way through impregnable walls relentlessly drive 
the emotional-repression metaphor home. 

An artifact of cold war-era nuclear anxieties, 
the gamma rays that created the Hulk also 
spawned some of the Jade Giant's most enduring 
adversaries and allies. Tales to Astonish #90 
(1967) served up foreign spy Emil Blonsky, whose 
exposure to gamma rays transforms him into the 
Abomination, a green-skinned superstrong being 
who resembles a muscle-bound version of the Crea- 
ture from the Black Lagoon. As criminally oriented 



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The Hulk 



as the Hulk is innocent, the Abomination's subse- 
quent slugfests with the Green Goliath are legion. 
IH #115 (1969) introduced uneducated janitor 
Samuel Sterns; thanks to gamma rays, Sterns' 
unrequited desire to be a genius manifested in his 
transformation into the green-skinned, giant- 
brained, would-be world-conqueror known as the 
Leader, another one of the Hulk's long-term foes. 
Psychologist Leonard Samson subsequently tries to 
end Banner's transformations into the Hulk by 
siphoning off some of his body's gamma radiation, 
and uses it to turn himself into a green-haired, 
superstrong being {IH #141, 1971). For many 
years, "Doc" Samson continues studying and psy- 
choanalyzing Banner and the Hulk (whom he is 
sometimes forced to fight) in an unsuccessful effort 
to find a permanent cure for Banner's affliction. 

In one of the most poignant chapters in the life 
of Marvel's misunderstood man-monster, the Hulk 
enters the subatomic world of K'ai (IH #140, 
1971), a realm inhabited by green-skinned 
humanoids who are ruled by the benevolent 
Princess Jarella. Here the Hulk finds not only the 
acceptance he craves (the K'aians regard him as a 
great hero, not a monster), but also the love of 
Jarella. Best of all, he manages to retain the intel- 
lect and emotions of Banner while using the Hulk's 
prodigious strength to protect Jarella and her 
people from various cosmic menaces. This story- 
line, a product of the fertile mind of fantasist Harlan 
Ellison and veteran comics writer Roy Thomas, ends 
with the Hulk/Banner mourning Jarella's death, and 
inspired later Hulk writers — such as John Byrne in 
the 1980s and Peter David in the 1990s— to alter 
the balance between Banner's and the Hulk's per- 
sonalities, often to tremendous dramatic effect. 

With the premiere issue of Marvel Feature 
(December 1971), the Hulk once again tests his 
misanthropic tendencies by joining a superhero 
group, the misfit "non-team" known as the Defend- 



ers. In addition to the Hulk, the group initially con- 
sisted of Doctor Strange and the Sub-Mariner 
(another outsider who has nearly as antagonistic a 
relationship with the rest of humanity as does the 
Hulk). After four issues of Marvel Feature, the 
supergroup moved into its own bimonthly series 
(The Defenders vol. 1 #1, 1972). The Hulk drifted in 
and out of this loose agglomeration of heroes until 
its dissolution in 1986, and returned to the group 
when it reformed years later, in 2001. 

With the Hulk's popularity at its zenith thanks 
to a successful primetime live-action television 
show starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno 
(1978-1982, CBS), in 1980 Lee launched the 
Hulk's first and only major spin-off with The Savage 
She-Hulk (vol. 1, #1), in which Bruce Banner gives a 
transfusion of his gamma-irradiated blood to his 
injured cousin, lawyer Jennifer Walters. For the next 
twenty-five months, Walters was large, green, and 
often angry during her highly derivative adventures. 
The character returned nine years later in a far 
more innovative series titled The Sensational She- 
Hulk (#1, May 1989), in which writer-artist John 
Byrne toyed with traditional comic-book tropes in 
various clever ways, including having the epony- 
mous character break down the "fourth wall" by 
grabbing panel borders and even addressing the 
audience directly. 

During the Hulk's first two decades, all of his 
writers kept Banner and the Hulk essentially sepa- 
rate from one another, at least in a psychological 
sense; no serious, sustained attempt was made to 
explore the deep connections between these two 
personalities. Then, in stories that began running in 
the large-format Rampaging Hulk magazine (January 
1977-June 1981, known simply as The Hulk from 
the tenth issue forward), writer Doug Moench posit- 
ed that Banner suffered from multiple personality 
disorder. Hulk scribes Roger Stern and Peter B. 
Gillis bolstered this theory by contending that the 



Opposite: From Shadows & Light vol. 1, #3 © 1998 Marvel Comics. 



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The Hulk 



Hulk and Banner are entirely different creatures 
who happen to occupy the same body (IH #227 ', 
1978). This take on the Hulk changed radically with 
writer Bill Mantlo's revelation (IH #312, 1985) that 
the Hulk's rage comes not from gamma rays but 
from the beatings that Banner received from his 
alcoholic, abusive father during childhood. After 
Banner's exposure to the gamma bomb, the authori- 
tarian General Ross naturally becomes a lightning 
rod for the scientist's deep well of repressed anger 
toward his father. This development made possible 
some of the most affecting and psychologically 
complex Hulk stories ever penned, and resonated 
well with the larger culture's growing interest in the 
so-called "recovery movement," usually without ven- 
turing too far into maudlin whining or touchy-feely 
New Age excesses. 

One of the highlights of writer-artist John 
Byrne's brief stint on the series (beginning in IH 
#314, 1985) is Banner and the Hulk being split into 
independent entities in two separate bodies, there- 
by shining a new light on the original Lee/Kirby 
Jekyll-and-Hyde concept. Unshackled from Banner's 
emotional restraint, the Hulk becomes a complete 
berserker, more dangerous than ever before. Freed 
of the capricious rages of the Hulk, Banner finally 
marries Betty Ross, despite the attempts of her 
father (who has become demented by his encoun- 
ters with the Hulk) to kill him. But Banner's connu- 
bial bliss is short-lived; Byrne's successor, writer 
Allen Milgrom, quickly placed both the man and the 
monster back into a single body, finishing up 1986 
with a battle royal between the newly reconstituted 
green Hulk and the original gray Hulk. 

The Hulk arguably received his most riveting 
portrayals — and underwent some of his most signif- 
icant changes — during Peter David's lengthy writing 
tenure, which began in IH #328 (February 1987) 
and ended with issue #467 (August 1998). Among 
the many highlights of David's run is Banner's meta- 
morphosis into the gray Hulk who becomes a Las 
Vegas mob enforcer known as Joe Fixit, a latter-day 
Mr. Hyde in an Armani suit. This persona combines 



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Banner's intelligence with the Hulk's strength, while 
freeing Banner from his inhibition against using vio- 
lence and trickery, the main tools of the gangster's 
trade. David (working with such artists as Todd 
McFarlane, John Ridgway, and Dale McKeown) built 
upon Mantlo's multiple-personality concept by 
exploring three distinct personalities: Banner, who 
despite his emotional scars is capable of experienc- 
ing a loving relationship with Betty; the intelligent, 
scheming gray Hulk, who represses all of his "soft- 
er" emotions; and the raging child represented by 
the traditional green-skinned Hulk. Doc Samson 
even succeeds in integrating these three personali- 
ties into a single being, a sophisticated, intelligent 
superhero — neither a rampaging brute nor a geeky 
scientist — who becomes the leader of a supergroup 
called the Pantheon (/H#400, 1992). David's Hulk 
is also memorable for its clever, incisive dialogue. 

In The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect (two 
issues, December 1992 and January 1993), David 
created a grim postapocalyptic future Earth where 
the Hulk meets the Maestro, his future self— who is 
also the ruler of this dystopian world. Like the 
Leader, the Maestro had used guile and intelligence, 
rather than brute strength, to conquer the human 
race; the Hulk sees the Maestro as a cautionary 
wake-up call, a warning that he might become as 
hateful as his father unless he is very careful. After 
returning to the present, the Hulk becomes increas- 
ingly fearful of becoming the Maestro; consequently, 
when he becomes angry he turns into plain, power- 
less Bruce Banner, whose impotent tantrums sym- 
bolize the Hulk's latest take on emotional repression 
(IH #426, 1995). No longer an emotionally stable 
superhero, the Hulk (with Betty, now his wife, at his 
side) once again becomes a fugitive, hiding out in 
small towns all over America. During this period, 
Betty completes a transformation of her own, evolv- 
ing from a helpless damsel to be rescued, to a 
young bride mourning Banner's miscarried child, to 
an independent, self-actualized woman. Unfortunate- 
ly, at the end of the 1990s she contracts gamma- 
radiation poisoning because of years of close prox- 



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The Hulk in the Media 



imity to Banner and ultimately dies at the gamma- 
mutated hands of the Abomination. 

Although his long-running series concluded with 
issue #474 (March 1999), the Jade Giant returned to 
prominence a month later with a new monthly title 
(Hulk #1), following the creative vision of John Byrne 
for the first seven issues. As the series unfolds (with 
stories from such writers as Paul Jenkins, Fabian 
Nicieza, Sean McKeever, and Christopher Priest, and 
the illustrative talents of John Romita Jr., Kyle Hotz, 
Joe Bennett, and Jon Bogdanove), Banner must con- 
tend with a new incarnation of the Hulk that repre- 
sents his intense guilt over Betty's death. This soon 
leads to the emergence of the "Devil Hulk," a purely 
evil Hulk who tries to use Banner's illness to gain 
control of the scientist's body; subsequently, Banner 
learns that each of his transformations into the Hulk 
creates an entirely new personality, uppingthe ante 
on his multiple personality disorder by a factor of 
thousands. In the 2000s, the series was simplified 
and revitalized again with an ominous, film noir-ish 
treatment by writer Bruce Jones. 

Over more than four decades, Banner and the 
Hulk have received widely varying interpretations as 
each successive creative team reinvents them to suit 
the evolving sensibilities of comics audiences. 
Through all of these nonstop, manifold changes, the 
essential purity of the Hulk's dual nature — the eter- 
nal tension between rationality and emotion, the end- 
less twilight struggle between the id and the super- 
ego — remains archetypally clear and literarily valid. 
The series will certainly continue to grow, develop, 
and fascinate for decades to come. — MAM 

The Hulk 
in the Media 

Four years after his comic-book debut in The Incred- 
ible Hulk#l (1962), the Hulk made his animated pre- 
miere as part of the syndicated daily program for tele- 



vision called The Marvel Super-Heroes. The fall 1966 
series was the work of animators and producers 
Robert Lawrence, Grant Simmons, and Ray Patterson 
under the company name of Grantray-Lawrence. Each 
weekday half-hour episode put the spotlight on a dif- 
ferent hero with a three-part adventure. Captain Amer- 
ica was Monday, The Incredible Hulk was Tuesday, Iron 
Man was Wednesday, Mighty Thorwas Thursday (natu- 
rally), and Sub-Mariner was Friday. 

The Incredible Hulk's theme song was frighten- 
ingly inept, but strangely catchy: "Doc Bruce Ban- 
ner, belted by gamma rays, turned into the Hulk, 
ain't he un-glamorays? Wreckin' the town, with the 
power of a bull, ain't no monster clown, who is as 
lovable ... The ever lovin' Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!" The ani- 
mation was even more inept. Through a process 
called xerography, artwork was transferred directly 
from Marvel comic books onto animation eels. It 
was then given a slight movement by jiggling the eel 
or sliding it across a background. Occasionally, 
blinking eyes or moving hands would give the illu- 
sion of motion. However, because the stories were 
taken directly from issues of The Incredible Hulk 
and Tales to Astonish, the plots and characters 
remained faithful. After one season of production, 
The Marvel Super-Heroes show was canceled, 
though it has shown up in syndication and on the 
video market ever since. 

Hulk's next television appearance was not until 
November 4, 1977. That's the night that CBS 
debuted The Incredible Hulk, a new live-action tele- 
film from producer Kenneth Johnson and Universal. 
A second two-hour pilot film was aired later in 
November, and when ratings came in strongly, a 
series was commissioned. While the pilot was suc- 
cessfully released theatrically overseas, in the Unit- 
ed States the regular television series began on 
March 10, 1978. 

The Incredible Hulk series departed from the 
comics in several ways. The producers felt the name 
"Bruce" sounded too gay, and asked Johnson to 
change it (the "official" story would retroactively 
become that they changed it to avoid the name's 



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Bill Bixby (Dr. David Banner) and Lou Ferrigno (the Hulk) in The Incredible Hulk, 



alliteration); the character became David Banner 
thereafter. The budget would not allow for supervil- 
lains, so Johnson's approach was to have Banner 
and the Hulk deal with more intimate human issues 
and traumas. Popular actor Bill Bixby was cast in the 
title role of Banner, while the young two-time Mr. Uni- 
verse Lou Ferrigno played the Hulk. Ferrigno endured 
hours of makeup for each scene he filmed; in addi- 
tion to his entire body getting painted green, he also 
wore a prosthetic brow and a green wig. The series' 
only other recurring character was Jack Colvin as 



obnoxious reporter Jack McGee, 
whose pursuit of Banner and his 
secret brought him close to the 
Hulk many times. 

The Incredible Hulk was a 
huge hit with audiences, spawn- 
ing several theme park attrac- 
tions at Universal Studios, and 
adding a catchphrase to the Eng- 
lish lexicon: Banner's admonish- 
ment, "Don't make me angry. You 
wouldn't like me when I'm angry." 
Rare for a genre show, Hulk even 
picked up an Emmy Award in 
1979 (Mariette Hartley for Best 
Dramatic Performance). Audi- 
ences identified with the tragic 
Banner and his loneliness, while 
they also enjoyed the super-id 
destructiveness of the Hulk. 

By the fourth season, The 
Incredible Hulk began to become 
formulaic. Everyone knew that 
Banner would end each episode 
walking down the highway, alone, 
so what was the draw for fans to 
tune in the following week? Rat- 
ings began to fall, and Universal 
was also cutting the show's bud- 
get. Production on the series final- 
ly halted in the summer of 1981. 
After five seasons — the last of 
which featured numerous preemptions — The Incredi- 
ble Hulk series left the air on May 12, 1982. Syndica- 
tion and reruns followed, but the "Greenskin Goliath" 
was not off the air in new adventures for long. 

The Hulk had made a 1981 guest appearance 
on the animated NBC series Spider-Man and His 
Amazing Friends. Although the live show was over, 
Marvel Productions put a Hulk animated series on 
the fast-track. On September 18, 1982, The 
Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man 
debuted, as a one-hour series with half-hour seg- 



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merits for its two stars. Stan Lee narrated the 
Hulk's adventures. 

The stories hewed closer to their comic-book 
origins, putting Banner back with the military, and 
involving supporting characters such as Rick Jones, 
Betty Ross, General Thunderbolt Ross, Major Ned 
(in the comics, Glenn) Talbot, and others. Villains 
included Doctor Octopus, Spymaster, the Puppet 
Master, and others who imperiled Gamma Base. 
The eleventh episode, "Enter: She-Hulk," introduced 
Jennifer Walters, Bruce's cousin, as the woman who 
gained Hulk's powers through a blood transfusion 
Q'ust as happened in 1980 in the first issue of Mar- 
vel's comic The Savage She-Hulk). Thirteen 
episodes were produced, and rerun the following 
year when the show changed titles to The Amazing 
Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk. That series 
aired its last on March 31, 1984. 

New World Pictures bought Marvel Comics in 
1986 and wanted to turn its library of superheroes 
into television series and feature films. The best 
way the company felt it could do that was to utilize 
a known quantity as a "backdoor pilot." The cast of 
The Incredible Hulk reunited for a telefilm that aired 
on NBC on May 22, 1988. Titled Return of the 
Incredible Hulk, the show saw the live-action debut 
of Thor (Eric Kramer), the hammer-wielding Norse 
god. Ratings were high, but interest in a Thor series 
didn't go anywhere. 

A second telefilm aired on NBC nearly one year 
later, on April 30, 1989. Trial of the Incredible Hulk 
featured Banner seeking the services of blind 
lawyer Matt Murdock (Rex Smith), who just happens 
to secretly be the superhero Daredevil. Together, 
the two work to bring down Wilson Fisk/Kingpin 
(John Rhyes Davies) and clear Banner's name. Rat- 
ings were solid, but a Daredevil series also failed to 
materialize. 

New World looked into developing further Hulk 
telefilms to introduce She-Hulk, Wolverine, and Iron 
Man, but decided to alter their plans, partially due 
to Bixby and Ferrigno's growing restlessness in their 



roles. A final telefilm was shot, airing on February 
18, 1990. Titled The Death of the Incredible Hulk, 
and directed by Bixby himself, the story found Ban- 
ner close to a cure for his "condition," but the Hulk 
must make the ultimate sacrifice to stop terrorists. 
Reverting to Banner at the end as he dies, his final 
words are, "I'm a free man now." 

Unwilling to fully end the series, New World 
came up with ways to continue the franchise. A tele- 
film script titled "Metamorphosis" would have used 
flashbacks to show how Banner's blood transfusion 
turned a young woman into She-Hulk. But that pro- 
ject lost steam, as did another telefilm, The Rebirth 
of the Incredible Hulk. Bixby's death on November 
21, 1993, meant that any further television reunion 
plans were now impossible. Another She-Hulk pro- 
ject — produced by film director Oliver Stone and 
starring Ms. Olympia bodybuilding champion Cory 
Everson — was scuttled after initial network interest. 

At the Cannes Film Festival in summer 1991, 
New World Pictures offered a fold-out sales sheet 
with photos of actress Brigitte Nielsen painted 
green, announcing that a She-Hulk feature film 
would start filming soon. Carl Gottlieb wrote the 
script and Tamara Asseyez was to produce, but the 
picture was never made. 

The Hulk himself next made a trio of guest 
appearances in animated form: in a third-season 
episode of Fox's X-Men in May 1995; in a second- 
season episode of the syndicated The Fantastic 
Four in November 1995; and in a second-season 
episode of the syndicated Iron Man in February 
1996. These were just a warm-up for an all-new ani- 
mated series. 

The Incredible Hulk debuted on UPN on Sep- 
tember 8, 1996. Bruce Banner was back in action, 
still struggling with his dark/green side as the Hulk 
on Gamma Base, and still searching for a cure. Lou 
Ferrigno returned also, to be the voice of the Hulk, 
while TV and film stars such as Neal McDonough, 
Genie Francis, Luke Perry, Mark Hamill, Kathy Ire- 



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The Hulk in the Media 




A computer-generated Hulk stars in the live-action film The Hulk. 



land, Richard Moll, and Matt Frewer did regular or 
guest voices. 

Comic-book villains such as the Leader, Abomi- 
nation, Wendigo, Doctor Doom, and Gargoyle 
appeared, as did fellow heroes such as Thor, the 
Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, and Sasquatch. But the 
primary guest-star was Banner's cousin Jennifer 
Walters, blood transfused as She-Hulk. Appearing in 
two first-season episodes, She-Hulk was promoted 
to regular co-star with the series' second season, 
and the title was changed to The Incredible Hulk 
and She-Hulk. A total of twenty-one episodes were 
produced in the two seasons. A third season saw 
another title change, to The Incredible Hulk and 
Friends, and a bump to hour-length with the addi- 
tion of rotating reruns of the syndicated Fantastic 
Four and Iron Man episodes. The series was finally 
canceled on September 11, 1999. 



Since the demise of the live-action Incredible 
Hulk series, Universal Studios had put a feature 
film on the development slate. John Turman devel- 
oped the first script in 1994, working on the project 
until 1996. In the late 1990s, Joe Johnston was 
attached to direct, from a script by Jonathan 
Hensleigh, but he stepped aside in 1997. 
Hensleigh was then going to direct the film himself, 
with special effects by Industrial Light & Magic. 
Later, Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski were 
announced as having come aboard to script, and 
actors Gregory Sporleder and Lynn Red Williams 
were signed on to portray villains in the film. Early 
in 1998, Hensleigh departed, and Michael France 
came aboard to script, then Hensleigh came back 
aboard to redraft the project and lower its projected 
$100 million budget. The start date for shooting 
came and went, and the film retreated back into fur- 



f* 



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The Human Torch 



ther development. In 2000, Michael Tolkin, then 
David Hayter, took swings at the script. 

Early in 2001, Academy Award-winning director 
Ang Lee came onboard to direct the Hulk project, 
with both himself and James Schamus working on 
the script. Lee wanted to create a story that 
explored both the psychological origins of the Hulk 
and the scientific aspects. "Scientifically, I am 
doing an academic study on how a cell can expand 
and how a person can become a Hulk," Lee told 
USA Today. With the part of the Hulk to be com- 
pletely realized using computer-generated imagery 
(CGI), casting began on the other leading roles. Aus- 
tralian actor Eric Bana gained the part of Bruce 
Banner, while Jennifer Connelly took her second 
comic-book role (after The Rocketeer) as Betty 
Ross. Sam Elliott and Josh Lucas played the parts 
of General Ross and Major Talbot, while Nick Nolte 
was written into the hitherto unseen role of Bruce's 
father, David Banner. Even Stan Lee and Lou Ferrig- 
no were given cameo sequences. On March 18, 
2002, filming began. 

Less than a year later, the film was wrapping 
production and expectations were high. The biggest 
question on the public's collective mind was, "Can 
they make a CGI Hulk look convincing?" Audiences 
saw their first glimpses of the creature during the 
January 26, 2003 Super Bowl, teasing them until 
later trailers debuted in theaters and online on Feb- 
ruary 14. The $120 million film was released on 
June 20, 2003, to great fanfare, following success- 
ful releases for Daredevil and X2: X-Men United. 

Audiences were pleased at the realism of the 
CGI Hulk, at the comic-book-style visuals, and of the 
surprise element that Bruce's father became the 
(unnamed) Absorbing Man. Less enthusiasm greet- 
ed the glacial pace of the film, the moody drama, 
the silly "Hulk dogs" that menaced Betty and the 
Hulk at one point, and the incomprehensible ending 
battle. Still, The Hulk won its opening weekend with 
a $62 million box office take. It plummeted during 
its second weekend, though it did pass the $100 



million mark. Overseas reactions and box office 
business were mixed, but were enough to propel 
the film to over $200 million worldwide, prior to its 
October 2003 DVD release. In addition, the film 
spun off a million-dollar merchandising campaign, 
with Hulk tie-in books, games, action figures, noise- 
making "Hulk fists," and assorted sundries hitting 
the marketplace in stride. In traditional Hulk fash- 
ion, the green giant even offered, "Bones no break 
when Hulk drink milk," for the popular "got milk?" 
ad campaign. 

Despite the film's mixed critical reception and 
not-as-high-as-hoped box-office take, a feature 
sequel to The Hulk was announced by Marvel in mid- 
2003. Although Marvel had previously talked about 
negotiations for a Hulk animated series to follow the 
first film, that project appears to have vanished from 
development. Still, despite Kermitthe Frog's lament, 
"It's not easy being green," the Incredible Hulk 
seems to have smashed his own successful path 
through Hollywood's media machine. — AM 



The Human Torch 

The Human Torch was one of the "big three" heroes 
of Marvel (then known as Timely) Comics, along 
with Captain America and the Sub-Mariner — and 
one of the most popular Marvel superheroes of the 
1940s. Like the Sub-Mariner, he was first seen on 
the newsstands in Marvel Comics #1, in late 1939. 
Historians believe that the Sub-Mariner came first 
and that the Torch was created by Carl Burgos as a 
counterpart to his friend Bill Everett's aquatic hero. 
Both artists worked in the Funnies Inc. sweatshop 
and were among several creators involved in pack- 
aging together the first of a new comic line for pulp 
publisher Martin Goodman. The comic, and particu- 
larly the Torch and Sub-Mariner characters, proved a 
hit, and Timely soon grew to become one of the 
era's biggest companies, finally emerging as the 
Marvel Comics that readers know today. 



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The Human Torch 



As the story in Marvel Comics #1 reveals, the 
Torch is an android created by Professor Phineas T. 
Horton, which accidentally bursts into flames when 
exposed to oxygen, due to a design flaw. Disap- 
pointed by his failure, Horton buries the poor crea- 
ture in a glass tomb and sinks it in concrete, but 
when an explosion accidentally releases the Torch, 
he rampages through a nearby town, causing chaos 
wherever he goes. Befriended by a crook called 
Sardo, the Torch is lured into a life of crime until 
rescued by Horton, who has his own agenda. See- 
ing that the Torch can now control his flame, Horton 
plans to exploit the Torch's powers for his own gain. 
Disgusted by the professor's greed, the Torch heads 
off on his own, to right injustices wherever he 
encounters them, and he soon signs up as a mem- 
ber of the police department (adopting the alter ego 
Jim Hammond, though this temporary device is not 
well-remembered today), rushing to the scene of 
any crime or disaster. 

Although he had no tool or weapons to speak 
of, and his scant bodysuit costume disappeared 
when he ignited into flames, the Torch's persona as 
a red-hot flame intrigued readers. He could melt 
bullets shot his way, fly, and create ropes of flame 
and fireballs to subdue even the most dastardly 
ne'er-do-wells. In his Torch persona, the hero was 
unaffected by electricity and explosions, although 
the force of a powerful blast was known to knock 
him over. His number one vulnerability, of course, 
was water. 

In 1939, the superhero was still a very new 
concept and only nine heroes preceded the Torch 
and Sub-Mariner, many of them (Wonderman, the 
Green Mask, the Masked Marvel) eminently forget- 
table. So Timely's pair made a massive impact. The 
Torch's regular spot in Marvel Mystery Comics (the 
new name for Marvel Comics) was soon joined by 
his own quarterly solo title and, as the United 
States entered World War II, the Axis-smashing 
Torch began to pop up elsewhere as well. Between 
1939 and 1949, the Torch starred in almost 300 
adventures in such titles as All Winners, Daring, All- 



%& 



Select, Captain America, and Mystic Comics — 
almost tying Captain America for the greatest num- 
ber of stories published for a 1940s Marvel hero. 

For Human Torch #1, Burgos created a junior 
sidekick for the hero (possibly inspired by the 
recent emergence of Robin in Detective Comics), a 
young counterpart called Toro, the Flaming Kid. Fol- 
lowing the death of his parents in a train crash, Toro 
was adopted by a circus fire-eating act that had dis- 
covered that he could control fire and was 
unharmed by it. When the Torch happened upon 
him, they teamed up and Toro eventually moved in 
with his mentor as his ward. The pair became insep- 
arable for the rest of the strip's run. Toro later went 
on to join the Young Allies, who starred in twenty 
issues of their own comic as well as a lengthy run 
in Kid Komics. 

The war was a boost to Timely/Marvel's heroes 
and they were among the first to take the fight to 
the Axis powers. While the Torch never really devel- 
oped any arch-enemies, he was constantly battling 
the Nazis and Japanese, in between rooting out spy 
rings and racketeers. Another innovative feature of 
the Human Torch strip was his many battles with his 
co-star and rival the Sub-Mariner. The first of these 
appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #8. The pair's 
longest battle stretched to an astonishing sixty 
pages (in Human Torch #5) and ranged across the 
whole planet, taking in Axis plots and vast warring 
armies. Burgos, Everett, and their Funnies Inc. col- 
leagues would hole themselves up in hotel rooms 
and work for days on end, churning out these mam- 
moth tales, to meet their fans' insatiable demand. 
While sometimes crude, these epics have an 
incredible energy and dynamism to them that still 
excites today. 

Burgos was drafted in 1942 and other creators 
were brought in to take over his work, including 
artists Harry Sahle and Don Rico and a promising 
young writer named Mickey Spillane. After the war, 
Burgos contributed a few new tales but the strip 
was in decline and, in mid-1949, Human Torch 
Comics suffered the indignity of being transformed 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



The Human Torch 



into Love Tales. Not even the late innovation of 
replacing Toro with a distaff assistant — the light-ray- 
emitting Sun Girl — could halt the sudden collapse 
of the superhero market. Marvel concentrated on 
romance, war, and horror comics until the mid- 
1950s, when they evidently felt that the time was 
right for a revival of their heroic stars. Young Men 
#24 (December 1953) starred all the big three, with 
the Torch as cover star, and reintroduced the heroes 
to a new audience. 

The Torch, it seems, had been covered by a 
flame-retardant solution and buried in the desert by 
"the crime boss" until, five years later, he was freed 
by a nuclear test blast. Toro had been captured and 
brainwashed by the Koreans, and the Torch's first 
task was to free him from their control. Together 
again at last, the pair took up from where they had 
left off, tackling organized crime (and bashing the 
occasional "red" in the process). Their resurrection 
led to the revival of the Torch's own comic and to 
appearances — many by Burgos — in further issues 
of Young Men, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and 
Men's Adventures, but within a year the Torch was 
canceled once again. When, in 1961, fans next dis- 
covered on the stands a comic starring the Human 
Torch (Fantastic Four#l), it was a totally different 
Torch, Johnny Storm. Following DC Comics' success 
with its new superhero line, Martin Goodman decid- 
ed that the time was right for his own company to 
re-enter the genre and, when writer Stan Lee and 
artist Jack Kirby set about dreaming up a new title, 
someone clearly remembered the first Torch's suc- 
cess. Of course, Storm remains an integral member 
of the Fantastic Four to this day, but he has rarely 
enjoyed solo success; his main ventures outside 
the group have been an early run in Strange Tales 
(issues #101-#134) in the early 1960s (one 
episode of which was drawn by Burgos), and a new 
solo series targeted at young readers that flared up 
in 2003 and had not yet burned out in early 2004. 

Fans had not quite seen the last of the origi- 
nal Human Torch and Toro, however. The first Torch 
reappeared to fight the new version in the 1966 




Young Men #25 © 1953 Atlas. 
COVER ART BY CARL BURGOS. 



Fantastic Four Annual, having been reactivated by 
the Mad Thinker, while Toro made an appearance 
in Sub-Mariner #14. Sadly, both died. However, 
over in the Avengers comic, the evil robot Ultron 
acquired the Torch's remains and took them off to 
Prof. Horton (who had actually been killed off back 
in 1939; clearly, no one at Marvel had remem- 
bered that). Horton then managed to fix the flaw 
that had caused his creation to self-immolate. 
Using the new, improved android, Ultron fashioned 
a new superbeing — the Vision — who soon became 
an Avenger, as chronicled in Avengers #57 and 
#58 (though his synthetic lineage was not fully 
revealed until #135, as part of a time-travel saga 



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**9 



The Huntress 



that also brought the original Torch and his later 
self face-to-face). 

Writer and comics historian Roy Thomas 
always had a fondness for the first Torch, and in 
1975 created The Invaders to recount further 
wartime adventures of the Timely Comics "big 
three" (including Captain America and Sub-Mariner 
and adding Toro and Captain America's sidekick 
Bucky to the group). That title's cancellation in 
1979 might have marked the last hurrah for the 
first Torch. But one should never say never where 
marketable properties are concerned, and by the 
late 1980s continuity had been revised so that the 
original Torch had not been transformed into the 
Vision and could fly again, first as a member of the 
West Coast Avengers and later with the Heroes for 
Hire. Whether readers will see him again is uncer- 
tain, though Carl Burgos' inspiration lives on in 
every issue of The Fantastic Four. — DAR 

The Huntress 

Borrowing her name from a relatively obscure Gold- 
en Age villainess, the heroic Huntress first 
appeared on "Earth-Two" — the parallel world onto 
which the 1940s incarnations of DC Comics' char- 
acters had been relegated — in All-Star Comics #69 
(1977). Envisioned by writer Paul Levitz and artist 
Joe Staton as the Earth-Two Batgirl, the Huntress is 
more intriguingly distinguished by her parentage: 
She is Helena Wayne, the daughter of millionaire 
Bruce (Batman) Wayne and rehabilitated criminal 
Selina (Catwoman) Kyle. Helena had recently gradu- 
ated law school when a former associate of Cat- 
woman's blackmails Kyle back into her feline guise 
for a heist. Catwoman perishes in a consequent 
conflict, leading her traumatized husband to burn 
his cape and cowl in a grim funeral pyre, retiring his 
Batman identity. Helena swears vengeance against 
her mother's killer, taking a vow that eerily mirrors 
her father's some decades prior, and becomes the 
Huntress, a violet-and-black-clad crime fighter who 



carries on the traditions of her parents with athletic 
prowess and crossbow in tow. The Huntress so 
enthralled DC readers fascinated by the heroine's 
lineage and motivation that she spun out of All-Star 
Comics into a successful backup series in Wonder 
Woman, until being defeated by an unstoppable 
menace: continuity revision. In 1985, DC Comics 
streamlined its multiple worlds and their respective 
character variations in its highly acclaimed twelve- 
issue series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since that 
series eliminated the Earth-Two Batman, the 
Huntress was also erased from comics reality. 

But the character was too popular to fully jetti- 
son from the DC universe, and in April 1989 was 
reintroduced in The Huntress #1. During her child- 
hood, Mafia princess Helena Rosa Bertinelli's fami- 
ly, a Gotham City crime cartel, was executed in a 
syndicate hit. The sole surviving Bertinelli, Helena 
forsakes her gangland roots and takes up a quest 
to dismantle organized crime as the Huntress, aim- 
ing her crossbow at the city's mobsters. By day, she 
works as a teacher, further toiling to undo some of 
the damage caused by her family ties. 

The Huntress' brutal (but nonlethal) methods 
attracted the attention of the Batman, who initially 
regarded her as yet another plague on the streets 
of Gotham, but after several encounters the Dark 
Knight accepted her as an ally. The Huntress was 
canceled after nineteen issues, but the heroine has 
maintained a profile through numerous guest 
appearances in other Batman titles, a membership 
stint in the Justice League, the issuance of several 
action figures, and a partnership with Oracle and 
Black Canary as the Birds of Prey. The Huntress 
even tangled with Twentieth Century Fox's murder- 
ous movie monster in the Dark Horse Comics/DC 
Comics four-issue crossover comic Batman vs. 
Predator II: Bloodmatch (1995). 

The Huntress has twice ventured onto the 
small screen. Actress Barbara Joyce played the 
character in two 1979 Legends of the Super-Heroes 
live-action comedy specials airing on NBC, also star- 
ring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as 



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Hurricane Polymar 



Robin. In 2002, a short-lived Birds of Prey series 
ran on the WB network, including in its cast Ashley 
Scott as the Huntress. While this program adapted 
the contemporary Birds of Prey comic book into 
episodic television form, it borrowed the Huntress' 
heritage from the Earth-Two comic-book incarnation, 
as evidenced by the show's tagline: "Batman's Little 
Girl Is All Grown Up." —ME 



Hurricane Pofymar 

Hurricane Polymar is the third of the "Tatsunoko 
heroes" shows created by Tatsunoko Productions in 
the early 1970s. Following on the heels of 
Gatchaman (1972) and Casshan (1973), Polymar 
toned down the angst of the previous shows and 
added a lighthearted feel, making it a popular super- 
hero anime in Japan in the mid-1970s. While it would 
be almost twenty years later that the character 
enjoyed popularity in the United States, once there he 
would become firmly rooted in the anime subculture. 

The staff behind Polymar included creator Tat- 
suo Yoshida (one of the founders of Tatsunoko), who 
also designed the show's characters along with 
Yoshitaka Amano. Junzo Toriumi was the chief 
screenwriter, but Akiyoshi Sakai, Masaru Yamamoto, 
and Junichi Shima also contributed screenplays. 
Handling the directing duties were Eiko Toriumi, 
Hideo Nishimaki, and Yoshiyuki Tomino. Years later, 
Tomino — along with Polymafs mechanical designers 
Mitsuki Nakamura and Kunio Okawara — would revo- 
lutionize Japanese animation with the groundbreak- 
ing science fiction series Mobile Suit Gundam. 

Premiering on the Asahi Network in Japan on 
October 4, 1974, Hurricane Polymar ran for twenty- 
six half-hour episodes. The storyline revolved around 
Takeshi, a young police chief who works with the 
International Crime Division (ICD) of Washingkyo City 
(an amalgam of Washington and Tokyo). At first, 
Takeshi was trying to please his father, who is the 
director of the ICD, and even underwent special mar- 



tial arts training in an effort to do so, but after fre- 
quently butting heads over methods of police work, 
the chief fires his own son. On his own, Takeshi 
takes on a solo career, but eventually becomes the 
assistant to Private Investigator Joe Kuruma. 

Unfortunately, Kuruma frequently gets in the 
way of the police, and is somewhat of a blundering 
investigator. Takeshi takes on most of the tougher 
assignments, which leads one night to an assault by 
several thugs. Putting up a fight, Takeshi is badly 
injured, but is saved by Professor Oregar. The Profes- 
sor gives the detective an experimental suit made of 
an artificial polymer, polimet. The suit is red in color, 
with white gloves and boots, a short cape, a stylized 
logo on the chest, and yellow horns on the side of 
its helmet. It is voice-activated, and is stronger than 
steel, giving the user incredible strength. In addition, 
it can transform itself into a super-boat, a super- 
tank, a super-submarine, and a super-plane, each 
with its own super-abilities. Now, as the hero Hurri- 
cane Polymar, Takeshi battles a bizarre collection of 
criminals, including the Band of the Doberman, the 
Band of the Rats, and the Band of the Scorpions. 
With all of these features, Kuruma as Hurricane Poly- 
mar embodies the typical features of the American 
superhero — superpowers, an identity-changing cos- 
tume, and an alter ego that sets about functioning in 
the real world. And like the American superhero, he 
has a typical dilemma: how to keep his secret identi- 
ty from love interest Teru Namba. 

Polymarwas a success in Japan, and was 
more of a lighthearted, martial arts-influenced 
series. The show was filled with in-jokes poking 
fun at earlier Tatsunoko superhero shows. The 
original series was never released in the United 
States, but was a popular import on Italian televi- 
sion in the 1980s. As testimony to the show's 
popularity, Italian fans started websites, circulated 
newsletters, and developed somewhat of a cult 
following for the character. Pioneer released the 
entire series on DVD in Japan in 2001, and Poly- 
mar himself was a character in the Japanese-only 
Playstation game Tatsunoko Fight (which also fea- 



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Hurricane Polymar 



tured the main heroes from the other three Tat- 
sunoko heroes shows). In 2003, the Japanese toy 
company Takara released action figures of the 
major characters from the Tatsunoko Fight game, 
including Polymar. 

In 1996, Akiyuki Shinbo supervised a remake 
of Polymar, with Yasuomi Umetsu providing the char- 
acter designs. The remake, now titled New Hurri- 
cane Polymar, was released in the United States on 
video by Urban Vision, but this remake only consist- 
ed of two thirty-minute episodes. This time, the set- 
ting is the artificial island Tokyo Plus. Dr. Oregar cre- 
ates the Polymar helmet, but is murdered by the 
vicious Catshark Squad. His assistant, Ryoko Nishi- 
da, manages to get the helmet to Takeshi, assistant 



to Detective Kuruma, but Nishida too is killed by the 
Catsharks. Now, as the hero Hurricane Polymar, 
Takeshi must stop the Catsharks and their leader, 
Nova, from destroying the Geofront Plan, a major 
project designed to protect the environment. If this 
project is destroyed, it will mean the end of the 
human race. 

Hurricane Polymar was the last of the Tat- 
sunoko heroes shows to be remade in the 1990s. 
While not as well known in the United States, it still 
stands as an important part of Tatsunoko Produc- 
tions' efforts to create unique, action-packed super- 
hero stories. In 1998, Tatsunoko produced the sci- 
ence-fiction series Generator Gawl, a successor to 
the studio's superhero anime of the 1970s. — MM 



tf(l 



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image 
Comics Heroes 

The early 1990s was a watershed period for the 
creators of Marvel Comics' highest-profile titles. 
Comic-book artists (who often also wrote their 
material) such as Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man), Erik 
Larsen (Amazing Spider-Man; Spider-Man), Jim Lee 
(X-Men; Uncanny X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Factor; X- 
Force), Whilce Portacio (Longshot; Punisher; Uncan- 
ny X-Men; X-Factor), Marc Silvestri (Uncanny X-Men; 
Wolverine), and Jim Valentino (Guardians of the 
Galaxy) generated unprecedented sales. Riding a 
wave of success with characters owned by Marvel, 
these graphic auteurs left the company in 1992, 
joining forces to form Image Comics, a company 
dedicated to publishing creator-owned properties, 
principally in the comics industry's dominant super- 
hero genre. During their tenures at Marvel, the 
Image founders had often felt constrained by corpo- 
rate editorial edicts; under the Image banner, how- 
ever, they had free reign to control and develop their 
own characters, taking them in whatever direction 
they saw fit. As the 1990s progressed, the fledgling 
company prospered and its line expanded, success- 
fully weathering the comics industry's mid-decade 



sales slump. Today, Image Comics remains a seri- 
ous competitor to both Marvel and DC Comics, the 
two publishing houses that had for decades domi- 
nated the comic-book business. 

At its inception, Image was the home of sever- 
al distinct comics publishing ventures, including 
Todd McFarlane's Todd McFarlane Productions 
(TMP), Marc Silvestri's Top Cow Productions, and 
Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions. Solely owned by 
McFarlane, TMP still publishes Spawn and its spin- 
off titles today. 

Arguably Image's most successful title, 
Spawn — which recounts the story of a murdered 
soldier (Al Simmons) who is resurrected as the 
commander of the armies of hell — began publica- 
tion in 1992. Despite the hero's rather derivative 
appearance — Spawn appears to have raided the 
attics of Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, the Punisher, and 
Lobo when he assembled his costume — and the 
title's overemphasis on ultraviolence and its eleva- 
tion of McFarlane's faddish, extreme art-style over 
story, Spawn was an immediate hit among comics 
readers and collectors. The series gave rise to a 
feature film (starring Michael Jai as the macabre 
hell-warrior) in 1997, developed into an Emmy 
Award-winning HBO animated series (1997-1999), 
and birthed a line of collectible action figures from 



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**s 



Image Comics Heroes 



McFarlane's own toy company (McFarlane Toys). 
Spawn also engendered a pair of spin-off comics 
series: Hellspawn (the tale of a version of Spawn 
even meaner than the original one) and Sam & 
Twitch (a pair of urban detectives investigating the 
supernatural in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets 
NYPD Blue milieu). 

Top Cow is wholly owned by Image partner Marc 
Silvestri, and publishes such titles as Battle of the 
Planets, Delicate Creatures, Midnight Nation, Rising 
Stars, Fathom, Tomb Raider (based upon the popular 
action-oriented video game and film property), and 
Witchblade (an occult-themed female action heroine 
stylistically reminiscent of Marvel's Elektra, and the 
subject of a successful TNT television series). 

The rest of Image's voluminous superhero out- 
put — which, over the years, has included such titles 
as Jim Valentino's ShadowHawk (a violent crime 
fighter cast in the mold of Batman, blended with 
elements of Marvel's Iron Man and the Punisher); 
Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon (a green-skinned 
superheroic monster-turned-supercop, who was the 
subject of a USA animated series from 1994 to 
1996); Dale Keown's Pitt (a sharp-clawed, super- 
strong hero, simultaneously evocative of Marvel's 
Hulk and Wolverine); Whilce Portacio's Wetworks 
superteam; J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl (a 
squad of "grrl-power" superheroines); Sam Kieth's 
The Maxx (a member of a race of personal guardian 
angels/spirit guides whose comic book birthed a 
short-lived MTV animated series in 1994); and Trina 
Robbins' and Anne Timmons' Go Girl (a retro-style 
superheroine with an upbeat feminist subtext) — 
falls under the general rubric of Image Central, 
which is home to all Image titles not owned or pro- 
duced by a founding Image partner (though the 
above-mentioned Image Central work of Larsen, 
Portacio, and Valentino are notable exceptions to 
this rule). Still, the trademarks and copyrights con- 
nected to all of these titles are the property of their 
respective creators, rather than of Image Comics. 

From the beginning, Image Comics stood at the 
eye of a maelstrom of controversy. Though enor- 



mously popular with fans, the company's initial offer- 
ings, as typified by titles such as Spawn and action- 
team comics like Silvestri's Cyberforce (1992), 
Liefeld's Brigade (1993), and Lee's Genl3 (1994), 
received mixed critical reaction. While unquestion- 
ably a commercial success, the company drew barbs 
from detractors who regarded its titles as little more 
than collections of pinup art, and charged that plot 
and characterization usually took a back seat to styl- 
istic considerations — which chiefly involved lovingly 
rendered illustrations of idealized musclemen and 
improbably upholstered female superheroes, a visu- 
al style that dominated superheroes of the 1990s in 
much the same way that Jack Kirby's pioneering 
dash had done in the 1960s. During the mid-1990s, 
veteran Marvel and DC comics writer Peter David 
quipped that a rival publishing house called "Sub- 
stance" should be launched, to emphasize story and 
characterization in the hopes of countering Image's 
primarily art-driven esthetic. 

During the first half of the 1990s, Image blos- 
somed into a surprisingly diverse publisher, branch- 
ing out into the sophisticated, realistic superheroics 
of Kurt Busiek's Astro City (1995) and presenting A 
Touch of Silver (1997), Jim Valentino's poignant 
autobiographical miniseries about a young super- 
hero fan growing up during the Silver Age of comics 
(1956-1969) in a dysfunctional home. Image even 
provided a home for Matt Wagner's delightful Arthuri- 
an fantasy Mage (1997), which had debuted to 
resounding acclaim in 1984 at the defunct indepen- 
dent publisher Comico. Many Image properties have 
also appeared in successful "crossover" ventures 
with other publishers; most prominent among these 
intercompany efforts are team-ups between Spawn 
and Batman (DC); ShadowHawk and Vampirella (Har- 
ris Comics); and Savage Dragon and Superman 
(DC), the Atomics (AAA Pop Comics), the Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles (Archie Comics and Mirage 
Comics), and Hellboy (Dark Horse). Top Cow's Witch- 
blade has also shared the four-color page with such 
Marvel heroes as the Silver Surfer and Wolverine, as 
well as with Shi (Crusade Comics). 



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Image Comics Heroes 



The Image experiment was not a completely 
successful one, however. Because the company has 
always been a loose confederation of creator-owned 
artistic and business entities, relationships within 
the company were predictably more anarchic than 
within the more staid corporate confines of Marvel 
or DC. The difficulty of coordinating and maintaining 
monthly production and publishing schedules even- 
tually led to creative differences, and to the split-up 
of some of Image's founders. Consequently, many 
of Image's editorially interconnected titles — in 
which characters owned by different Image creators 
appeared in one another's books in much the same 
way that the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the 
Hulk had begun sharing the "Marvel universe" as 
their four-color commons in the early 1960s — had 
to be disengaged from one another. Characters 
abruptly vanished from sight as they left Image for 
other publishing entities. 

To accomplish this complex disentanglement, 
Image published a miniseries titled Shattered Image 
(1996), a sort of reverse version of DC Comics' Cri- 
sis on Infinite Earths. While Crisis was intended to 
consolidate several distinct universes into a single 
coherent narrative strand, Image's goal was to spin 
many of its characters off to whatever separate des- 
tinations their respective owners intended for them. 
Rob Liefeld left Image in 1997, taking his proper- 
ties — most notably Supreme (a time-displaced 
supersoldier, a cross between Captain America and 
Superman, who was introduced in 1993 in a self- 
titled series and whose World War II— era exploits 
were recounted in 1994's Supreme: Glory Days 
miniseries) and Youngblood (an X-Men/ Avengers- 
inspired superteam) — to form Awesome Entertain- 
ment. Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions, which put 
out such superhero action titles as WildC.A.T.S and 
Stormwatch under the Image aegis, left the company 
in 1998 (along with WildStorm's two sub-imprints, 
Homage Comics and America's Best Comics) to 
become part of DC Comics. After the dust settled, 
the "Image universe" was a more sparsely populat- 
ed place than it had been previously, although the 




ShadowHawk #3 © 1992 Jim Valentino. 

COVER ART BY JIM VALENTINO. 



Spawn titles, Savage Dragon, and The Authority (a 
superteam descended from the now-absent 
WildC.A.T.S and Stormwatch characters) continued 
to find a profitable home under the Image colophon. 

Fortunately for Image, superhero comics tend 
to grow like kudzu, even during the comics indus- 
try's slow periods, such as the late 1990s. Now, in 
the opening years of the new millennium, Image 
Comics is still the country's third largest publisher 
of superhero comics, graphic novels, and trade 
paperbacks, right behind Marvel and DC. Image 
began to provide a wide audience for titles originally 
published elsewhere, such as the daily Zorro news- 
paper strips of writer Don McGregor and illustrators 



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The Inferior Five 



Tom Yeates and Tod Smith. In addition to its contin- 
ued successes in publishing and mass-market toys 
(including McFarlane's action figures based on the 
Beatles and KISS), Image properties continue to 
make inroads into the film and television industries 
today. A sequel to the first Spawn feature film was 
in development in 2004, and television and movie 
options exist for Image's Noble Causes: Family 
Secrets (the story of the decidedly ordinary widow 
of a slain superhero who struggles to adjust to life 
among her superpowered in-laws) and such Image 
non-superhero properties as Area 52 (about a group 
of incompetent soldiers guarding a secret govern- 
ment facility in Antarctica) and Aria: The Uses of 
Enchantment (a sorcery/fantasy series). 

Though Image publishes comics in many story 
genres, superheroes remain the company's bread 
and butter, an emphasis reinforced by the 2003 
advent of such titles as Firebreather (a young, hip 
superhero who is part human, part Godzilla-type 
monster), Invincible (the teenage son of Earth's 
most powerful superhero, who must cope with his 
developing powers while living up to his father's 
daunting reputation), and Wildguard (about a group 
of wannabe heroes auditioning for a superteam 
whose composition will ultimately be determined by 
an audience-driven vote, a la Fox TV's American 
Idol). As the first decade of the new millennium 
unfolds, Image appears to have remained largely 
true to its stated mission, which is to nurture, 
develop, and find audiences for unique, well-crafted 
creator-owned properties. — MAM 

the Inferior rive 

For much of the company's existence, DC Comics 
had been the comics industry's most conservative 
publisher, somewhat staid and reserved, but the 
rise of Marvel Comics and the success of the 
1960s camp Batman television show changed all 
that. One of DCs responses to a growing superhero 
market that could stand a bit of comedy was to 



tf& 



introduce the Inferior Five. It was one of the first 
self-referential strips, taking swipes at the whole 
superhero genre and its conventions, and — most 
satisfyingly — actually managed to be funny. 

The team was introduced in the pages of Show- 
case #62 (1966) by longtime fan/writer/editor E. 
Nelson Bridwell and artist Joe Orlando, and soon 
graduated to its own title. The story begins with the 
aging (and less-than-athletic) members of the Free- 
dom Brigade being summoned by the Megalopolis 
police force to defend the city from the menace of a 
mad scientist. Quickly realizing that their crime- 
fighting days are well behind them, the Patriot, Lady 
Liberty, and their fellow Freedom Brigade members 
decide to send their children instead. Sadly, the 
younger generation lack their parents' awesome 
crime-fighting skills, but nevertheless decide to 
band together as the aptly named Inferior Five. 

The team's leader was young cartoonist Myron 
Victor who, as the comic declared, "used to be a 
ninety-seven-pound weakling before losing weight." 
With no powers whatsoever, Victor dressed himself 
in a jester's costume, to illustrate the futility of his 
crime-fighting career, and went by the inappropriate 
name of Merryman. Rotund Herman Cramer was 
the Blimp ("He flies like a bird with the speed of a 
snail") who sadly did not inherit the incredible run- 
ning prowess of his father, Captain Swift. The politi- 
cally incorrect Dumb Bunny ("stronger than an ox ... 
and almost as intelligent!") was beautiful but 
vacant model Athena Tremor, who wore a bunny-girl 
costume, complete with fluffy tail and ears. The 
team's strongman was beatnik beach-bum Leander 
Brent ("more powerful than a locomotive, but always 
getting derailed"), whose accident-prone bumbling 
earned him the name Awkwardman. Rounding out 
the group was the White Feather ("the only bird 
who's chicken!"), also known as glamour photogra- 
pher William King, whose archery skills were some- 
what undermined by his abject cowardice. The 
group communicated using telephones known as 
the Lukewarm Line, and rode about the city in their 
jalopy, the Inferi-Car. 



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The Inhumans 



Bridwell had a real talent for humor, which 
meant that the comic emphasized laughs over 
thrills. Indeed, with villains like Dr. Gruesome, the 
Sparrow, and the Masked Swastika (an armor-clad 
Napoleon Bonaparte look-alike), the title was always 
lighthearted. Another unusual aspect of the comic 
was its wholesale lampooning of Marvel's all-con- 
quering heroes, who involuntarily guest-starred in 
many strips, frequently as rather pathetic villains. 
The Hulk became the Man Mountain, the Sub- 
Mariner was Prince Nabob the Submoron, and the 
Fantastic Four were the Kookie Quartet, while 
Spider-Man, Thor, the X-Men, and Iron Man were 
also affectionately parodied. Marvel replied with its 
own spoof comic, Not Brand Echh, but in that book 
by-and-large concentrated on satirizing its own char- 
acters (presumably being reluctant to give publicity 
to its rivals). 

Perhaps the strip's most ambitious moment 
was in issue #6, in a bizarre story titled "How to 
Make a Bomb," which featured the Five taking a 
tour of DCs offices, and starred pretty much the 
company's full editorial team. Among other inci- 
dents, artists Carmine Infantino and Mike Sekowsky 
were shown having a fight, and DC owner Irwin 
Donenfeld was depicted as a lollipop-sucking child! 
Sadly, the comic got lost in the camp craze and, 
after ten issues of its own title, it was canceled, 
leaving in its wake a small but enthusiastic cult fol- 
lowing. — DAR 

the Inhumans 

Like so many Marvel Comics characters the Inhu- 
mans were a creation of writer Stan Lee and artist 
Jack Kirby, first appearing in a late 1965 issue of 
The Fantastic Four (#45). In fact, one of the Inhu- 
mans — Medusa — had been featured in the comic 
several months earlier as one of a motley group of 
villains called the Frightful Four, though her criminal 
career was short-lived. The Inhumans themselves 
were a carnival-show collection of strange-looking 



people unlike any other superteam, although 
"team" in this case is something of a misnomer, 
since they were effectively a race apart. Their origin 
was revealed in several later issues of Thor, which 
described how, centuries ago, a force from the all- 
conquering Kree Empire had visited Earth and 
genetically engineered a hybrid human/alien race. 
Over the years, these had evolved and mutated, far 
from the gaze of humankind, before they came out 
of hiding in the 1960s. 

The Inhumans were probably several thousand 
in number and lived in isolation in the ultra-modern 
city of Attilan, hidden deep in the Himalayas (or 
Andes or Alps, depending on how good the writer's 
memory was!). The small group that ventured into 
the outside world were in fact the Royal Family, a 
powerful and fancifully garbed collection of uniquely 
mutated individuals. Their leader and king was 
Black Bolt, who could control molecular motion 
(whatever that meant) and whose voice could 
destroy everything in earshot with the merest whis- 
per. Needless to say, he did not speak very often 
and conveyed his wishes through future wife 
Medusa, who could control her incredibly long, ani- 
mated, red hair. Other members of the group were 
the grotesque Gorgon, who could cause earth- 
quakes with a stamp of his cloven hoof; diminutive 
martial-arts expert Karnak; scale-covered amphib- 
ian Triton; and the winsome young Crystal, who 
could control the elements. 

Crystal soon fell for the fresh-faced charms of 
the Human Torch and, when the Invisible Girl went on 
a seemingly interminable maternity leave, Crystal 
took her place in the Fantastic Four (FF). Crystal 
could whiz back and forth between the two groups 
with the help of her colossal, teleporting pet bulldog 
Lockjaw. In time, after the Invisible Girl left again (not 
for another baby but a marital separation), Crystal 
ran off with the Avenger Quicksilver, and Medusa 
briefly became an FF member in what was clearly a 
sort of job-share scheme for superheroes. The Inhu- 
mans as a whole regularly guest-starred in Fantastic 
Four and other comics (notably The Hulk) and in 



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Insect Heroes 



1970 finally got their own feature in Amazing Adven- 
tures— -though it only lasted ten issues. In the mid- 
1970s, they were given their own comic, but that sur- 
vived for only twelve issues. Both attempts were well 
crafted, with an interesting mixture of radical Black 
Power politics (in Amazing Adventures), alien intrigue 
(in the 1975 Inhumans comic) and entertaining vil- 
lains such as the Mandarin and Blastaar, yet neither 
venture proved popular enough to continue. 

Perhaps the problems with the Inhumans were 
their outlandish appearance and somewhat 
detached personalities, or it might have been that 
they were mostly fighting a single enemy: Black 
Bolt's evil-genius brother, Maximus (in full, Maximus 
the Mad — which rather gave the game away). Max- 
imus seemed to dedicate himself to overthrowing 
Black Bolt and the ruling Inhumans, who were end- 
lessly taken in by him: "Oh no, he has betrayed us 
again!" However, following a lengthy fallow period, 
the Inhumans enjoyed something of a revival in the 
1990s, with several specials and graphic novels, 
and a self-titled series under the Marvel Knights 
imprint in 1999. This series saw the group under 
siege from humankind, while the following year's 
miniseries featured the return of the Kree, who liter- 
ally picked up and carried away the experiment they 
abandoned so many years earlier. The story culmi- 
nated with the massed Inhumans deciding to stay 
in space and banishing the Royal Family to Earth, 
no doubt bound for intrigue and action (in another 
ongoing series and, probably, beyond). — DAR 



Insect Heroes 

"Don't you realize that people hate spiders?" asked 
an incredulous Martin Goodman, the publisher of 
Marvel Comics, when hearing author Stan Lee's 
pitch for the Amazing Spider-Man. Goodman may 
have been right, but people also find spiders — and 
other insects — utterly beguiling. Especially people 
who create — and read about — superheroes. 



Wall-crawling "Spidey" was not the first super- 
hero to adopt a spider guise. Before there were 
comic books there were "pulps" — inexpensive mag- 
azines featuring prose adventure tales under illus- 
trated, usually painted, covers — like The Spider, pre- 
miering in 1933 from Popular Publications. Its hero, 
playboy Richard Wentworth, a.k.a. the Spider, metes 
out vigilante justice in a black facemask, hat, and 
cloak. On his missions he brandishes pistols, his 
fists, and his "Spider Web" climbing cord, leaving 
behind a spider-shaped seal as a calling card. Abet- 
ted by makeup artist Ram Singh (Wentworth's Sikh 
valet) and his chauffeur Jackson, the Spider coldly 
kills criminal vermin with a swift bullet to the head. 
His magazine ran until 1943, with 118 installments 
published, and he headlined two movie serials star- 
ring actor Warren Hull: The Spider's Web (1938) and 
The Spider Returns (1941). Elements of the Spider 
reportedly inspired the creation of Batman in 1939. 

Quality Comics introduced its own Spider, also 
a playboy with a servant, in Crack Comics #1 
(1940). This Spider, garbed in a yellow shirt and 
blue tights, also employs a trademark "spider 
seal" — although his are affixed to arrows, his 
weapons of choice — and cruises the streets in his 
ultra-fast car, the Black Widow. A hero called the 
Spyder — a billionaire, upping the ante from his mil- 
lionaire forerunners — appears once in WonderWorld 
Express #1 (1984). Tony Brooks is a CEO and a 
practitioner of "Gung-Fu," which he uses to topple 
traitors while wearing blue tights with a spider chest 
emblem, yellow webbing highlights, and a helmet. 

Black widow spiders have long been a popular 
theme in superhero lore. Dianne Grayton, yet another 
social butterfly, hides her good looks behind the 
fagade of a hag as the Spider Widow, commanding 
black widows to do her bidding, in Quality's Feature 
Comics #57 (1942). Marvel Comics has, in the 
course of its lengthy history, published two characters 
named Black Widow. Claire Voyant pays the ultimate 
price to gain superpowers: her life. In Mystic Comics 
#4 (1940), Voyant is killed and descends to Hades, 
where Satan — one of comics' most enduring supervil- 



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Insect Heroes 



lains — gives her the "touch of death" and returns her 
to Earth to execute criminals as the dark-clad Black 
Widow. This Black Widow holds the record for another 
distinguishing characteristic: the darkest eyebrows of 
any character in comic-book history. Marvel's second 
Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, is a Russian spy 
when first seen in Tales of Suspense #52 (1964), but 
ultimately defects to the United States and becomes 
a superheroine, fighting criminals with her debilitating 
"widow's bite" blasts (and, in the late 1990s and 
early 2000s, fending off a successor, Yelena Belova). 
Black Widow is a name used at least twice for 
supervillains: Tallulah Bankhead played the Black 
Widow, a crime queen with a paralyzing spider toxin, in 
episodes 89 and 90 (aired March 15 and March 16, 
1967) of television's live-action Batman 
(1966-1968), and the animated superhero Space 
Ghost has occasionally tangled with an intergalactic 
villainess known as Black Widow over the years. 

Superhero mythology's fascination with arach- 
nids does not end there. In Archie Comics' Zip 
Comics #42 (1942), criminologist John Raymond 
sports a green-and-yellow costume with a web-mesh 
cape as the Web, outsmarting criminals with calcu- 
lated entrapment. The Web has resurfaced through- 
out the decades in subsequent revivals of Archie's 
superheroes, including The Web #1-#1A 
(1991-1992), part of DC Comics' "Impact" imprint, 
reimagining the Web as a network of high-tech oper- 
atives. DCs Tarantula, creeping into Star Spangled 
Comics #1 (1941), is Jonathan Law (yes, John Law), 
a mystery writer who dons a purple-and-yellow 
masked costume and aims a web-firing "webgun" to 
snare Nazi saboteurs. (Marvel borrowed the name 
Tarantula in the 1970s for a Spider-Man villain. DC 
returned the favor by introducing the Black Spider, a 
Batman foe. To complicate matters further, the 
short-lived mid-1970s Atlas Comics headlined a 
cursed man-spider anti-hero also called the Tarantu- 
la, and in the 2000s Marvel's Spider-Girl has 
encountered a crimelord called the Black Tarantula.) 

The Spider Queen's ephemeral crime-fighting 
career began in Fox Features Syndicate's The Eagle 




MONSTER 
/MENA6ER1E 

THIS WASJUINE 
APMrESOMF 



Double-Dare Adventures #2 © 1967 Harvey Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOE SIMON. 



#2 (1941), and ended after three issues. The origi- 
nal Spider Woman, a one-shot character in publish- 
er Harry "A" Chesler's Major Victory #1, is trapped 
in a web of obscurity, but the second Spider-Woman 
(note hyphen) has fared better, originating in Marvel 
Spotlight #32 (1976) and becoming a mainstay in 
the Marvel universe, even starring in a 1979 ani- 
mated TV series. Several new Spider-Women have 
succeeded the original in Marvel's comics, and 
Spider-Girl — "The Daughter of the True Spider- 
Man!" — received her own monthly series in 1998. 
On the CBS Saturday-morning cartoon Tarzan and 
the Super 7 (1978), a farmer named Kelly Webster 
is awarded a ring bearing a black-widow hourglass 
by a dying extraterrestrial she attempts to rescue. 



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Insect Heroes 



The ring grants her insect powers and control over 
bugs as Web Woman. This character's origin is a 
verbatim retread of that of DCs Insect Queen. In 
Superboy #124 (1965), the Boy of Steel's girlfriend 
Lana Lang assists an imperiled, six-armed alien, 
from whom she receives a "Bio-Genetic" ring as a 
token of gratitude. The ring enables Lang to mimic 
insect abilities — although the same insect's powers 
cannot be engaged more than once in twenty-four 
hours — and as the half-human, half-bug Insect 
Queen, she becomes a part-time superheroine and 
a reserve member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Flies are also popular inspirations for super- 
heroes. The original Fly-Man, as seen in Spitfire 
Comics #1 (1941), is only a few inches high, with 
the strength of a normal-sized man (traits displayed 
earlier by Quality's Doll Man and much later by DCs 
Atom and Marvel's Ant-Man). Fly-Man buzzed (on 
orange wings) through two adventures before being 
swatted out of print. The Adventures of the Fly #1 
(1959) presents Thomas Troy, a young orphan who 
discovers a fly-insignia magic ring. The boy is cho- 
sen to become the champion of the Fly People, an 
ancient race. Stroking the ring and saying "I wish I 
were the Fly" transforms him into an adult super- 
hero, the Fly, in a green-and-yellow costume with 
transparent wings. With his stinger-blasting "buzz 
gun" and his female sidekick Fly-Girl, the Fly — 
called Fly Man during the 1960s — is one of several 
Archie superheroes prone to habitual reintroduc- 
tions. Marvel Comics published seventeen issues 
of The Human Fly beginning in 1977. Its protagonist 
(though purportedly based on a real-life daredevil) is 
a nameless individual, crippled in an automobile 
accident, who rehabilitates his body and embarks 
upon superheroics. "Mag-clamp" boots and gloves 
allow him to climb walls, and jet boots give him an 
extra boost through the air. 

Other insect superheroes include the Green 
Hornet, a crime-crusher who pretends to be a 
masked mobster to trick ganglords into traps (and 
when his smarts fail, his electrical "Hornet's Sting" 
helps, as does his martial-artist aide, Kato); Mar- 



vel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, both able to shrink and 
fly (Ant-Man also communicates with ants), and Ant- 
Man's later identity, Yellowjacket; the Yellowjacket- 
like Buzz, an ally of Marvel's Spider-Girl; the original 
Wasp, a fedora-topped masked man in a suit and 
cape, who appeared twice in Silver Streak Comics 
(1939); three incarnations of the Blue Beetle, each 
having little, if anything, to do with insects other 
than the heroes' appellations; DCs Spider-Girl, a 
Legion of Super-Heroes supporting-cast member, 
who manipulates her hair's length and density; and 
Hit Comics #l's Red Bee, clad in a red-and-yellow 
striped suit, who sics irate bees on his foes. In Jack 
Kirby's early 1970s New Gods the writer-artist intro- 
duced an entire society of insect-like creatures, 
known collectively as "The Bug," that evolved from 
biological-warfare organisms on Kirby's mythic world 
of New Genesis. Marvel's mid-1970s Champions 
superteam title featured the unusual villain Swarm, 
whose body is composed of myriad insects with a 
collective mind. And one of the major creations of 
Michael Chabon's fictional 1940s writer-artist team 
in his novel The Amazing Adventures ofKavalier& 
Clay (2000) is the scandalous and surreal super- 
heroine Luna Moth. 

Some obscure insect heroes have buzzed 
under the radar of most fans. Harvey Comics' Mos- 
quito Boy, first seen in Harvey Hits #110 (1966), is 
a surly teen with see-through wings and a cowl with 
a stinger beak (his unique weakness is insect repel- 
lent). B-Man, another Harvey hero (from Double- 
Dare Adventures #1, 1966), is an ex-astronaut 
named Barry E. Eames (note his initials) who gains 
super-metabolism after being stung by alien bees 
and fights crime from his Bee Hive. The Butterfly — 
who first appeared in Skywald Publishing's Hell- 
Rider #1 (1971) — is a soul singer-turned-superhero 
(albeit with an enigmatic origin) who flies thanks to 
her supersuit, and Beetle Boy and Butterfly Girl are 
tiny superheroes who appeared on the Japanese 
anime program Microid S (1973). Americomics' 
Dragonfly zips through the air on gossamer wings 
(while wearing fashionable shades), and Scarlet 



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International Heroes 



Scorpion is a red-clad hero with a long stinger tail 
(similar in appearance and power to Spider-Man's 
enemy, the Scorpion). In its short publishing history, 
Atlas Comics twice used the name "the Scorpion" 
in 1975: for a pulp-like hero created by Howard 
Chaykin and for a Spider-Man ripoff who climbs 
buildings with a grappling hook. The short-of- 
stature-and-temper Bug Boy is a sometime cast 
member of Bongo Comics' satirical Radioactive 
Man. Finally, there is the Moth, a little-known cos- 
tumed crusader debuting in Mystery Men #9 
(1940). Not little-known at all due to what can only 
be called a loud fan buzz, a new Moth, co-created by 
artist Steve Rude (Nexus, World's Finest) and 
inker/scripter Gary Martin, bowed in spring of 2004 
at Dark Horse Comics. — ME 

International 
Heroes 

If one were to believe the news in comic books, not 
only is New York City the center of the universe, but 
it is also the center of superhero and supervillain 
activities. Sure, sometimes the superbeings are in 
Metropolis, Gotham City, Opal City, Keystone City, or 
even real urban centers like Chicago or Los Ange- 
les, but what about other countries? Don't they 
have superheroes, too? Independent American pub- 
lishers are not terribly global, but both Marvel and 
DC have international heroes, many of whom critics 
deride as countrywide cultural stereotypes. 

DCs biggest group made up mostly of foreign 
nationals is called the Global Guardians. The group 
is led by African shaman Doctor Mist, and includes 
the following members and represented countries: 
lizard-powered Bushmaster (Venezuela); long-haired 
Godiva (England); flaming spitfire Green Fury 
(Brazil), later a member of the Justice League as 
Fire; frost-powered Icemaiden (Norway), later a 
member of the Justice League as Ice; speedy 




The Freedom Collective #1 © 2002 Rough Cut Comics. 

COVER ART BY DOMINIC REGAN AND COLIN BARR. 



Impala (South Africa); magic lantern-powered Jack 
O'Lantern (Ireland); mutant Atlantean Little Mer- 
maid (Denmark); Golden-Fleece-wearingthe 
Olympian (Greece); flying Native American Owl- 
woman (Oklahoma); solar-powered Rising Sun 
(Japan); Biblically blessed hero the Seraph (Israel); 
gay lycanthrope and future Justice League member 
Tasmanian Devil (Australia); vocal screamer Thun- 
derlord (Taiwan); time-seeing third-eyed Tuatura 
(New Zealand); and Viking barbarian Wild Hunts- 
man (Germany). 

The Global Guardians are not the first of DCs 
international hero groups, nor the last. The first 
would likely include the "Batmen of All Nations" 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



**1 



International Heroes 



from January 1955's Detective Comics #215 (Eng- 
land's Knight and Squire, Australia's the Ranger, 
Italy's the Legionary, South America's the Gaucho, 
and France's the Musketeer). In 1988, DC debuted 
the weekly Millennium miniseries, which introduced 
ten heroes from across the globe who would usher 
in the next era of humanity as the New Guardians. 
Its members included Betty Clawman, Extrano, 
Flora, Gloss, Harbinger, Jet, and Ram. The 2000 
annuals for DC introduced yet another line of inter- 
national heroes in a multi-part storyline called 
"Planet DC," most of which have since been rela- 
tively unseen — such as samurai-like Bushido 
(Japan); magical swordswoman Janissary (Russia); 
shape-shifting Aruna (India); Manhunter-related 
swordswoman Nemesis (Greece); strong 
swordswoman Sala (Tunisia); The Boggart (Eng- 
land); the animalistic eight-hero team The Super- 
Malon (Argentina); and the armored trio Iman, Acra- 
ta, and El Muerto (Mexico). 

Marvel's international characters have some- 
times been perceived as villains or antagonists by 
the company's American heroes (from the incorrigi- 
bly French Batroc the Leaper to the definitive East- 
ern European despot Dr. Doom), though many, like 
Russia's supergroup Soviet Super-Soldiers (Dark- 
star, Crimson Dynamo, Gremlin, Titanium Man, Ursa 
Major, and Vanguard) were clearly fighting for their 
country's beliefs. Many Marvel heroes already hail 
from other countries and continents, such as Black 
Panther (Africa), Captain Britain (England), Spitfire 
(England), Union Jack (England), Banshee (Ireland), 
Storm (Africa), Nightcrawler (Germany), Sunfire 
(Japan), the Black Widow (Russia), Gypsies Quicksil- 
ver and the Scarlet Witch (Europe), Wolverine (Cana- 
da), and the team Alpha Flight (Canada). 

Marvel made an attempt to diversify its slate in 
Marvel Super-Hero Contest of Champions 
(June-August 1982), featuring the debuts of power- 
suited Peregrine (France), Talisman (Australia), 
Shamrock (Ireland), electrical-powered Blitzkrieg 
(Germany), quill-firing Sabra (Israel), armored Defen- 
sor (Argentina), and sword-swinging Arabian Knight 



*# 



(Saudi Arabia). Few of them have been used often 
in the two decades since, though Marvel published 
Excalibur, a long-running counterpart to its popular 
X-Men set in the United Kingdom, in the late 1980s 
and early 1990s, and tried out an amusing, corpo- 
rate-created team of Japan-based superbeings, Big 
Hero 6, in a 1998 miniseries. (The Contest of 
Champions was repeated as farce in 2003, with 
Marvel's satirical mutants X-Statix squaring off 
against the superteam Euro-Trash, and in 2004 was 
set to take a grimmer form, as Marvel's edgy 
Avengers variation, the Ultimates, mobilized against 
international heroes created to offset America's 
unrivaled real-life superpower status.) 

Lest anyone think that international heroes are 
solely the purview of major American comic-book 
publishers, rest assured that even though super- 
heroes are not as popular in other countries, they 
do exist. Red-and-white clad adventurer Captain 
Canuck is one of Canada's most famous heroes, 
while Canadian gay hero Go-Go Boy is a bit more 
obscure, and Canadian heroes the Jam, North- 
guard, and the heroine Fleur de Lyse fall some- 
where in the center. Following are a number of other 
countries, and the heroes that are represented in 
comics there. 



AUSTRALIA 

Due to a ban on imported publications through- 
out the 1940s and 1950s, Australian comics had a 
chance to grow. Golden Age (1938-1954) heroes 
included Crimson Comet, the Phantom Ranger, Cap- 
tain Atom, Sir Falcon, Silver Starr, Blue Ray, and many 
others. Most Australian comic-book companies 
ceased publication by 1960, since the import ban 
was lifted and American comics were now flooding 
their market. Cyclone Comics revived some older 
heroes in the 1980s in the pages of Southern 
Squadron (Lieutenant Smith, Dingo, Southern Cross, 
and Nightfighter) and other books. Further heroes 
included an adventurer called the Jackaroo, energy- 
wielding Dark Nebula, heroine Australian Maid, and a 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



International Heroes 



parody of American heroes called the A-Men (includ- 
ing the Americano, America Man, and others). Phos- 
phorescent Comics published The Watch, with team 
members Fallout, Adapt, Xenia, Bones, Jack, the Fish- 
er, and others. Other Aussie heroes include Bug Man 
and Roachboy, Pizza Man, Brainmaster and Vixen, 
and the groups the Olympians and Forerunners. 



BNGLANP 

Marvel's Captain Britain first appeared in 
British comics in 1976, but Marvelman (called Mira- 
cleman in the United States) was a much older 
hero, having first appeared in the 1950s before his 
1980s revival by Alan Moore. Costumed heroes 
first appeared in the 1920s and 1930s pulps, 
including Invisible Dick, Blackshirt, Waldo the Won- 
der Boy, the Black Whip, and the Night Hawk. Some 
1940s comic-book heroes — such as the Bat — 
resembled American counterparts, while Captain 
Magnet, Electro Girl, the Falcon, Maskman, Tornado, 
Mr. X, and Wonderman were less obvious homages. 
The 1950s brought in Black Shadow, Electroman, 
spoof hero Super Stooge, and the bizarrely named 
Robot Archie. Heroes from the 1960s included Gad- 
getman and Gimmick-Kid, Captain Miracle, contor- 
tionist Janus Stark, Miniman, and the Phantom 
Viking. The weekly 2000 AD brought violent helmet- 
ed police officer Judge Dredd and others into the 
1970s, while Aquavenger, Marksman, Leopardman, 
evangelist hero Hotshot, and Birdman and Chicken 
prowled the comics, and actor Dave Prowse donned 
the costume of the Green Cross Code Man to teach 
kids about road safety (years before he played 
Darth Vader in the Stars Wars saga). Revisionist 
hero comics Zenith and New Statesmen were 
released in the 1980s, before their creators were 
whisked away to write revisionist American comics, 
while the 1990s saw Marvel U.K. titles like Clan 
Destine, Hell's Angel, Knigths ofPendragon, and 
Death's Head. Paul Grist's Jack Staff (April 2000) 
became popular enough that in 2003 Image repub- 
lished it in the United States. 



FZANCB 

Early heroes included Fantax and Atomas, 
while Tenax, Felina, and bug-powered Mikros came 
later. French publisher Semic brought back some 
older heroes and mixed them with new creations to 
construct a shared universe that included Starlock 
and the Strangers, and superteams Kidz and Hexa- 
gon. Alien astronaut Homicron 1, gold-armored 
peace officer Le Gladiateur de Bronze, and "man of 
light" Photonik are among other francophilic 
heroes, while sexy trapeze artist Felina and insect- 
powered Saltarella are two of the relatively few origi- 
nal heroines. Gay heroes Lift, Volt, Seal, Phase, and 
Tiger starred in 2001-2002's Ultimen. 



INPIA 

There are numerous Indian superheroes includ- 
ing robotic Fauladi Singh, high-tech hero Abhay (and 
his higher self Agniputra), and live-action television 
hero Shaktimaan. The heroes of the company Raj 
Comics include Jupiterian Vinashdoot, cyborg 
Inspector Steel, acrobatic Super Commando Dhru- 
va, patriotic Tiranga, and blue-skinned goddess 
avatar Shakti. 



ITALY 

Created in 1962 but still going strong, Diabolik 
is probably Italy's most famous super-character, 
though this masked man preys on the underworld 
as a Robin Hood-like criminal. Down Comix's Capi- 
tan Italia makes fun of his American counterparts, 
while Pumaman was a 1980 film about an animal- 
powered paleontologist who becomes a badly 
dressed avenging hero (tan pants, a black shirt, and 
a red cape). Zorry Kid, created in 1968, was a paro- 
dy of Zorro. Leo Ortolani, a hilarious Matt Groen- 
ing-inspired cartoonist, writes and draws the long- 
running Rat-Man. Published by Marvel Comics' Ital- 
ian imprint Cult Comics, it spoofs the stereotypically 
diminutive stature of Europe and its comics, as well 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



** 



The Invaders 



as the stereotypically brawny self-assurance of both 
Marvel's American heroes and America itself. 



Super Pumby, a flying cat, hailed from a 1964 kids' 
comic. 



MEXICO 

There are hundreds of luchadores enmascara- 
dos (masked fighters/wrestlers) in Mexico who fight 
villains in the comics, the movies, and the real-life 
wrestling rings. The three most famous ones are 
Santo, the Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras. Other 
Mexican heroes include Flyman, Zooman, Super- 
volador, La Llanera Vengadora and her brother side- 
kick Fausto, giant Zor, and El Hombre Invisible. 
More modern characters include the teen hero 
Meteorix, Cygnus Comics' Creaturas de la Noche, 
superduck Ultrapato, and anthropomorphic heroes 
the Valiants. Ka-Boom Estudio has released Neme- 
sis 2000: La Alianza, the ghostly Spectrum, and 
marine group Hibridos del Mar. 

PHILIPPINES 

Heroes include El Gato, Japanese Bat, Kapitan 
Aksiyon, Captain Barbell, Maskarado, and the longest- 
running (since 1950) heroine, the buxom Darna. 
There are several Philippine superhero movies as 
well, including Super Islaw, Super B, and the campy 
gay hero She-Man: Mistress of the Universe. 

SPAIN 

Many heroes in Spain are published by Plane- 
ta's Libertino imprint, including the groups Triada 
Vertice (Mihura, Estigma, and Cascabel) and Iberia 
Inc. (Dolmen, Trueno, Lobisome, Drac de Ferro, 
Aquaviva, Trasnu, and Melkart), as well as solo 
heroes Gavilan and Le Loup Garou. Some 1940s 
heroes include the female vigilante La Entorcha and 
masked crime fighter El Encapuchado. The 1970s 
saw the birth of comedic superhero Super Lopez, 
whose adventures continue today and include other 
parody heroes such as La Chica Increible (Wonder 
Girl), El Mago (the Wizard), and Capitan Hispania. 



?0* 



OTHZP COUNTPISS 

Denmark has heroes Dukse Drengen (Hero Boy) 
and Natte Ravnen (Night Owl), while the former 
Yugoslavia published the scantily clad heroine Cat 
Claw. Israel is represented by Sabraman, first pub- 
lished in 1978, while Nigeria has the flying Power- 
man. And as if to show that all international borders 
could be crossed, in 2002 Scotland's Rough Cut 
Comics released the satirical publication The Free- 
dom Collective, imagining a Silver Age Marvel-style 
comic as if it were published in the Kremlin at the 
height of the cold war. The Collective is made up of 
members Mig-4, the Krimson Kommisar, ice goddess 
Ajys, rocky Homeland, and the monstrous Mastodon. 

Superheroes may have started out as an Ameri- 
can pleasure, but as the preceding information 
shows, the rest of the world loves ultra-powered men 
and women in tights, armor, and capes as well. — AM 

The Invaders 

Considering how all-pervasive superhero teams have 
become since the 1960s, it is surprising that there 
were so few around in the 1940s. DC Comics had 
the Justice Society of America and the Seven Sol- 
diers of Victory, and Fawcett had the Marvel Family, 
but Marvel Comics itself managed to produce pre- 
cisely two stories of its sole adult team, the All- 
Winners Squad (though, of course, their kid gangs, 
such as the Young Allies and the Tough Kid Squad, 
thrived). The All-Winners Squad appeared in All- 
Winners Comics #19 and #21, in late 1946. The 
comic consisted of Marvel's "big three" heroes, the 
Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and Captain America; 
the latter two's sidekicks Toro and Bucky; and two 
lesser-known heroes, the Whizzer and Miss America. 
Years later, longtime fan and writer Roy Thomas 
remembered how effective the combination of the 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



The Invaders 



big three had been, and used them again in a time- 
travel issue of The Avengers (#71, 1969), pitting the 
1940s and 1960s heroes against each other. 

In 1975, looking around for a new project, 
Thomas decided to revive the concept of the All-Win- 
ners Squad, minus the Whizzer and Miss America, 
and to create new, untold tales of the heroes in their 
World War II prime. Thomas used the team, now 
christened the Invaders (which he reasoned sound- 
ed less embarrassing than "All-Winners Squad") to 
fill in gaps or correct lapses in old continuity, reintro- 
duce forgotten heroes of the Golden Age 
(1938-1954), and create his own wartime charac- 
ters. The result was one of the most action-packed, 
hero-packed, and fun-packed comics of the 1970s. 

For art, Thomas turned to industry veteran Frank 
Robbins, who had been drawing the Johnny Hazard 
newspaper strip for decades and could provide just 
the right mixture of authentic period detail and slam- 
bang action. The team's first adventure appeared in 
Giant Sized Invaders #1 but, soon after, the decision 
to reduce its page count to that of a regular comic 
meant that its second issue was just plain Invaders 
#1; back then not many comics could boast of having 
two #1 issues! The team's origin was quite simple: 
All five members meet by coincidence, hot on the 
trail of the Nazis' answer to Captain America, Master- 
man (the first of many wonderfully kitsch villains), 
and are persuaded to stay together as a team by 
none other than Winston Churchill. 

Over the course of forty-one issues, one annu- 
al, and several crossovers and guest appearances, 
the Invaders traveled the world, from the home front 
to a blitzed London to Egypt, Berlin, and even the 
Warsaw ghetto. Among the outlandish villains they 
trounced were Brain Drain, U-Man, Baron Blood (an 
aristocratic vampire), Blue Bullet (a man wearing a 
giant bullet costume), Warrior Woman, Frankenstein 
and — of course — Adolf Hitler. The first new heroes 
to appear, the Liberty Legion, were in fact a round-up 
of some of Marvel's many short-lived (not to say for- 
gettable) wartime zeroes: the Red Raven, the Thin 
Man, Jack Frost, the Patriot, and Blue Diamond. 







Giant-Size Invaders #1 © 1975 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY FRANK ROBBINS AND JOHN ROMITA. 



These were joined by those leftover All-Winners, 
Miss America and the Whizzer. The Legion were actu- 
ally introduced in 1976 in Marvel Premiere #29 and 
then crossed over to the Invaders before guest-star- 
ring with the Thing for a couple of Marvel-Two-in-One 
yarns. Plans for their own comic went as far as draw- 
ing up a first issue but that was abandoned, though 
much later the Whizzer and Miss America were pro- 
moted to full-time Invaders, thus reuniting the origi- 
nal All-Winners Squad. 

Other Thomas creations included Lord 
Farnsworth, a.k.a. Union Jack (a British hero of 
World War I), his daughter Jacqueline (who gained 



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Iron Fist 



super speed to become the Spitfire), and her brother 
Brian, who was first the Destroyer — another Golden 
Age Marvel hero — before taking over the Union Jack 
costume from his now aged father. One of Thomas' 
most outre heroes was the superpowered Golem, 
conceived as a kind of Jewish Hulk — an indication of 
the tightrope walk between innovation and high 
camp that Thomas was walking on the Invaders pro- 
ject. Toward the end of the comic's first run, Thomas 
created a new, racially mixed kid group called the 
Kid Commandos, composed of Bucky, Toro, the 
Human Top, and Golden Girl. This particular Golden 
Girl was no relation to Captain America's erstwhile 
companion; she was, rather, comics' first Japanese- 
American heroine. Indeed, this team's creation grew 
out of one of the war's most controversial episodes: 
the internment of America's Asian community. 

Frank Robbins left the Invaders at the point of 
creation of the Kid Commandos, in issue #28, which 
was a blow from which the title never recovered; it 
was canceled with issue #41 in late 1979. Thomas 
returned for one last hurrah with a 1993 Invaders 
miniseries, which added the Thin Man to the team 
and re-introduced two of the company's longer-last- 
ing Golden Age superheroes: the Angel and the Blaz- 
ing Skull. Although it has been unfairly left in limbo 
by Marvel, the Invaders remains one of the compa- 
ny's most fondly remembered titles. — DAR 



Iron Ffrfc 



Historically on the prowl for new pop-culture fads to 
seize upon, Marvel Comics began exploiting kung fu 
films in the early 1970s, beginning with their hero 
Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu (Special Marvel Edi- 
tion #15, 1973). The early success of Shang-Chi — a 
fairly straight adaptation of the martial arts film 
hero, mixed with elements of Sax Rohmer's pulp 
stories of the 1910s and 1920s — convinced Marvel 
to try integrating such characters into the ranks of 
its costumed superheroes. Iron Fist (Daniel Rand), 
the creation of writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil 



Kane, represented the first such attempt (Marvel 
Premiere #15, 1974). 

Wealthy businessman Wendell Rand, an exile 
from the interdimensionally hidden Tibetan city of 
K'un-L'un, dies at the hands of his business partner 
Harold Meachum while seeking the city of his birth. 
Rand's wife Heather and their nine-year-old son 
Daniel end up stranded in the Himalayas; only the 
boy succeeds in reaching K'un-L'un alive. Inside the 
mystical realm — which resembles a cross between 
the Shangri-La of Frank Capra's 1937 film Lost Hori- 
zon and the eponymous Scottish village of the 
1947 Lemer and Loewe musical Brigadoon — young 
Danny is taken in by a martial artist named Lei 
Kung the Thunderer, who recognizes him as part of 
the royal line and spends a decade training him in 
all aspects of the martial arts, both physical and 
philosophical. At the age of 19, Rand undergoes his 
coming-of-age ritual by slaying Shou-Lao the Undy- 
ing, a powerful dragon. The combat leaves Rand 
with a stylized black dragon tattoo emblazoned 
across his chest and the Power of the Iron Fist — the 
ability to focus the power of his spirit (his "chi") into 
his hand, making it as strong as iron, all but imper- 
vious to harm, and capable of delivering devastating 
blows that crackle with mystic energies. Like the 
martial arts themselves, Rand's new power has 
more than one aspect, giving Rand the ability to 
heal as well as to destroy. His only vulnerability: 
When Rand uses his Iron Fist, his energy is deplet- 
ed, and he becomes exhausted for hours afterward. 

Intent on avenging his parents' deaths by 
killing Meachum, Rand leaves K'un-L'un for the Unit- 
ed States. But when he confronts the man whom he 
had hated for the past decade, Rand discovers that 
vengeance holds no solace and decides instead to 
settle for taking over his late father's position con- 
trolling the Rand-Meachum Corporation — only to wit- 
ness Meachum's murder at the hands of ninja 
assassins. The authorities blame Rand for the mur- 
der, and it takes several months for him to clear his 
name, with some help from female adventurer (and 



0b 



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Iron Fist 



future long-term ally) Misty Knight (Marvel Premiere 
#21, 1975). 

Iron Fist's "audition" in Marvel Premiere (a test- 
ing ground for new Marvel heroes, not unlike DCs 
Showcase title of the 1950s and 1960s) proved 
successful, despite frequent changes of creative 
personnel through 1974 and 1975, and landed the 
character in a self-titled series (Iron Fist vol. 1, 
1975) written by Chris Claremont and penciled by 
John Byrne. This creative team, though destined for 
fame in the early 1980s on X-Men, couldn't keep the 
series running past its fifteenth issue (1977), by 
which time the sun had set on the kung fu movie 
fad. But Claremont and Byrne continued presiding 
over Iron Fist's brief stint on Marvel's guest-star cir- 
cuit (Marvel Team-Up #63, 1977; Power Man #48, 
1977), as well as the first several issues of his 
lengthy tenure as half of Power Man and Iron Fist 
(formerly titled Power Man), which began in issue 
#49 (1978). After Claremont and Byrne left to con- 
centrate on X-Men, a raft of creative talent rotated in 
to replace them, including such writers as Ed Hanni- 
gan, Mary Jo Duffy, Bob Layton, Steven Grant, Mike 
W. Barr, Dennis O'Neil, Kurt Busiek, Archie Goodwin, 
Alan Rowlands, Jim Owsley, and Tony Isabella, and 
such pencilers as Mike Zeck, Sal Buscema, Lee 
Elias, Trevor Von Eedon, Marie Severin, Kerry Gam- 
mill, Greg LaRocque, Frank Miller, Denys Cowan, 
Keith Pollard, Ernie Chan, Geoff Isherwood, Richard 
Howell, Steve Geiger, and Mark Bright. 

Working together, Iron Fist and Power Man 
(Luke Cage) establish a business venture called 
Heroes for Hire, Inc., and their disparate tempera- 
ments — Rand's reserved wisdom and Cage's mercu- 
rial anger — prove to complement each other well 
(combined in a single title, these heroes ended up 
lasting far longer than either of them had done on 
their own). Of the innovation that the Power 
Man/Iron Fist character dynamic represented when 
it first appeared in the 1970s, latter-day Iron Fist 
writer Jay Faerber said, "Well for one thing, I think it 
was refreshing to see a white guy paired with a 
black guy. And they were equals. Luke wasn't 



Danny's sidekick or his driver. Luke's stories took 
center stage just as often as Danny's did, and that 
give and take was like a breath of fresh air, even if I 
was too young to recognize that appeal when I was 
originally reading the book." Despite their contrasts, 
some of which were occasionally played for laughs, 
one commonality that unites both heroes is their 
keen sense of conscience, a tendency to place the 
hero ethic above profits; they frequently work for 
free, despite being in high demand as detectives 
and bodyguards. 

One of Iron Fist's most significant travails 
occurred during the last few issues of the series; 
after Danny Rand's inadvertent destruction of his 
beloved K'un-L'un unhinges him, he turns evil (sym- 
bolized by the transformation of his usually green- 
and-yellow costume into a red-and-yellow one, a 
development that echoed the 1980 Claremont/Byrne 
X-Men "Dark Phoenix"). All efforts to purge Rand of 
this evil streak end up failing. In the final issue of the 
series in 1986 (Power Man and Iron Fist #125), Iron 
Fist apparently dies at the hands of a character 
named Captain Hero (not to be confused with Jug- 
head's superheroic alter ego at Archie Comics), and 
Power Man is framed for Rand's murder. "[Iron] Fist's 
death was supposed to be shocking and senseless," 
writer Owsley said in a 1999 interview. "It wasn't bad 
writing. The fact that thirteen years after the fact peo- 
ple are still annoyed about it speaks to the quality of 
the work, the impact of which has apparently not 
diminished overtime." 

But thanks to John Byrne's exercises in 
retroactive continuity (known in the comic-book 
trade as a "retcon"), the dead Iron Fist later turns 
out to have been a mere doppelganger, with the real 
Rand imprisoned back in K'un-L'un (and still strug- 
gling to control an evil side of his character). Rand's 
martial arts instructor Lei Kung joins forces with 
Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Daughters of 
the Dragon (Heroes for Hire veterans Misty Knight 
and Colleen Wing) to free Rand and return him to 
New York City (Namor, the Sub-Mariner #23 and 
#28, 1992). Iron Fist subsequently starred in a self- 



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Iron Man 



titled (and critically panned) two-issue miniseries in 
1996 (written by James Felder and drawn by Robert 
Brown) before returning to a greatly expanded 
Heroes for Hire, Inc., which includes not only Power 
Man and Iron Fist, but also the Hulk, Hercules (his 
immortality now a thing of the past), Ant Man (Scott 
Lang), the Black Knight (Dane Whitman), and the 
martial artist known as the White Tiger (Heroes for 
Hire #1-#19, 1997-1999, written by Roger Stern 
and John Ostrander, with pencils by Paschalis Ferry, 
Scott Kolins, Martin Egeland, and Mary Mitchell). 

Iron Fist surfaced again in another three-issue 
miniseries during this period (Iron Fist vol. 3, 
1998), with stories by Dan Jurgens and art by Jack- 
son Guice; Iron Fist assisted Quicksilver and the 
Inhumans in "The Siege of Wundagore," thanks to 
Ostrander and Ferry (Heroes for Hire/Quicksilver 
Annual 1998). At the turn of the millennium Iron 
Fist crossed paths with the X-Men's Wolverine (Iron 
Fist/Wolverine: The Return ofK'un-L'un #l-#4, 
2000-2001, written by Jay Faerber and drawn by 
Jamal Igle). He was back again to wrestle with more 
personal demons and with the Black Panther in the 
latter's series (vol. 2 #38-#40, 2002), and 
regained an ongoing title of his own in 2004, in the 
first comics work by writer Jim Mullaney of the 
Destroyer paperback series. Over the course of 
nearly three decades, Danny Rand has transcended 
not only death, but also the comics medium itself; a 
live-action Iron Fist motion picture reportedly star- 
ring Ray Park (the agile Darth Maul from Star Wars 
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace) has been 
announced for a 2006 release. — MAM 

Iron Man 

Ever since his creation in early 1963 (in Tales of 
Suspense #39), Iron Man has been one of Marvel 
Comics' heavy hitters, a consistent seller in his own 
title and a regular guest in other comics, including 
The Avengers. In his alter ego of Anthony (Tony) 
Stark, wealthy playboy inventor, owner of Stark Inter- 



%& 



national, and (let's not beat about the bush here) 
an international arms manufacturer, he was an 
unlikely figure for young readers to identify with. In 
Marvel's early days, much was made of the compa- 
ny's creation of "heroes with problems," and Stark's 
was potentially fatal: While demonstrating some 
new weapons in the jungles of Vietnam, he is 
injured by a bomb and captured by a Vietcong war- 
lord. With his life ebbing away, Stark is forced to 
work for his captors, creating new weapons, but 
unknown to them he secretly builds himself a high- 
tech suit of armor that will both keep him alive and 
make him a walking arsenal. 

Once in the gray, clanking suit, Stark defeats 
the warlord and returns to the United States to 
assume the role of a superhero, but his tragedy is 
that he can never remove the chest plate that 
keeps him alive. (Indeed, Stark admits, "The name 
of Iron Man makes strong men tremble! But, what 
good does it do me?? I can never relax ... never be 
without my chest plate — never lead a normal life!") 
To compound his dilemma, the armor needs con- 
stant recharging and has the unfortunate tendency 
to run out of power at the most inconvenient 
moments, usually in the middle of a pitched battle. 
With many of his stories taking place in the vast 
Stark International complex, readers were soon 
introduced to Iron Man's rather morose chauffeur, 
"Happy" Hogan; perky secretary "Pepper" Potts; 
and the inevitable love triangle. Hogan loved Potts 
but knew that he would never be good enough for 
her; Potts loved Stark but he was her boss; and 
Stark loved Potts but was held back by the prospect 
of his keeling over dead at any moment. 

As very much the establishment superhero, it is 
perhaps no surprise that Iron Man was Marvel's pre- 
mier red-baiting strip for its first decade, sometimes 
even showing Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev plot- 
ting against Stark. Almost all Iron Man's major vil- 
lains were communists of some hue or nationality, 
including Titanium Man, an armor-wearing Soviet 
giant (later immortalized by singer Paul McCartney in 
a song on his Venus and Mars album). Notable 



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Iron Man 



exceptions were the Melter, the Black Knight (one of 
many Black Knights in comics), Count Nefaria, the 
Maggia (an all-purpose crime cartel), and the extra- 
ordinary Firebrand, who was a sort of costumed agi- 
tator specializing in leading demonstrations. By the 
late 1960s, Potts had given up pining for Stark and 
had married the nearest man — who just happened 
to be Hogan. So Stark embarked on a series of 
doomed, tragic romances. The first of these, Whit- 
ney Frost, turned out to be the mysterious leader of 
the Maggia, but then became Madame Masque after 
her face was scarred. Happy Hogan was periodically 
called in to help Iron Man and invariably managed to 
turn himself into a bald giant called the Freak. 
There's no doubt about it: Knowing Tony Stark was 
dangerous business. 

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Iron Man 
was a mainstay of Marvel's output — appearing in all 
sorts of consumer merchandise, featured in the 
Marvel Superheroes television cartoon show from 
1966 to 1968, and taking a bow as the hero in 
William Rotsler's novel And Call My Killer ... Modok 
(1979). The character was one of the charter mem- 
bers of the Avengers and has maintained a regular 
presence in that superhero group ever since. Stark's 
millions have come in handy, for instance, for fund- 
ing the plush Avengers' mansion, and his technical 
wizardry has enabled him to devise all manner of 
means for getting the team out of trouble. That 
same technical brilliance also created an ever-evolv- 
ing suit of armor, and his hulking gray costume was 
soon transformed into a sleek, shining red-and-gold 
number bristling with gadgets and ordnance. For his 
six-year run in Tales to Astonish, Iron Man was pre- 
dominantly written by his co-creator, Stan Lee, and 
drawn by Don Heck or Gene Colan, and when he was 
given his own title in 1968 George Tuska became 
his artist for most of the next one hundred issues. 
With that sort of creative stability, fans generally 
knew what to expect and, if truth be told, this most 
middle-aged of heroes was occasionally rather dull. 

That all changed in the 1980s, when the young 
writing team of David Michelinie and Bob Layton, 




Tales of Suspense #79 © 1966 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY GENE COLAN AND JACK ABEL. 



along with artist John Romita Jr., decided to shake 
up the comic. Under the new regime, things began 
to go very wrong for Iron Man, as Stark International 
was hit by industrial espionage. A despairing Stark 
took to the bottle and had to draft in one of his 
employees (and best friend), Jim Rhodes, as a 
stand-in Iron Man. Were the fans ready for an alco- 
holic superhero? They certainly were, and for the 
first time in its existence, the feature actually start- 
ed winning awards. However, once the creative team 
left for other projects, the awards dried up and the 
comic entered a period of almost constant change. 

Rhodes regularly took over the Iron Man man- 
tle (in response to Stark falling off the wagon) and 



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Isis 



eventually struck out on his own as War Machine, a 
sort of ethical world policeman, suited up in Iron 
Man armor. Stark's company collapsed, and he had 
to start again from scratch. He was paralyzed by an 
assassin's bullet (but recovered three issues later), 
got drunk again, died and came back to life, and got 
drunk once more. Throughout, readers noticed how 
Iron Man stories depicted the contrast between 
Stark's vulnerability in his civilian identity and his 
invincibility as a superheroic modern knight in shin- 
ing armor. One well-received interlude in Stark's 
troubled times was a storyline called "Armor Wars," 
which revealed that various Marvel villains had 
been ripping off Stark's technology for years for 
their own weapons. 

In the 1990s, Marvel decided to put Stark out 
of his misery and killed him off (Iron Man #325, 
1996). However, one issue later a younger Stark 
was plucked from an alternate dimension and 
began where the original left off (although without 
the alcohol). The second Tony Stark revels in his 
role as a playboy with the ego to match, and his 
comic shows all the signs of continuing for years to 
come. — DAR 



isis 



Three thousand years in the past, the Egyptian royal 
sorcerer Hapsethsut gave his queen, Isis, a magic 
amulet that endowed her — and her descendants — 
with the powers of the animals and the elements. 
"You will soar as the falcon soars, run with the speed 
of gazelles and command the elements of the sky and 
the earth," he said. In 1975, science teacher Andrea 
Thomas excavated the amulet of Isis and found she 
was heir to its secrets. Now, by holding the amulet 
and exclaiming "Oh mighty Isis!" Andrea becomes the 
superheroine Isis, "dedicated foe of evil, defender of 
the weak, champion of truth and justice." 

With the live-action Shazam! show a hit on 
CBS, producers Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott 



wanted a second superhero show to freshen up the 
second season. Taking a cue from the Egyptian ori- 
gins of Captain Marvel, they created a female coun- 
terpart in Isis. They cast exotic beauty Joanna 
Cameron in the lead roles of Andrea Thomas and 
Isis, and outfitted her in a skimpy white tunic and 
miniskirt, platform boots, and Egyptian jewelry. 

The Shazaml/lsis Hour debuted in September 
1975, with sixteen half-hour episodes produced in 
the first season. Other cast members for the Filma- 
tion series included fellow teacher Rick Mason 
(Brian Cutler) and students Cindy Lee (Joanna Pang) 
and Renee Carroll (Ronalda Douglas), none of 
whom ever figured out that Thomas was Isis. 
Thomas also had a pet crow named Tut who would 
sometimes aid her in emergency situations. By 
reciting rhyming couplets such as "0 zephyr winds 
which blow on high, lift me now so I can fly," Isis 
could fly, gain super strength, and even stop time! 

Isis guest-starred in three episodes of Shaz- 
am!, and Captain Marvel reciprocated in three of 
the six second-season Isis episodes. Another seven 
Isis scripts were completed, but were never filmed. 
Although The Shazaml/lsis Hour was canceled in 
September 1977, Isis continued on as a solo 
series of reruns for another year (some sources call 
the series The Secrets of Isis). From 1976 to 1977 
DC Comics licensed the character and published 
eight comic books with her (written by Denny O'Neil, 
Steve Skeates, and Jack C. Harris and illustrated by 
an array of artists, including Ric Estrada, Wally 
Wood, Mike Vosburg, Vince Colletta, and Frank Gia- 
coia); other licensing included dolls, puzzles, cos- 
tumes, coloring books, and more. 

In 1978, Filmation produced Tarzan and the 
Super 7 lor CBS. The ninety-minute animated show 
featured rebroadcasts of Batman and Tarzan 
episodes, as well as five other rotating segments. 
One of these segments was Freedom Force, a team 
of historical heroes that included Isis, Hercules, Super 
Samurai, Sinbad, and Merlin. Isis was voiced by Diane 
Pershing in the five produced episodes. The Freedom 
Force episodes were later released on video. 



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A Legend of Isis one-shot comic book was the United States, and although the series has 

released in 2002 from Image Comics, but although been seen in foreign countries, neither program- 

the heroine was similarly dressed, it wasn't the TV ming chiefs nor zephyr winds have brought mighty 

character. Filmation's assets have been sold and Isis back to American fans. — AM 
resold multiple times since Isis went off the air in 



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Justice league 
of America 

"Just imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time ... 
have banded together as the Justice League of 
America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and 
whenever they appear!" So screamed the text of a 
DC Comics house advertisement in 1960, promoting 
The Brave and the Bold #28 (March 1960). In that 
story, the first superhero team of the Silver Age 
(1956-1969) was established, and Wonder Woman, 
Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, 
and even Superman and Batman came together as 
a group to fight crime. Their legacy would last well 
over forty years to the modern day. And the current 
Justice League of America, now known as JLA, still 
contains the same members, even if some faces 
behind the masks have changed. 

The Justice League was the brainchild of DC 
editor Julius Schwartz, who saw the smash revivals 
of Flash and Green Lantern as a time to update and 
reintroduce one of DCs most venerable older super- 
hero groups, the Justice Society of America. 
Schwartz wanted the new group to have a different 
name, as he related in The Amazing World of DC 

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Comics #14 (1977) when he said, "To me, 'Society' 
meant something you found on Park Avenue. I felt 
that 'League' was a stronger word, one that the 
readers could identify with because of baseball 
leagues." Schwartz assigned famed Golden Age 
(1938-1954) sci-fi writer Gardner Fox to script the 
new series, and artists Mike Sekowsky and Bernard 
Sachs to illustrate the book. After two further 
issues of The Brave and the Bold, the JLA was 
awarded its own title with Justice League of Ameri- 
ca #1 (November 1960). 

The early Justice League of America stories 
showcased the creative team's ability to introduce 
exciting new villains, such as Starro the starfish alien 
conqueror; power-stealing android Amazo; mesmeriz- 
ing three-eyed alien Despero; tubby Professor For- 
tune; magician Felix Faust; Dr. Light; the Royal Flush 
Gang; Queen Bee; and many others. At the group's 
mountain hideaway "Secret Sanctuary" — outside 
Happy Harbor on the East Coast — hot DC stars were 
welcomed in as new members. Green Arrow joined in 
issue #4 (May 1961), while the Atom came along in 
#14 (September 1962). The team even had a hip- 
speaking teen sidekick named Snapper Carr, who 
managed to help his super-buddies often. 

The origin of the JLA wasn't revealed until issue 
#9 (February 1962), wherein the team members 



**S 



Justice League of America 




Justice League of America #200 < 

COVER ART BY GEORGE PEREZ. 



1982 DC Comics. 



fought alien champions from the planet Appellax. But 
the most memorable stories from the Justice League's 
early days came with issues #21-#22 (August-Sep- 
tember 1963), which saw the heroes reuniting with 
their forebears, the Justice Society of America. As had 
been seen in The Rash #123 (September 1961), the 
JSA lived on Earth-Two, while the JLA lived on Earth- 
One. Piercing the barrier between the Earths enabled 
the two teams to fight super-criminals together. The 
team-up proved so popular that the stories — most of 
which included the word "Crisis" in their titles — 
became a yearly event in Justice League of America. 

Fox and Sekowsky left the series in 1968, and 
writer Denny O'Neill and artist Dick Dillin came 



aboard as replacements. Dillin penciled 120 con- 
secutive League issues until his death in 1980, 
whereupon George Perez and other artists took 
over. More heroes joined or were offered honorary 
memberships in the JLA, including Hawkman, Black 
Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, 
Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, Zatanna, Firestorm, the 
Phantom Stranger, Adam Strange, the Creeper, 
Metamorpho, Sargon the Sorceror, and others. 
Some resigned or took leaves of absence, including 
Green Arrow and Wonder Woman. The team moved 
their headquarters from the mountain to an orbiting 
satellite, constructed using Thanagarian technology 
(from Hawkman's homeworld) and requiring mem- 
bers to use transportation tubes to gain entrance. 

In 1984, the Justice League of America series 
was radically revamped. The team disbanded after 
a Martian attack, and then reformed with Aquaman 
as the leader. Headquartered in a bunker in an 
abandoned Detroit factory — and later in the original 
mountain base — this Justice League was full of 
newcomers such as animalistic Vixen, second-gen- 
eration strongman Steel, chameleon-like Gypsy, 
breakdancer Vibe, and a few old-timers. The team 
didn't click with readers for very long, and Justice 
League of America was canceled with issue #261 
(April 1987). 

During 1987's Legends miniseries, some of 
the "Detroit" Leaguers were killed, and a new JLA 
was formed. Members of the new Justice League 
series (debuting May 1987) included Batman, Mart- 
ian Manhunter, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Mr. Mira- 
cle, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Captain Marvel, 
and new heroine Dr. Light. Joining shortly thereafter 
were Booster Gold, the Creeper, Captain Atom, Ice- 
Maiden/Ice, Green Flame/Fire, Big Barda, Dr. Fate, 
and Russian hero Rocket Red. A mysterious bene- 
factor named Maxwell Lord helped run the team, 
getting them international diplomatic status. 

The new series proved popular with the fans, 
largely because of the humorous ways its creators 
played with the heroes. J. M. DeMatteis and Keith 
Giffen never took the characters too seriously, and 



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Justice League of America in the Media 



penciler Kevin Maguire proved adept at facial reac- 
tions that conveyed more than dialogue ever could. 
The popular series was renamed Justice League 
International with issue #7 (November 1987), and 
then Justice League America with #26 (May 1989). 
Multiple spin-offs were soon published: Justice 
League Europe (1989-1993), which became Justice 
League International (1993-1994); Justice League 
Quarterly (1990-1994); Justice League Task Force 
(1993-1994); and Extreme Justice (1995-1996) 
filled the stands, with each book spotlighting a dif- 
ferent crew of superheroes operating from Justice 
League embassies throughout the world. Eventually 
though, the various series' popularity tapered off, 
and with Justice League America #113 (August 
1996), all the Leaguers were out of work. 

A few appearances passed by, and another 
series was launched with a shorter-titled JLA issue 
#1 (January 1997), though the characters in the 
book still referred to their group by its full title most 
of the time. This time the big guns were brought 
back to confront earth-shaking menaces and galaxy 
conquerors as they had at the beginning; unlike the 
one-issue Silver Age tales, however, these stories 
usually took four to six issues to tell. "Hot" creators 
came and went on the series; JLA held its own in 
sales. This time the lineup included Superman, Bat- 
man, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green 
Lantern, and Plastic Man, although membership 
would grow and expand to include many of DCs 
large roster of heroes, including Huntress, Steel, 
Zauriel, Aztek, Tomorrow Woman, Orion, and many 
others. More recently, Hourman, Faith, and Manitou 
Raven (a redesign of cartoon Super Friends mem- 
ber Apache Chief) have joined. This League oper- 
ates from the Watchtower, a high-tech base on the 
moon; ex-Batgirl Oracle helps them with information 
for their missions. 

With its own series a solid seller for DC 
Comics, JLA has been free to branch out again. A 
maxi-series of JLA: Year One (1998) retold the for- 
mative year of the team, retroactively inserting 
Black Canary in Wonder Woman's spot, according to 



revised DC continuity. In 2003, a miniseries called 
Formerly Known as the Justice League reunited the 
"comedy-era" team of DeMatteis, Giffen, and 
Maguire to relate new adventures of the second- 
rate squad. The series was a surprise sales hit, and 
further volumes were announced. Writer Paul Dini 
and painter Alex Ross also delivered a treat to fans 
with the tabloid-sized JLA: Secret Origins (2002) 
and JLA: Liberty and Justice (2003). And a new 
comic-book series based on the popular Justice 
League cartoon series debuted in January 2002 for 
younger audiences, titled Justice League Adven- 
tures. After forty-three years, it seems that the fans 
still thrill to see the mightiest heroes of our time 
banding together as the Justice League of America 
... and as long as there are DC superheroes and vil- 
lains, perhaps they always will. — AM 

Justice league 

of America in 

the Media 

DC Comics' mightiest heroes may have banded 
together to fight evil in the pages of comic books, 
but their history in the media has been a bit more 
fractured. Until the early 2000s, the Justice League 
of America had only made a handful of appearances 
on television, and none in the movies. And yet, if 
the average person looked at the membership of 
the JLA, he or she might classify them easily: as the 
Super Friends. 

The first appearance of the Justice League was 
in animated form on Filmation's The Superman- 
Aquaman Hour of Adventure. Debuting on Septem- 
ber 9, 1967, the hour-long show featured two Super- 
man adventures and a Superboy story in one half- 
hour, and two Aquaman adventures and a guest-hero 
in the other half-hour. Each of the guest-heroes had 
three seven-minute stories. Guest heroes included 



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Justice League of America in the Media 




Legends of the Superheroes stars (from left to right): The Flash (Rod Haase), 
Robin (Burt Ward), Black Canary (Danuta Rylko-Soderman), Hawkman (Bill Nuck 
ols), Huntress (Barbara Joyce), Retired Man (William Schallert), Batman (Adam 
West), Captain Marvel (Garrett Craig), and Green Lantern (Howard Murphy). 



the Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, the Atom, Teen 
Titans, and Justice League of America. This latter 
team consisted of Superman, Flash, Hawkman, 
Green Lantern, and the Atom. The guest-hero entries 
were repeated the following year when the series 
split; The Adventures ofAquaman aired from Sep- 
tember 1968 to September 1969. 

Although the lead characters — Superman, Bat- 
man, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman — were 



similar to the core of the JLA, 
Hanna-Barbera's animated Super 
Friends series, which began on 
ABC in September 1973, was not 
technically the Justice League. 
The group was known as "the 
Super Friends" to civilians and 
villains alike on the series. Even 
in later episodes, when other JLA 
members such as Green 
Lantern, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, 
Flash, and Atom joined for adven- 
tures, the team retained its 
friendly sobriquet in all but a few 
instances when the name "Jus- 
tice League" crept in. By 1984, 
when Kenner's Super Powers toy 
line was going strong, the Super 
Friends became the Super Pow- 
ers Team, and Firestorm joined. 

There has never been a first 
live-action appearance of the Jus- 
tice League on television, but 
that wasn't for lack of trying. On 
January 18 and 25, 1979, NBC 
aired Hanna-Barbera's Legends 
of the Super-Heroes, a two-part 
story subtitled "The Challenge" 
and "The Roast." In the first part, 
the heroes were represented by 
Batman (Adam West), Robin 
(Burt Ward), Captain Marvel (Gar- 
rett Craig), Black Canary (Danuta 
Rylko-Soderman), Flash (Rod 
Haase), Huntress (Barbara Joyce), Green Lantern 
(Howard Murphy), Hawkman (Bill Nuckols), and H-B 
creation Scarlet Cyclone/Retired Man (William 
Schallert). In a plot involving a bomb, they faced the 
villains gathered against them, which included Mor- 
dru (Gabriel Dell), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Dr. 
Sivana (Howard Morris), Sinestro (Charlie Callas), 
Solomon Grundy (Mickey Morton), Weather Wizard 
(Jeff Altman), and Giganta (A'leisha Brevard). 



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In "The Roast," emcee Ed McMahon hosted a 
roast of the heroes while they sat around and were 
ribbed by villains and other superheroic colleagues. 
Added to the mix this time were heroes Ghetto Man 
(Brad Sanders) and the Atom (Alfie Wise), plus vil- 
lainess Aunt Minerva (Ruth Buzzi). Neither of the 
Legends of the Super-Heroes specials ever aired 
again. But at least they aired once, which is more 
than the next set of Justice League telefilms got a 
chance to do. 

In 1989 and 1990, Lorimar and Magnum Pro- 
ductions were working on a two-hour television pilot 
for Justice League of America. Hampered by the 
fact that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, 
Flash, and Green Lantern were already optioned, 
they were forced to use less-known characters. Tak- 
ing several pages from the JLA series of that time 
period (the humorous one), they chose Martian 
Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Mis- 
ter Miracle, Big Barda, Maxwell Lord, and Oberon, in 
a convoluted and silly plot against a Lord of Chaos. 
Four script drafts were produced by James Caape, 
David Arnott, and Jeff Freilich before the project was 
scrapped. 

The next Justice League of America telefilm 
project actually was produced in 1997 as a pilot for 
CBS, directed by Felix Enriquez Alcala and an 
uncredited Lewis Teague, and scripted by Lome 
Cameron and David Hoselton. Again following the 
humorous League stories, it featured a rotund Mart- 
ian Manhunter (David Ogden Stiers), Green 
Lantern/Guy Gardner (Matthew Settle), the Flash 
(Ken Johnston), the Atom (Jon Kassir), Fire 
(Michelle Hurd), and Ice (Kim Oja). Operating out of 
their underwater base — Manhunter's Martian 
ship — the JLA tries to protect New Metro from a vil- 
lain called "the Weatherman" (Miguel Ferrer). The 
characters were treated as slackers, the costumes 
were dreadful, and the story was trite; small wonder 
that CBS passed on the project and it never aired in 
the United States. It did air in other countries — Eng- 
land, Germany, Brazil, Israel, and others — in two dif- 
ferent forms. One was a straight-ahead narrative, 



while the other was presented pseudo-documentary 
style, splicing in interviews with the heroes to the 
action footage! 

It would take animation for the proper Justice 
League to be seen again on television. First, WB's 
Batman Beyond would guest-star the futuristic Jus- 
tice League Unlimited in two November 2000 
episodes. Then, following the success of Batman: 
The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated 
Series, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett 
pitched a new Justice League series in 1998. The 
following year, Warner Bros, commissioned the 
show for the Cartoon Network. Not aimed at young 
audiences, Justice League played it straight when it 
debuted on November 1, 2001. The core group 
included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, 
Green Lantern/John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, 
Flash, and Hawkgirl. The heroes banded together in 
a three-part "Secret Origins" tale, and then had 
mostly two-part adventures from then on. Episodes 
were aired first in full-screen, and secondly in 
widescreen, with black bars obscuring the top and 
bottom of the picture (the producers originally want- 
ed to do the series in widescreen). 

The Justice League heroes work out of the 
Watchtower, a satellite in geosynchronous orbit 
around the Earth. They have fought an impressive 
array of comic-book villains, including Lex Luthor, 
the Joker, Kanjar Ro, the Manhunters, Deadshot, 
Felix Faust, Mongul, Gorilla Grodd, and Vandal Sav- 
age. They have also teamed up with other heroes 
such as Aquaman, Metamorpho, the Green Lantern 
Corps, the Blackhawks, the Demon, and Sgt. Rock. 
Many well-known Hollywood talents have lent their 
voices to the series, including Smallville's Michael 
Rosenbaum, Mad TV's Phil LaMarr, Mark Hamill, 
Gary Cole, John Rhys-Davies, Robert Englund, 
Patrick Duffy, and even David Ogden Stiers (though 
he played Solivar instead of Martian Manhunter). 

In March 2003, the Justice League guest- 
starred on two episodes of the WB's animated Stat- 
ic Shock! cartoon. Later that fall, Justice League 
was moved to a one-hour block, and the two-part 



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Justice Society of America 



shows were combined. Due to outside licensing, it 
seems unlikely that a Justice League film or live- 
action series will ever be produced, but fans are 
happy with the animated series, which finally gives 
the Justice League of America the show it 
deserves. — AM 

Justice Society 
of America 

It's a rare superhero team that can be said to have 
created a whole genre, but the Justice Society of 
America (JSA) did just that in the pages of All Star 
Comics. Simply put, they were the first superteam 
in comics history — the first time that superheroes 
banded together to fight a common foe. The team's 
origin has its roots in the confusing development of 
DC Comics or, to be more precise, in the creation of 
its sister company, All-American Publications. In 
1939, DC owner Harry Donenfeld joined forces with 
industry pioneer Max (M. C.) Gaines to form an off- 
shoot called Ail-American, which would have its own 
editorial base (led by chief editor Sheldon Mayer) 
and its own characters. Within two years of the 
company's creation its self-titled publication Ail- 
American Comics had amassed a formidable roster 
of heroes, including the Flash, Hawkman, Johnny 
Thunder, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Dr. Mid-Nite. 

All Star Comics was one of many Golden Age 
(1938-1954) anthology comics stuffed to the gills 
with superheroes, but with its third issue (Winter 
1940) the decision was made to put them all 
together into a team. Mayer and writer Gardner Fox 
combined their own All-American heroes with some 
of DCs characters, notably Dr. Fate, Hourman, 
Sandman, and the Spectre, and the Justice Society 
of America was born. For its first few years, the 
strip featured individual adventures of the various 
heroes (often drawn by their regular creative 
teams), usually pitted against a common foe, culmi- 



nating in the group all meeting up in the last few 
pages. With a length of up to fifty-eight pages, the 
tales had an epic quality that captivated readers, 
despite the occasionally crude artwork on show. 
The momentum of World War II only increased the 
comic's excitement as the team took on the Axis 
hordes and even went so far as to join the army 
(where they were also occasionally known as the 
Freedom Battalion). 

Early on, management decided to showcase 
those heroes without their own comics (which is 
why Batman and Superman were notable absen- 
tees) and, as Flash and Green Lantern gained their 
own titles, they were eased out, as was Hourman 
(to make way for DCs big hope of 1942, Starman). 
Issue #8 saw the first appearance anywhere of All- 
American's biggest star, Wonder Woman, who was 
inducted into the group a few issues later, although 
she mostly had to make do with being the team 
secretary until issue #39! In late 1944, the comic 
witnessed a bigger upheaval when All-American 
owner Gaines split from DC over a row with DC 
owner Harry Donenfeld (who had given half of his 
share of All-American to DCs accountant, Jack 
Liebowitz). Consequently, DC regulars the Spectre 
and Starman were booted out (joining recent 
evictees Sandman and Dr. Fate, who had just seen 
their own solo series canceled). A year later, Gaines 
sold out his share in the company to Donenfeld, 
and All-American was formally merged with DC. Sur- 
prisingly, however, the Justice Society remained 
wholly made up of All-American heroes to its end. 

By the mid-1940s, the comic was at its peak, 
with the return of the Flash and Green Lantern, 
improved art from such young talents as Alex Toth, 
Carmine Infantino, and Joe Kubert, and scripts from 
Fox, Robert Kanigher, and John Broome. The JSA 
had also amassed a formidable array of foes, 
including the Wizard, the Brain Wave, Degaton, Van- 
dal Savage, the Psycho Pirate, and the Injustice 
Society; they would all serve as the team's principle 
enemies for decades to come. Wildcat and Mr. Ter- 
rific (both from the pages of Sensation Comics) 



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Justice Society of America 



made fleeting appearances in 
1945, but it was the Black 
Canary (introduced to the team 
three years later, in issue #38) 
who was to be the last significant 
new member. DC canceled 
almost all its superhero books in 
1949 but All Star Comics hung 
on for a few years longer as the 
last refuge for All-American's 
once-cherished superheroes. 
Their final appearance came in 
issue #57 in 1951 and with the 
following issue the comic was 
retitled All-Star Western, signaling 
the end of an era. 

In the ensuing years, the JSA 
became the focus for much of 
comic fandom and were the sub- 
ject of numerous fanzine articles. 
When DC started reviving its long- 
lost heroes in the late 1950s, the 
team was the inspiration behind 
the Justice League of America, 
who in turn inspired Marvel 
Comics' Fantastic Four. Soon, the 
clamor for the JSA inspired Julius 
Schwartz (the JSA's final editor, 
and then-current editor of the Jus- 
tice League) to reintroduce the 
Society in a two-part team-up 
with the League in 1963. 
Schwartz and writer Fox rational- 
ized the JSA's reappearance by establishing that 
they were in fact from a parallel planet — called 
Earth-Two — which was apparently where all the 
1940s and early 1950s DC/All-American adven- 
tures had actually taken place. 

The Justice League story proved to be so popu- 
lar that Schwartz decided to make the team-up an 
annual event, which was to last until 1985. The Jus 
tice Society members featured in the team-ups 
hailed from various periods of the strip, seemingly 





t4 Startling Adventure 
ojOU JUSTICE SOCIETY^ AMERICA! 



All Star Comics #37 © 1947 DC Comics. 
COVER ART BY IRWIN HASEN. 



chosen at random. Previously little-seen characters, 
such as Wildcat, Superman (the Earth-Two version), 
Hourman, and Mr. Terrific became regulars and the 
Earth-Two Robin was introduced to the team. These 
crossovers sparked interest in the individual 
heroes, leading to more guest appearances in such 
comics as The Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, and The 
Brave and the Bold, while the Spectre was given his 
own, short-lived title (the first of many Spectre 
series). Finally, the groundswell of affection for the 



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Justice Society of America 



team culminated in All-Star Comics being revived in 
1976 with issue #58 (ignoring the many issues of 
All-Star Western), twenty-five years after their last 
Golden Age adventure. 

However, the new All-Star was no mere exercise 
in nostalgia. Writer Gerry Conway introduced a new 
group of younger heroes: the Star-Spangled Kid, 
Robin, and a new superheroine, Superman's feisty 
and flirtatious cousin, Powergirl. This new group 
called themselves the Super Squad. The intergener- 
ational conflict between the aging JSA and the 
Super Squad enlivened a well-crafted comic, with 
the grizzled ex-boxer Wildcat, something of a bit 
player in the 1940s, emerging as a star at last. In 
its later years, the Justice Society had become a 
rare showcase for powerful female characters; both 
Wonder Woman and Black Canary took prominent 
roles. Similarly, the new All-Star featured strong 
women: In addition to Powergirl, the comic also 
starred the much darker Huntress (introduced in 
issue #69), a.k.a. Helena Wayne, later revealed to 
be the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. The 
Huntress went on to her own backup in Wonder 
Woman and Batman Family, as well as numerous 
Batman titles, a couple of her own series in the 
1990s, and a starring role in the Birds of Prey title. 
Unfortunately, she could not inspire the public to 
buy All-Star Comics, and it was canceled with issue 
#74, while the JSA briefly moved over to the pages 
of Adventure Comics, where the Earth-Two Batman 
was killed off. Undeterred by this setback, DC still 
had faith in the team and, over the next two 
decades, no fewer than ten Justice Society-inspired 
titles were launched. 

Of the many fans who clamored for the team's 
revival in the early 1960s, Roy Thomas (then editor 
of the legendary fanzine Alter Ego) was one of the 
most vocal. In the years that followed, he rose to 
become the editor-in-chief and one of the top writ- 
ers at Marvel Comics, but by 1981 he was looking 
to make his mark at DC and his first project 
involved his beloved Justice Society, albeit some- 
what tangentially. All-Star Squadron was set at the 



dawn of World War II, and over its six-year existence 
featured pretty much all the JSA at one time or 
another, but its focus was on those Golden Age 
stars passed over by All-Star Comics. The team con- 
tained old DC heroes Johnny Quick, Robotman, Lib- 
erty Belle, and the Shining Knight, plus two charac- 
ters from rival company Quality Comics, Firebrand 
and Tarantula, and one new creation, Amazing 
Man — the first African-American hero set in that 
era. Much as he had done with Marvel's Invaders, 
Thomas wove ancient strands of comic-book conti- 
nuity with historical events and military set pieces 
to fine effect. 

The success of these Earth-Two heroes 
inspired Thomas to revive their contemporary 
adventures and, possibly piqued by the Super 
Squad, he created Infinity Inc., together with artist 
Jerry Ordway. Infinity Inc. characters were the off- 
spring of various superheroes who had been reject- 
ed by the "grown-up" JSA. They had banded togeth- 
er to prove their elders and betters wrong. The 
team consisted of Fury (daughter of Wonder 
Woman), the Silver Scarab and Northwind (son and 
godson respectively of Hawkman), Nuklon (godson 
of the Atom), Jade and Obsidian (Green Lantern's 
children), and Brainwave Junior, along with disaffect- 
ed younger JSA-ers Power Girl, Huntress, and Star 
Spangled Kid. Slick, modern, and fast-moving, the 
comic was a fine companion to the All-Star 
Squadron, and later introduced new incarnations of 
Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Wildcat. However, all 
was not well in the DC boardroom. 

The powers-that-be had been wary about the 
sheer volume of past history that their heroes were 
carrying, and felt that their whole line needed to be 
simplified and updated. In the wake of the creation 
of the Earth-Two concept, several other alternative 
universes had sprung up, including Earth-X for the 
heroes bought from Quality Comics, Earth-S for Cap- 
tain Marvel, and even Earth Prime for our own 
world. DC decided that they all had to go, and in the 
1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries the vari- 
ous worlds were merged, and numerous comics 



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were given "year-one" relaunches. But if the (heroic) 
world began in 1985, where did that leave the old 
Justice Society with their Golden Age counterparts 
of Wonder Woman, Superman, et al.? Thomas coun- 
tered this confusion with yet another wartime 
comic — the Young All-Stars — starring stand-ins for 
the now unusable old stars. However, this did not 
quite catch on. By 1989, the last of the JSA- 
inspired comics was canceled, killed by the confu- 
sion created in the wake of the series that was 
meant to end confusion. 

The early 1990s saw a few tentative steps 
toward reviving the Justice Society, first in 1991 with 
a nostalgic 1950s-era miniseries, followed a year 
later by a last, present-day outing for the original 
team. (Incidentally, both series were titled Justice 
Society of America, the only time they appeared in a 
comic with that name.) That second series unflinch- 
ingly, lovingly, and wittily starred a team of now elder- 
ly heroes. However, this was not what DC wanted to 
see, and the comic lasted a mere ten issues. In the 
1994 miniseries Zero Hour (another failed attempt 
at simplification), numerous group members were 
either killed off altogether (Dr. Mid-Nite, Hawkman, 
and the Atom) or aged to doddering infirmity. 

Salvation came in the form of British writer 
James Robinson, who had made a splash with his 
1993 miniseries The Golden Age (an imaginary 
story set in the 1940s). He rekindled interest in 
the old team in 1999 with a series called The Jus- 
tice Society Returns. This was followed immediate- 



ly by a regular series simply called JSA, which 
began unpromisingly with the death (of old age, for 
once) of yet another team member, the Sandman, 
but went on to become not only a success but also 
a worthy tribute to the venerable group. Original 
members the Flash, Green Lantern (renamed Sen- 
tinel), and Wildcat were joined by new incarnations 
of Dr. Fate, the Spectre, Dr. Mid-Nite et al., along 
with Infinity Inc. alumni Brainwave and Nuklon (now 
known as Atom Smasher) and a female Star Span- 
gled Kid (step-daughter of Stripsey, the original 
Kid's sidekick). 

Fittingly, the new JSA has inherited the same 
parade of villains (Solomon Grundy, the Injustice 
Society) and the same sense of honesty and fun that 
characterized the earliest incarnations. The old 
heroes (such as the Flash, Wildcat, and Hawkman) 
may have been simplistic by contemporary stan- 
dards, but they personified an uncomplicated, heroic, 
essentially moral sense of the world — quite refresh- 
ing in the twenty-first century. In its various forms, the 
JSA and its offshoots have proved to be remarkably 
resistant to the periodic waves of "relevance" and 
nastiness that have afflicted the comics world from 
time to time. In some respects, the group represents 
DCs past (and that of comics in general), and as 
much as the company may try to kill off the charac- 
ters or in some way expunge the ponderous baggage 
of their long history (more than sixty years and count- 
ing), somehow they keep on coming back, enriching 
new generations of readers. — DAR 



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Kwtowrfe 

Any person even remotely familiar with Superman 
lore has heard of this superhero's number-one vul- 
nerability: kryptonite. 

First introduced on the Superman radio show in 
1945 before making its way into the comic-book 
pages of Superman #61 (1949), kryptonite is used in 
the Superman mythology to denote any portion of 
material that survived from Superman's exploded 
planet, Krypton. The material, described as "the only 
thing the Man of Steel has to fear in the entire uni- 
verse" in Action Comics #291 (1962), scattered 
throughout space and "laden with cosmic energy," 
emits a deadly radiation to which Superman and other 
surviving natives of Krypton are vulnerable. Because 
kryptonite fragments still float in space, they make 
their way to planet Earth buried in meteors. 

There are five unique types of this planetary 
matter, the nuances of which only the most die-hard 
Superman fan has committed to memory. Green 
kryptonite, the most common variety and the one tra- 
ditionally discussed in comics stories of the Golden 
(1938-1954) and Silver (1956-1969) Ages, is the 
only type potentially fatal to the hero. If not removed 
"in time" from Superman's midst, death follows the 



loss of his superpowers and a general state of iner- 
tia. While large quantities produce the most drastic 
effects, even a piece the size of a jawbreaker can 
bring Superman to his knees. Though the Man of 
Steel has often circumvented the effects of green 
kryptonite by using the heat of his X-ray vision to melt 
away small chunks of the substance, this Super-plan- 
of-attack doesn't work with larger quantities. 

Though not fatal, red kryptonite imposes tem- 
porary (usually twenty-four hours), strange, and ran- 
dom results, such as when it turned Superman into 
a giant ant, drove him insane for forty-eight hours, 
or made it impossible for him to write or speak in 
any language other than his native Kryptonese. As a 
general rule, once Superman is exposed to the 
strange effect, he becomes immune to it, forcing 
his writers to come up with new and interesting 
ways of afflicting the hero. Gold kryptonite perma- 
nently steals Superman's superpowers; white kryp- 
tonite affects only plant life; and blue kryptonite is 
hazardous only to Bizarro (a Superman "replica" 
hero built by supervillain Lex Luthor as "a 
grotesque imitation of Superman" in Action Comics 
#254 in 1959) and related Bizarro creatures. Kryp- 
tonite of the green, red, and gold variety is toxic to 
any surviving natives of Krypton, including members 
of the Superman family such as Supergirl and Kryp- 
to the Super-Dog. 



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Over the years Superman writers introduced 
variations like jewel kryptonite and X-kryptonite, the 
latter of which gave Supergirl's cat Streaky super- 
powers. The one substance impervious to kryp- 
tonite is lead. In 1971, Superman editor Julius 
Schwartz excised kryptonite from the Man of Steel's 
canon, although it has been used more judiciously 
since the reworking of the Superman mythos begin- 



ning in The Man of Steel #1 (1986). The glowing 
substance from a distant planet factors heavily into 
Superman media, having been used in the 1948 
movie serial Superman, a half dozen episodes of 
the Superman television series of the 1950s, ani- 
mated cartoons of the 1960s and 1970s, and the 
four live-action Superman films of the late 1970s 
and 1980s. — GM 



<fifi 



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(awe, lois 

She's pop culture's best-known damsel in distress, 
but Lois Lane is one gal who can take care of herself. 
As a reporter's rival, Superman's girlfriend, and even 
Clark Kent's wife, Lane has accompanied the Man of 
Steel through a never-ending string of adventures. 
Beginning with Superman's first appearance in Action 
Comics #1 (June 1938), writer Jerry Siegel and illus- 
trator Joe Shuster clearly establish that this impru- 
dently ambitious newspaper journalist for Metropolis' 
Daily Planet (called the Daily Star in the earliest tales) 
will go to any length to get a story, being it shimmying 
along skyscraper ledges, stowing away on speeding 
trucks, or frolicking with hardnosed gangsters. Borrow- 
ing their inspiration from the Hollywood heroine 
"Torchy Blaine," a saucy female newshound from a 
1930s movie franchise, Siegel and Shuster regularly 
place Lane in perilous predicaments — she faces a 
dictator's firing squad, is booted from a speeding 
sedan, and freefalls without a working parachute — but 
in a flash of red and blue Superman always arrives for 
a daring rescue. Lane is so aggressively industrious, 
however, one suspects that she could save herself if 
the Man of Steel didn't show. 

But show he did, usually because Superman's 
alter ego, reporter Clark Kent, accompanied his 



audacious Planet colleague on many of her assign- 
ments, forging a formula that ran for decades: Lois 
ditches Clark to scoop him, she gets in trouble, 
Clark sneaks away to become Superman, Super- 
man rescues Lois. With each encounter with the 
Man of Steel, Lane became suspicious as to why 
Superman and Kent never appear together ("intre- 
pid girl reporter," indeed). Thusly, she spent much 
of the next thirty years ferreting out clues, perpe- 
trating hoaxes, and even setting traps to prove that 
Kent and Superman were the same. Yet the Man of 
Steel was always one step ahead of Lane, out- 
smarting her each time while frequently concluding 
comic-book stories and animated television 
episodes with a winking aside to the reader/viewer. 

For decades, Lane treated Kent as a profes- 
sional adversary, and sometimes with contempt, crit- 
icizing him for being timid. She occasionally found 
him charming, though, as in a Superman daily news- 
paper strip (April 24, 1941) where she revealed, 
"Odd, Clark — half the time I can't make up my mind 
whether you're a swell fellow or a heel...." Converse- 
ly, it didn't take long for Lane to develop a fascina- 
tion with Superman beyond an appreciation of his 
astonishing abilities. She longed to be Mrs. Super- 
man; in Action Comics #245 (1958), when the Man 
of Steel commented to Lane about their friendship, 
she sighed to herself, "I ... I wish I were more than a 



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close friend ... his wife!" Her love was to remain 
unrequited for decades, although "imaginary" sto- 
ries in the 1960s frequently placed Lane in the role 
of Superman's spouse, and sometimes the mother 
of a super-son or super-daughter. 

Superman did carry the torch for Lane, but his 
duties as the world's greatest superhero prohibited 
him from walking down the aisle with her. Other 
suitors for Lane came and went, including million- 
aires, superheroes from other worlds, mobsters, 
Batman (the reporter became Mrs. Bruce Wayne in 
a 1969 imaginary tale), and even Superman's foes 
Bizarro and Titano the Super-Ape. During the 
1960s and 1970s, Lana Lang, Superboy's sweet- 
heart from the Man of Steel's hometown of Small- 
ville, reentered the picture as a competitor for 
Superman's affections. 

Lane has always stood as an advocate for gen- 
der equality. American women may have marched 
out of the factories and back into the kitchen at the 
conclusion of World War II, but not Lane — she 
remained a working gal, dedicated to her career. 
Her exposes on Metropolis' gangland earned her 
kudos and assassination attempts. Through all this 
excitement, she remained a fashion plate, reflecting 
each decade's styles with impeccable flair — Lane 
sported tailored business suits in the 1940s, pill- 
box hats in the 1950s, miniskirts in the 1960s, and 
pantsuits and hot pants in the 1970s. 

As the Man of Steel's popularity mushroomed 
throughout the 1950s, in part due to the success 
of the syndicated television program The Adven- 
tures of Superman (1953-1957), Lane earned her 
own comic-book title in 1958, Superman's Girl 
Friend Lois Lane, after a pair of issues of DC 
Comics' try-out book Showcase. Her series, which 
ran through 1974, was a favorite among girls, with 
stories of female empowerment (Lois goes under- 
cover, Lois gains powers as Superwoman), female 
fantasy (Lois becomes a witch, Lois becomes a 



crone), and female domestication (Lois fantasizes 
over marrying Superman). 

When writer/artist John Byrne spearheaded the 
overhaul of the Superman mythos beginning with DC 
Comics' The Man of Steel miniseries in 1986, Lane 
also received a facelift. Pining and pettiness were no 
more: Lane, now a military brat adept at hand-to- 
hand combat, returned to her roots as a hardcore 
journalist. For the next decade, the reporters' rivalry 
between Lane and Kent blossomed into a profound 
friendship, and DC Comics, recognizing the maturity 
of its audience, allowed the previously unthinkable 
to happen in 1996: Lane finally became Mrs. Super- 
man, or actually, Mrs. Clark Kent, marrying the Man 
of Steel (and of her dreams) in a highly promoted 
event taking place in the comics and on live-action 
television in the series Lois & Clark: The New Adven- 
tures of Superman (1993-1997). 

Lane has joined Superman in each of the hero's 
multimedia adaptations in theatrical animated shorts, 
a radio program, movie serials, several cartoon and 
live-action television series, and four theatrical motion 
pictures. The most popular interpretations of the char- 
acter were provided by spunky Noel Neill in seasons 
two through five of television's The Adventures of 
Superman (1953-1957); by firebrand Margot Kidder 
in the film franchise, most notably Superman: The 
Movie (1978) and Superman II (1981); and by fetch- 
ing Teri Hatcher in television's Lois & Clark. — ME 



legion of 
Super-Heroes 

Every kid needs friends, and Superboy, the prodi- 
gious youth starring in DC Comics' "Adventures of 
Superman When He Was a Boy," was certainly no 
exception. Enter the Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH): 



Opposite: Dean Cain (Superman) and Teri Hatcher (Lois Lane) set hearts aflutter in Lois & Clark: 
The New Adventures of Superman. 



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Legion of Super-Heroes 




Superboy #204 © 1974 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY NICK CARDY. 



the magnetically powered Cosmic Boy, the mind- 
reading Saturn Girl, and the electricity-generating 
Lightning Boy, materializing in DC Comics' Adven- 
ture Comics #247 (1958). Hailing from the future— 
the thirtieth century, to be exact — this teenage trio 
time-travels to Superboy's era to recruit him into 
their club. Thanks to the Legion's time bubble, the 
Boy of Steel finds himself in his hometown of Small- 
ville, one thousand years hence, where his new 
superpals are only part of a larger clique (although 
the other young heroes' faces are shadowed) 
whose headquarters (their clubhouse) is an upside- 
down spaceship resembling a prop from a late 
1950s sci-fi movie. The Legion's entire depiction of 
the future smacks of the post-atomic age's vision 
of the world of tomorrow: Robot factories, jet packs, 



and yes, even flying cars abound! After proving him- 
self a "super-good sport" by surviving a rigged initi- 
ation (hoaxes were popular story gimmicks during 
this era in the Superman comics), Superboy is 
sworn in as a Legionnaire and returns home to 
proudly show his father, Pa Kent, a prize ribbon 
decreeing him "Super-Hero Number One." 

Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman family 
of titles, intended Adventure #247's tale "The 
Legion of Super-Heroes" as nothing more than a 
throwaway. Readers had other ideas, however, and 
mail demanding that the Legion return flooded the 
DC offices. Twenty issues later, they were back (with 
Lightning Boy rechristened as the alliterative Light- 
ning Lad), and before long the LSH also encoun- 
tered Supergirl on yet another recruitment mission. 
The Legion's roster expanded with more superteens 
whose heroic names easily identified their powers: 
Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Phan- 
tom Girl, and Triplicate Girl. Issues cover-spotlight- 
ing LSH members sold so well that "Tales of the 
Legion of Super-Heroes" bumped "Tales of the 
Bizarro World" out of Adventure and became a regu- 
lar monthly feature beginning with issue #300 (Sep- 
tember 1962), and before long the Legion ultimate- 
ly seized the entire title from co-star Superboy. 

Soon the Legion became truly that, with an 
enormous cast including, but not limited to, Ultra 
Boy, Superboy's "brother" Mon-EI, Brainiac 5 (the 
descendent of Superman's android enemy), Sun 
Boy, Star Boy, Shrinking Violet, Lightning (later Light) 
Lass, Bouncing Boy, and, believe it or not, Matter- 
Eater Lad, as well as standbys the Legion of Substi- 
tute Heroes and the Legion of Super-Pets. Science 
remained a major element in the tales, with some 
upgrades along the way, like the Legion's original jet 
packs being replaced by anti-gravity belts. And a 
rogues' gallery, including the Time Trapper, the 
Legion of Super-Villains, and even the twentieth 
century's Lex Luthor, began to appear and reappear. 

While simple in concept, the early Legion of 
Super-Heroes series was surprisingly complex for 
its time. Its pretense as a superhero "club" veiled 



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its true message of brotherhood — members of the 
LSH migrated from a variety of worlds across the 
galaxy, which had banded together as the United 
Planets and shared a common language, Interlac. 
This interplanetary harmony, however, reflected the 
Anglo-centric thinking of the late 1950s and early 
1960s: Despite their otherworldly origins, every 
Legionnaire was white, except for the orange- 
skinned, pointy-eared Chameleon Boy and the 
green-skinned Brainiac 5. Basing itself in thirtieth- 
century Metropolis (not Smallville, as in the LSH's 
initial outing), the Legion was often aided in its pro- 
tection of Earth by the high-tech Science Police. The 
LSH operated under a strict constitution, which stip- 
ulated, among other things, a maximum age of eigh- 
teen, the annual appointment of an acting leader 
(who was chosen by the vote of the readers), and 
an expulsion provision (several Legionnaires were 
debarred in solemn hearings). Weisinger printed 
stories that revealed the dangerous consequences 
of superheroics: In an early battle, Lightning Lad 
lost an arm, and later his life (although he soon 
returned from the dead), and one of Triplicate Girl's 
three bodies was destroyed by the menacing 
machine called Computo, leaving her Duo Damsel. 

Throughout the mid-1960s, the Legion's popu- 
larity grew, and the series cultivated a loyal and 
often vociferous fan base, including a teen named 
Jim Shooter. Shooter lobbied editor Weisinger for 
work by pitching crudely illustrated but boldly imagi- 
native stories, and soon the young scribe was 
authoring the LSH feature in Adventure. Frequently 
paired with penciler Curt Swan, best known as 
"the" Superman artist of the 1960s (who disliked 
drawing LSH because of its sizeable cast and asked 
that his Legion stories feature smaller numbers of 
characters), Shooter's LSH run in Adventure was 
noteworthy due to its development of the young 
heroes' personalities: Each cast member was indi- 
vidually and consistently characterized, from Light- 
ning Lad's impulsiveness to newcomer Princess 
Projectra's (actual royalty!) snobbishness. The 
Legionnaires often referred to each other by their 



otherworldly civilian names — some examples: Cos- 
mic Boy/Rokk Krinn, Chameleon Boy/Reep Daggle, 
and Shrinking Violet/Salu Digby — and as the series 
progressed, more was revealed about their parents, 
siblings, and home planets. Under Shooter's 
tenure, Legion mainstays like flight rings, the merci- 
less magician Mordru, and the fearsome Fatal Five 
entered the lore. By the late 1960s, Shooter and 
Swan vacated the thirtieth century, bringing the 
Legion's first glory days to a close, and the series 
hobbled along with no true creative direction until 
being ousted from Adventure Comics by Supergirl 
beginning in issue #381 (June 1969) and temporar- 
ily demoted to the backup spot in Action Comics 
before being retired. 

The Legion didn't lay dormant for long, return- 
ing in 1971 as a backup in Superboy before later 
taking over the title. The LSH enjoyed its second 
heyday in the 1970s: Hot new artists like Dave 
Cockrum and Mike Grell became fan favorites on 
the series, the heroes' garb was modernized (Phan- 
tom Girl wore bell bottoms and Element Lad sport- 
ed a perm), and new characters like Wildfire and 
Tyroc (the first black member to break the LSH's 
color barrier) joined the team. The Legionnaires 
aged to their late teens, and romances took root, 
with several members even getting married. Sci- 
ence-fiction influences intensified, and the dated 
futuristic vision of the 1960s was replaced by tech- 
nological marvels, including an expansive headquar- 
ters with a full training facility and warring alien 
races that defied the laws of the United Planets. 
With its intricate themes and scientific inspirations, 
Legion of Super-Heroes became the comic-book 
equivalent of Star Trek, and continued to boast a 
loyal fan following. 

Writer Paul Levitz began a lengthy run on 
Legion in 1982, and along with artist Keith Giffen 
made the series DCs second best-selling title, trail- 
ing the company's top hit, The New Teen Titans. 
Levitz and Giffen's most celebrated Legion story- 
line, "The Great Darkness Saga," employed twenti- 
eth-century villain Darkseid as the future team's 



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Lobo 



antagonist. Legionnaires came and went, married 
and had children, and the series matured, evolving 
away from its unsophisticated original concept of a 
club for superkids. But throughout myriad changes, 
one constant remained: Superboy, a recurring and 
popular member. Then came John Byrne. 

Writer/artist Byrne was Marvel Comics' "fix-it" 
man, having resuscitated several failing titles for 
DCs chief competitor. Hired by DC to orchestrate a 
highly anticipated Superman relaunch that com- 
menced with the miniseries The Man of Steel 
(1986), Byrne excised Superboy from the Superman 
mythos, forcing the Legion to readjust without its 
core member. It was explained that a Superboy from 
an alternate, "pocket" universe was the Legion's 
teammate, not the younger self of the "real" Super- 
man, before the young hero flew into comics limbo. 
With this revision, perceived as contrived by some, 
convoluted by others, the Legion began to stray 
even further from its kid-friendly roots. Frequent tie- 
ins to twentieth-century continuity, including team- 
ups with Superman and a spinoff series called 
LE.G.I.O.N. '89 (later '90, then '91, etc., before 
getting the boot in 1994), made the LSH franchise 
harder to follow. 

A 1989 Legion of Super-Heroes reboot fea- 
tured an older and less optimistic Legion, sans cos- 
tumes and codenames, in a densely plotted series 
occurring immediately after a then-unexplained 
"five-year gap" in story continuity (although details 
would later emerge). Giffen was the chief architect 
of this version of Legion, applauded by sci-fi afi- 
cionados for its intricacy but ignored by readers 
yearning for softer, more accessible fare. In this 
incarnation, the future Earth was destroyed, and a 
more reader-friendly team featuring teen versions 
(presumed to be clones) of the now-adult Legion 
spun off into their own title in Legionnaires #1 
(1993). This younger, hipper group kept some clas- 
sic character names (Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl) 
as a historical nod, updated others (Lightning Lad 
became Live Wire and Triplicate Girl, Triad), and 
introduced a new wave of members. Yet Legion- 



naires and its companion title Legion of Super- 
Heroes continued to build upon decades of already 
cluttered continuity, and readers — as well as editors 
and writers — were hopelessly confused. House- 
cleaning was in order. 

Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time (1994) was DCs 
answer. This crossover, appearing throughout many 
of the publisher's superhero titles, readjusted DCs 
timeline, allowing for revisions including a restarted 
Legion. As of 2004, the LSH's comic is titled simply 
The Legion, and borrows the best rudiments of the 
Legionnaires redux in a science-heavy tapestry con- 
siderably darker in tone than the original concept. 

Beyond its sales peak in the early 1980s, the 
Legion of Super-Heroes has never risen to A-team 
status, probably due to its cumbersome cast and 
rich history. But the concept has commanded per- 
haps the most dedicated fan base of any DC series. 
Legion fans, over the decades, have grown up with 
the characters, and, like the Legionnaires, in some 
cases have married. 

On two occasions, Legion characters have 
appeared on television: Villainous Mordru was 
played for laughs in a pair of Legends of the Super- 
Heroes live-action specials (1979), and the Legion 
itself guest-starred on the animated series Super- 
man (1996). A smattering of Legion merchandise 
has appeared over the years, including a line of 
action figures and a PVC figurine set sold in a box 
resembling the classic Legion clubhouse. — ME 



lobo 



The "gratification" of the comic-book superhero — 
which began with Marvel Comics' Punisher in the 
1970s and continued building toward an artistic 
peak in 1986 with DC Comics' Batman: The Dark 
Knight Returns — went deliberately over the top in 
1983 with the creation of Lobo. The misbegotten, 
chalk-white, black-clad brainchild of writer Roger 
Slifer and artist Keith Giffen, Lobo (who debuted in 



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Lobo 



DCs Omega Men #3) embodies all that is nasty, 
raucous, and unsavory in the world of superpow- 
ered beings. Lobo, an anti-hero whose speech is 
peppered with ersatz expletives such as "frag," 
"fraggin'," "bastich," and "Feetal's Gizz!" (a refer- 
ence to the gizzard of a particular individual), 
despises every decent thing usually associated with 
the typical comic-book hero, including (but not limit- 
ed to) short hair, square jaws, democracy, equality 
for women, equality for men, basic rights, flags, and 
the notion that good always trumps evil. He is 
extremely powerful, possessing enough raw 
strength to go toe-to-toe with members of the Green 
Lantern Corps (LEG. I.O.N. #4, 1989) and even 
Superman himself, which he has done at various 
points throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. 

Lobo has the ability to survive the rigors of air- 
less space, the capacity to track individuals across 
thousands of light-years of empty space, and pos- 
sesses his people's inborn power to clone himself 
from small amounts of tissue; this last ability, cou- 
pled with his rapid healing, renders him effectively 
unkillable, short of complete vaporization. It has 
been said that Lobo can never die permanently 
because he is considered too nasty to be admitted 
either to heaven or to hell (Lobo's Back #4, 1992). 
His "turn-ons" include drunkenness and mindless 
violence. Although he has demonstrated frightening 
mastery of all manner of weapons, sometimes 
going into combat with guns and grenades, Lobo is 
a street-brawler at heart, preferring to use either his 
fists or a large metal chain with a hook at one end. 
His most serious weakness is his tendency to con- 
tinue a fight long past the point at which any ratio- 
nal person would retreat. But since most other 
beings in the universe fear Lobo, this seldom pre- 
sents a serious problem for him. Because of the 
moral ambiguity that characterized many superhero 
comics published on the cusp of the new millenni- 
um, Lobo's status as a superhero (as opposed to a 
supervillain) is highly debatable; but his reluctant 
association with legitimate superhero teams — and 
the fact that he often does battle against miscre- 



ants who are even worse than he is — often places 
him on the side of the good guys, however marginal- 
ly or unintentionally. 

Born in 1599 A.D. on the distant, idyllic planet 
Czarnia, a world that had never known conflict or 
strife of any kind, Lobo is pure, distilled evil; indeed, 
his name is Khundish for "one who devours your 
entrails and thoroughly enjoys it" (any resemblance 
to a terrestrial word meaning "wolf" is completely 
fortuitous, as it turns out). Moments after his birth, 
Lobo makes his first attempt to live up to his name 
by biting off four of his midwife's fingers, driving the 
poor woman insane; Lobo then grabs a scalpel and 
attacks several doctors. Although no one on his 
homeworld knows for sure how or why such a 
malevolent serpent could appear in the Garden of 
Eden that is Czarnia, some theorize that Lobo's evil 
is a perhaps statistically inevitable counterbalance 
to an otherwise perfect, "evil-free" environment. 

As Lobo matures, his evil steadily grows in 
intensity and sophistication. Consequently, the 
Czarnian body count rises in a steady tide. All 
attempts to appeal to Lobo's better nature fail sim- 
ply because he lacks one (a claim Lobo himself 
often makes); all efforts to threaten Lobo fail 
because no one on Czarnia possesses any profi- 
ciency whatsoever in arms, violence, or even intimi- 
dation. As a toddler, Lobo forces Wolfman Wilf, the 
DJ of Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio, to play one song 
continuously: "I Killed My Folks (No Accident)" by 
Oedipus Wrecks. Lobo then commandeers a med- 
ical facility and forces its staff to implant a radio 
receiver into his brain, giving him unlimited expo- 
sure to the Wrecks' not-so-dulcet tones; he murders 
the doctors afterward and burns their clinic to the 
ground. At the tender age of five, Lobo rips out the 
throat of Egon N'g, his elementary school principal, 
during a fit of pique. "My faith in the natural good- 
ness of the scheme of things has been severely 
shaken, if not totally destroyed," the dying principal 
writes to his countrymen, in his own blood (Lobo 
vol. 1 #1, 1990). "I rejoin the Universal One. 



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Lobo 



Farewell, paradise! PS. — For your own sake, create 
the concepts of police, punishment, and prison." 

As a teenager, Lobo forms his own heavy metal 
band (The Main Man and the Several Scum-Buck- 
ets), which competes at the All-Czarnia 9-0ctave 
Chime-Haiku Festival; the band's deadly decibels 
end up killing all of Lobo's musical sidemen, elec- 
trocuting the contest's judges, and wreaking fiery 
mayhem on the audience — leaving Lobo peeved at 
his failure to take first prize. When Lobo reaches 
the age of eighteen, his evil finally engulfs all of 
Czarnia when his desire to be unique in all the uni- 
verse leads him to genetically engineer an insidious 
flesh-burrowing flying insect that (very painfully) 
wipes out his entire species — except, of course, for 
Lobo himself, who merely laughs at the horrific car- 
nage he has wrought (Lobo vol. 1 #1 and #4, 
1990-1991; Lobo vol. 2 #0, 1994; DC Universe 
Heroes Secret Files #1, 1999). 

Hopping onto his spacegoing motorcycle (actu- 
ally a customized SpazFrag 666 single-seater super- 
luminal spacecraft with a miniaturized turbocharged 
seventeen-liter power plant and a large-fanged skull 
mounted on the front), Lobo abandons his mur- 
dered homeworld to become the galaxy's most 
feared bounty hunter and assassin, a calling he pur- 
sues with great relish. At first, he specializes in 
"Dead or Alive" warrants, far preferring the former 
to the latter. He also sells his services to private 
clients, but can be relied upon to murder double- 
crossers and prospective clients who make insult- 
ing offers, or those who set him to tasks he finds 
boring; in Lobo's "plus" column, he tends to "stay 
bought" once hired, and the more violence a job 
entails, the likelier he is to work cheaply or even for 
free (he likes to chase people). 

During his many unsavory manhunting mis- 
sions, Lobo's few arguably redeeming characteris- 
tics become evident: his strict adherence to whatev- 
er promises he makes (he would prefer to kill the 
promisee than to renege on the promise itself), and 
his undying affection for his "fishies" (Lobo's term 
of endearment for the space-dwelling dolphins that 



accompany him in his interstellar travels), whose 
safety he protects using all the considerable vio- 
lence at his disposal; Lobo calls the creatures his 
"cutesy-wutesy flying cosmic-type dolphin buddies." 
After Garryn Bek of L.E.G.I.O.N. (Licensed Extra-Gov- 
ernmental Interstellar Operatives Network) acciden- 
tally kills one of Lobo's dolphins, the assassin 
comes after Bek, intent on slowly torturing him to 
death (L.E.G.I.O.N. #3, 1989). 

Lobo eventually catches up to Bek and breaks 
his legs (L.E.G.I.O.N. #6, 1989), but along the way, 
he encounters L.E.G.I.O.N. member Vril Dox II, the 
adopted son of Superman's android nemesis Braini- 
ac. Although Lobo and Dox, being of similar tem- 
perament, get along at first, they inevitably come to 
superhuman blows. Distracted by the sudden disap- 
pearance of Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio from the 
radio built into his brain, Lobo loses the fight and is 
forced to accept the consequences of a wager he'd 
made with Dox: L.E.G.I.O.N. membership 
(L.E.G.I.O.N. #4, 1989). After exploiting Lobo's self- 
cloning powers by using several duplicate Lobos to 
defeat a galactic drug kingpin named Kanis-Biz, Dox 
poisons Lobo and his clones, de-powering them and 
removing their duplicative abilities. Lobo and one of 
his clones escape destruction by Dox's missiles, 
however (L.E.G.I.O.N. #7, 1989), and Lobo faces 
his last remaining clone in single combat on the 
planet Kannit; the original Lobo is presumably the 
winner, though the matter of the victor's identity 
isn't settled definitively (Lobo vol. 2 #9, 1994). 
Lobo (or his clone) later joins R.E.B.E.L.S. (the Rev- 
olutionary Elite Brigade to Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. 
Supremacy), a group formed by Dox after his rene- 
gade son Lyrl takes over L.E.G.I.O.N. (R.E.B.E.L.S. 
#1, 1994). 

After Lyrl Dox's defeat, Vril Dox II releases Lobo 
from R.E.B.E.L.S. (R.E.B.E.L.S. #6, 1995), where- 
upon the assassin resumes concentrating on free- 
lance bounty hunting and personal business. When 
the radio station to which his brain-mounted receiver 
is tuned changes to an all soul-music format (deep- 
sixing Lobo's omnipresent favorite song), Lobo sells 



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Love Interests 



his soul (as sullied as it is) to a villain named Neron 
in exchange for having the radio receiver removed 
from his cranium; Lobo then shoots the disk jockey 
responsible for this crisis and immolates the radio 
station (Lobo vol. 2 #22, 1995). 

Throughout the 1990s, Lobo's image was 
everywhere, appearing on countless trading cards, 
T-shirts (images of Lobo saying "Bite Me, Fanboy" 
were quite popular), figurines (including a beautiful 
sculpture based upon art by fan-favorite British 
Lobo artist Simon Bisley), buttons, and posters. He 
found his way into numerous best-selling comics 
miniseries and one-shot comics, including pairings 
with such DC mainstays as Superman, Batman, 
Deadman, and other companies' characters (such 
as Dark Horse's the Mask, Fleetway-Quality's Judge 
Dredd, and even an unholy one-issue merger with 
Marvel's Howard the Duck). Perhaps a victim of his 
own overexposure, Lobo's own ongoing series finally 
ended with issue #64 in 1999 (though a miniseries 
written by Giffen, Lobo Unbound, appeared in 2003 
and 2004). 

During Lobo's subsequent years on the guest- 
star circuit, variant replicas of the character have 
appeared, such as L'il Lobo, a "cute kid" version of 
the assassin (Young Justice #20, 2000), and Slo- 
Bo, a slower, weaker, genetically defective "wimpy" 
redaction of the much-feared assassin (Young Jus- 
tice #38, 2001); these "tweaked" takes on Lobo 
were conceived by veteran comics writer and novel- 
ist Peter David and artist Todd Nauck as a way of 
fixing what David has characterized as one of the 
"worst characters of all time." But these recent rad- 
ical changes weren't the first ones Lobo has under- 
gone; in 1992, he had been briefly reincarnated as 
a woman, and was even transformed into a squirrel 
for a short time (Lobo's Back #3). But whatever 
alterations Lobo's many creative handlers may have 
in store for him in the future, one core principle 
remains as dependable as the assassin's penchant 
for bad behavior: his dogged persistence. When 
Lobo is on the job, he allows absolutely nothing and 
no one to stand in his way. — MAM 



love interests 

"Comic books are for boys," chimed the traditional 
mindset during the infancy of the comics medium, 
its illustrious Golden Age (1938-1954), hence the 
overwhelming number of male superheroes. Out- 
side of the occasional superheroine gender-bending 
the locked doors of this muscular boys club, in the 
earliest superhero adventures women were depict- 
ed as damsels in distress orfemme fatales. Mat- 
ters romantic were of no interest to the lads looking 
for escapism amid the turmoil of the Great Depres- 
sion and World War II. 

Yet romance remains an integral component of 
heroic fiction — what is Tarzan without Jane? — and 
the purveyors of this nascent entertainment form 
realized that love makes the world go 'round, even for 
those who occupy their spare time swooping from 
rooftops in capes and cowls. The majority of Golden 
Age superheroes in both comics and pulps were 
assigned significant others by their writers — the 
Shadow's Margo Lane, the original (not the Marvel 
Comics character) Daredevil's Tonia, and the Flash's 
Joan Williams (whom he later married ) — but these 
characters were largely confined to the background. 

SUPZZMAN'S GJZLFZIZNPS 

Not so with Lois Lane, however. When Jerry 
Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced Superman — the 
character that defined the superhero in popular cul- 
ture — in Action Comics #1 (1938), Lane was along 
for the ride. She was conceived as the Man of 
Steel's romantic interest, but not portrayed as 
such, the creators steering clear of such "sissy 
stuff." But the subtext was there: Each time the 
brash young Superman rescued the gallant "girl 
reporter" from peril, he outwardly admonished her 
recklessness, but inwardly admired her spunk and 
courage. Theirs was a taboo love, and a flirtatious 
one, for many decades. Everyone thought of Lois 
Lane as "Superman's girlfriend," but during the 



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Love Interests 



1950s and 1960s she showed her affection by 
either trying to expose the hero's Clark Kent identity 
or by publicly pining for him. 

During the 1970s and 1980s, women's lib and 
the sexual revolution may have loosened the shack- 
les on ladies in the real world, but Superman still 
kept Lane at arm's length, married instead to his 
duty. When the two consummated their relationship 
in the live-action film Superman II (1981), their pas- 
sion came with a price: Superman (temporarily) for- 
feited his powers, and superpowered villains from 
his homeworld nearly decimated planet Earth while 
the former Man of Steel redecorated his Fortress of 
Solitude into a lover's pad. 

By the time DC Comics rebooted Superman in 
The Man of Steel (1986), readers were mature 
enough to accept a full-blown relationship between 
the hero and the reporter — although it was Kent 
with whom Lane fell in love, having dismissed him 
as a nebbish in the previous continuity. Kent finally 
revealed his Superman identity to Lane in 1991 and 
married her in 1996. (The Superman of "Earth-Two," 
an alternate reality once housing DCs Golden Age 
heroes, married his world's Lois Lane in Action 
Comics #484 [1978], and the couple starred in the 
backup feature "Mr. and Mrs. Superman.") 

This is not to say that Superman has only had 
(X-ray) eyes for Lane. Lana Lang was introduced as 
part of the hero's Superboy mythos as teenage Clark 
Kent's girlfriend, although no romantic relationship 
was ever explored: Lang was merely a girl who was a 
friend. In the Silver Age (1956-1969) and Bronze 
Age (1970-1979), the adult Lang periodically 
appeared in the Superman comics, and a Lois vs. 
Lana rivalry for Superman's (non-) affections ensued, 
a theme crucial to the plot of the movie Superman III 
(1983). Lang was redefined as Kent's high-school 
sweetheart in The Man of Steel (1986), and has 
received an increased profile in TV's Superboy 
(1988-1992) and Smallville (2001-present). Super- 
man has had other passing relationships over the 
years, including a mermaid named Lori Lemaris, 
whom he dated in college. And in Action #600 



(1988), the Man of Steel locked lips with Wonder 
Woman! (This idea was picked up on — and then 
some — in the popular alternate-universe series King- 
dom Come [1996] and The Dark Knight Strikes Again 
[2001-2002], in which the pair conceive children.) 

WONPZZ WOMAN'S 
20MANTIC WOES 

Her smooching with Superman aside, Wonder 
Woman's life has been relatively loveless. Colonel 
Steve Trevor, the "Lois Lane" to Wonder Woman's 
"Superman," was absolutely smitten over the star- 
spangled Amazon, overlooking the obvious: that she 
worked with him, each and every day, hiding her 
looks and statuesque form behind the cat-eyed 
glasses and military uniform of yeoman Diana 
Prince. But ever the good soldier, for years Trevor 
stormed the frontlines of love, hinting, suggesting, 
and falling short of begging for intimacy from the 
Amazon Princess. Wonder Woman was interested in 
Trevor, but reminded him that an Amazonian creed 
called "Aphrodite's law" forbade her to marry, else 
she would lose her powers and status among her 
exclusively female community. 

In Wonder Woman comics from the 1940s and 
1950s, the Amazon Princess was obviously 
stronger than Trevor (stronger than twenty Trevors, 
actually), but social mores often backed her into a 
corner of domesticity. She deflected bullets with her 
bracelets and heaved tanks with a mere shrug, then 
found time to pen personal advice to her readers in 
her letters column. Wonder Woman became even 
"softer" during the post-World War II romance 
comics boom, when publisher DC Comics attempt- 
ed to attract girls to the character's comics. In his 
book Wonder Woman: The Complete History 
(2000), historian Les Daniels remarked of the cover 
to DCs Sensation Comics #94 (1949): "Wonder 
Woman was suddenly surrounded by mush, and she 
was in danger of sinking herself: the cover showed 
Steve Trevor carrying a simpering and seemingly 
helpless Princess Diana across a narrow stream." 



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In the 1960s, a succession of unorthodox suit- 
ors — amoeba-men, bird-men, mer-men, and space- 
men — traipsed through the Wonder Woman series. 
She stayed single, and Trevor stayed interested. Won- 
der Woman and Trevor actually married in 1986, as 
the heroine's title was canceled as part of DCs com- 
panywide "housecleaning" project, Crisis on Infinite 
Earths. The Amazon Princess was erased from exis- 
tence in Crisis #12 (1986), and when she was intro- 
duced anew in 1987, Trevor had also been altered: 
He was now older and no longer a love interest, their 
previous marriage wiped away from continuity. In the 
years that have followed, other potential para- 
mours — including fellow Justice Leaguers Aquaman 
and Batman — have waltzed through her life, but Won- 
der Woman remains the iconic single superheroine. 

Among the superheroines who have fallen in love 
with normal men are two DC characters. The Silver 
Age Supergirl dated fellow student Dick Malverne 
while in her assumed identity of Linda Danvers, but 
Malverne went ga-ga over the Girl of Steel. And the 
Golden Age Black Canary, secretly flower-shop propri- 
etor Dinah Drake, was sweet on hard-boiled private 
eye Larry Lance. Lance's sleuthing often dropped him 
into trouble, and Black Canary rushed to his rescue. It 
was later established that Drake and Lance had mar- 
ried, and that Lance had died. Shortly after Black 
Canary hopped from Earth-Two to the parallel reality of 
Earth-One, she encountered her new world's counter- 
part of her ex in her team-up with Batman in The 
Brave and the Bold (B&B) #91 (1970). But this Lance 
was not to be trusted, although lovesick Black Canary 
was oblivious to his shadiness. Batman warned her of 
his suspicions, but she scoffed, "I'm a woman first — 
and a super-heroine second! Don't try to ruin my new 
life!" Batman was right — Lance was no good — but 
soon the Canary was singing a new tune, in the arms 
of fellow Justice Leaguer Green Arrow. 

ZOMANTTC SIPZKICKS 

The introduction of Batman's partner Robin the 
Boy Wonder in Detective Comics #38 (1940) 



inspired a host of superhero sidekicks, and some of 
them were actually the girlfriends of their male 
counterparts. Cat-Man, an adult male superhero, 
enlisted a prepubescent girl he called Kitten as his 
sidekick. Over the years, Kitten matured into quite 
the cutie, sparking catty commentary from more 
astute readers. The tiny hero Doll Man spent much 
of his time rescuing his partner Doll Girl from spider 
webs, but on the few occasions Doll Man has been 
seen since the Golden Age, Doll Girl has been most- 
ly ignored. A more famous diminutive duo is Ant- 
Man and the Wasp, who buzzed through Marvel's 
Tales to Astonish in the early 1960s before becom- 
ing charter members of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," 
the Avengers. Their relationship has not been 
easy — Henry Pym, the man behind the antennaed 
ant-helmet, has lived a life fraught with costume 
changes (he has also been known as Giant-Man, 
Goliath, and Yellowjacket) and mental illness. 

Hawkgirl, Hawkman's companion, has earned 
her wings and remained alongside her feathered 
partner throughout numerous reinventions over the 
decades. During the Golden Age, she was mostly 
window dressing, sometimes flying alongside Hawk- 
man on his escapades. But during Hawkman's Sil- 
ver Age revival in B&B #34 (1961), Hawkgirl was 
reintroduced as more than a hanger-on — she was 
now Hawkman's wife and equal partner. While 
Hawkgirl presented an empowering female figure for 
the times, she did not restrain her jealousy in their 
origin story when an attractive lady naturalist set 
her claws into her hubby: "Could I see you for a 
moment, please?" her icy word balloon dripped 
when this intrusive vixen made her move. 

Bulletgirl, partner to the Golden Age hero Bul- 
letman, was no dud: When she discovered that her 
boyfriend was actually a superhero, she demanded 
to be let in on the fun. The Owl and Owl Girl? Con- 
temporary readers would coo, "Who?" as that pair 
of heroic lovebirds has fluttered into oblivion. The 
Flame and Flame Girl have similarly flickered out, 
as have most of the similar male/female teams of 
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In 1956, Batman was assigned a superheroine 
love interest — heiress Kathy Kane, who adopted the 
masked guise of Batwoman — to allay charges of a 
homosexual relationship between the Caped Crusad- 
er and his young ally Robin. Before long, the teenage 
Bat-Girl appeared as a date for the Boy Wonder. But 
no romance ever blossomed between these heroes 
and heroines, and the ladies retired from crime fight- 
ing after only a few years in costume. 

MIUIONATRB PLAYBOYS 

Batman and his alter ego, millionaire Bruce 
Wayne, have enjoyed a bevy of beauties as compan- 
ions over the decades, but, like Wonder Woman, 
Batman remains a loner. As Wayne, the hero pre- 
tends to be a playboy, navigating the social circles 
of Gotham City as a ruse to create a persona in 
stark contrast to his grim cowled guise. Wayne's 
first girlfriend in the comics of the Golden Age was 
socialite Julie Madison, who disappeared before 
long — but made an appearance in the flesh, in the 
live-action movie Batman & Robin (1997). Vicki Vale 
had more staying power in the Batman mythos. She 
first made her presence known in Gotham in 1950, 
snapping news photos and interacting with both 
Wayne and Batman. Her persona was similar to 
Lois Lane's: a savvy, headstrong newshound with 
suspicions of Batman's secret identity. She reap- 
peared sporadically in later decades, and was the 
love interest in the blockbuster film Batman (1989). 

On Bruce Wayne's yacht in Detective Comics 
#469 (1977), the dapper playboy, wearing an ascot, 
makes his way through the crowd, encountering a 
glamazon with stark white hair. "Ah! The mysterious 
Mr. Wayne!" she calls, continuing, "I don't believe 
we've met! I'm Silver St. Cloud!" "I'll bet you are!" 
responds the playboy, not his snappiest come-on 
line, but it works — they're soon an item. When St. 
Cloud happens across a battle between Batman 
and the assassin Deadshot in issue #474 (1977), 
she gets a good look at the masked Dark Knight, 
and thinks, "It was Bruce!" The following issue, she 



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ponders whether or not to tell him she knows his 
secret, musing, "You're really my boyfriend, Batman! 
I can see what others would never notice — because 
I've spent so many evenings studying your jaw!" By 
Detective #476, after watching Batman nearly lose 
his life combating the Joker, St. Cloud confronts him 
with her knowledge of his dual identity, confesses 
her love, then leaves him, admitting she couldn't 
live with "never knowing what each night would 
bring." Silver St. Cloud was embraced by readers 
during her short stint in the Batman legend, but left 
the series with the departure of her creator, writer 
Steve Englehart. In the DC Comics continuity of the 
1990s and 2000s, women in Batman's life have 
included Dr. Shondra Kinsolving and Vesper 
Fairchild, the latter of whom was murdered, with 
Wayne framed as the killer. 

Bad girls have sometimes tempted Batman. 
The playful pilferer Catwoman has strutted in and 
out of the hero's life since her introduction in Bat- 
man #1 (1940). Their attraction has transcended 
comics, in the campy Batman TV series 
(1966-1988)— where actors Adam West and Julie 
Newmar relished their sexy on-screen romps in 
tights (with rumored off-screen romps out of 
tights) — and in the motion picture Batman Returns 
(1992). Talia, the fetching daughter of the interna- 
tional ecoterrorist Ra's al Ghul, has often invited Bat- 
man to hang up his cowl and become her mate, but 
other than occasional kisses, the hero's iron will has 
kept him from a relationship. In the graphic novel 
Batman: Son of the Demon (1987), Talia, in lingerie, 
seduces Batman by urging him to "Forego your con- 
trol, your discipline ...just once, let yourself go ... 
and take me with you." He does, the end result 
being their child, who is given up for adoption. DC 
Comics courageously published this story, then later 
stepped away from acknowledging or reprinting it 
due to its controversial content. Other villainesses 
that Batman has found attractive include Poison Ivy, 
Nocturna, and the TV Bat-foe the Siren. 

Marvel's Iron Man is actually industrialist Tony 
Stark, and has worn on his arm more trophy dates 



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Love Interests 



than Bruce Wayne could ever imagine. Pepper Potts 
was Stark's first girlfriend, and lasted longer in the 
stories than others who followed. While no million- 
aire, Wally West — who started his career as Kid 
Flash, before growing into the role of the Flash — is 
as fast with women as he is as a superhero: He 
has had more girlfriends than space allows to list. 
Another rich-man-by-day, masked-man-by-night is the 
Green Hornet, abetted in his day job (as a newspa- 
per publisher) and his nightlife by his secretary, 
Lenore Case. 

M2.ANPM2S. SUPBJZHBJ20 

Superman and Lois Lane may be the most 
famous husband-and-wife duo in the superhero 
world, but they aren't alone, and certainly weren't 
the first. DCs Aquaman married Mera, a crimson- 
haired beauty from a watery dimension, and togeth- 
er they ruled the undersea kingdom of Atlantis as 
king and queen. Frequent misfortunes tore apart 
their relationship, and at one time, in a deranged 
state, she tried to kill him. Marvel's underwater anti- 
hero, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, married his 
water-breathing, blue-skinned love Lady Dorma after 
a royal courtship, but her death left the avenging 
son of Atlantis even more vengeful. 

Before Lady Dorma, another beauty won 
Namor's heart: Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl (later 
Woman) of the Fantastic Four. Sue was the girlfriend 
of "FF" team leader Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fan- 
tastic, but each time she saw the near-naked, pow- 
erful form of Namor, her heart pitter-pattered. In 
Fantastic Four #6 (1961), she defends the subsea 
man after another of his rampages: "Oh, he isn't 
our enemy! I just know it! He's so full of pain and 
bitterness that it blinds his better instincts." Sue's 
wandering eye finally focused on Richards, and they 
were wed in FF Annual #3 (1965), in which she 
beams to her husband, "We're married, at last! And 
nothing will ever part us, my beloved." 

The Elongated Man, the ductile detective whose 
expansive ego led him to publicly reveal his true 



identity of Ralph Dibny, is joined on his adventures 
by his jetsetting wife Sue. Sue has grown to enjoy 
her stretching hubby's nose for mysteries, and helps 
manage his superheroic affairs. Earthman Adam 
Strange traveled light years through space to the 
planet Rann to be with Alanna, the lovely daughter of 
that world's chief scientist. Originally, his treks were 
the result of the otherworldly "Zeta Beam" that tele- 
ported him through the cosmos, but eventually he 
spent more time on Rann with Alanna as his bride. 
Kit Walker, the latest in the long ancestral chain of 
jungle heroes known as the Phantom, married the 
feisty Diana Palmer, with whom he has had two chil- 
dren. Kit Jr., their son, is destined to replace his 
father in the purple garb of the "Ghost Who Walks." 
After a lengthy engagement, slowpoke Barry Allen — 
better known as the Silver Age Flash — married Iris 
West, but did not reveal his dual identity to her until 
some time later. And Tempest, DCs hero once 
known as Aqualad (sidekick to Aquaman), was in 
love with Tula, a.k.a. Aquagirl, but after her unfortu- 
nate death found himself walking down the aisle 
with Dolphin, a former lover of Aquaman. Hawkeye, 
the bowman of Marvel's Avengers, was led astray 
into crime by the Russian spy Black Widow. Hawkeye 
went straight, and after meeting the superheroine 
(and also reformed outlaw) Mockingbird, cupid's 
arrow struck and the two were married. 

Another famous couple in the superhero com- 
munity is Mr. and Mrs. Peter Parker, or Spider-Man 
and Mary Jane Watson. As a teen, Parker was a 
hopeless geek before a bite from an irradiated spi- 
der made him one of the most famous superheroes 
in the world. Through the soap opera injected into 
his series, The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, by writer 
Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Steve Ditko, Parker 
engaged in several romances before marrying Mary 
Jane. His first love was Betty Brant, the secretary of 
Parker's boss, Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jame- 
son. Though slightly older than Parker, Brant was 
impressed with the youth's intellect and sensitivity, 
but her own personal problems interfered with their 
becoming a couple. Liz Allan was the girlfriend of 



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Love Interests 



Parker's high-school nemesis, the bully Flash 
Thompson. Allan had a crush on Parker, recognizing 
the same attributes that Brant did. 

When Parker started college and met Gwen 
Stacy, he could keep his mind on little else. His 
Aunt May pressured him to meet her friend's niece, 
Mary Jane, but Parker resisted, and a series of com- 
ical near-misses ensued through numerous issues 
of Amazing Spider-Man. When Parker could no 
longer duck out on his aunt's machinations and 
finally met Watson, he was floored to find a gor- 
geous, lively redhead standing on his doorstep: 
"Face it, tiger. You hit the jackpot," she audaciously 
grinned. He was interested in Watson, but remained 
in love with Stacy. In Amazing Spider-Man #100 
(1971), Parker reflects, "Maybe I'm beginning to 
realize there's more to life than being a corny cos- 
tumed clown. So I might as well admit it! I know 
what I want. And Gwen Stacy is it." He creates a 
serum to eradicate his spiderpowers, in hopes of 
living a normal life, but the untested potion causes 
him to grow four extra arms, making him even more 
a spider-man! That problem was soon rectified, but 
he shortly lost his beloved Gwen at the hands of 
the villainous Green Goblin. He later began dating, 
then married, "MJ," although their relationship has 
been nothing short of tumultuous. 

WOZKPLACB ZOMANCZS 
ANt? HZAZTACHBS 

Team-ups have long been a staple of superhero 
stories, and at times the connection between two 
heroes has gone beyond a shared mission. The 
aforementioned Ant-Man/Wasp and Green 
Arrow/Black Canary liaisons were forged in cama- 
raderie, as was the love between Scott Summers, 
a.k.a. Cyclops, and Jean Grey, a.k.a. Marvel Girl 
(and later Phoenix), of Marvel's X-Men. For years 
they were inseparable, but after Grey had apparently 
died, Summers married and became a father. Their 
relationship was part of a romantic triangle in the 
live-action movies X-Men (2000) and X2: X-Men 



United (2003), including a strong, almost feral 
attraction between Grey and the roguish Wolverine. 

Doctor Strange, Marvel's "Master of the Mystic 
Arts," became involved with the sorceress Clea. DCs 
futuristic superteam the Legion of Super-Heroes, a 
virtual army of powerful teens, has long bred 
romance among members; A few examples include 
Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5 and Super- 
girl, Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel, Star Boy and 
Dream Girl, and Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl. When 
Gotham City's Dick Grayson fought crime alongside 
Batman as Robin the Boy Wonder, he met the second 
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), and overtime formed a 
partnership with her out from under his mentor's 
wing. Maturing into the solo hero Nightwing, Grayson 
and Oracle — the information broker that Gordon has 
become — have sometimes been an item. 

Pity poor Norrin Radd — once Radd sacrificed his 
humanity to spare his planet Zenn-La from the 
hunger of Galactus by becoming his herald the Silver 
Surfer, he bade a tearful farewell to his beloved Shal- 
la Bal. She laments, "Never has there been ... never 
will there be ... another ... such as you!" This scene, 
playing out in Marvel's Silver Surfer vol. 1 #1 (1968), 
did not end after the Surfer streaked into the depths 
of outer space: He pined and whined for her through 
numerous subsequent adventures. Hal Jordan, the 
Silver Age Green Lantern, was similarly unlucky in 
love. His girlfriend (and employer), Carol Ferris, was 
corrupted into supervillainy as Star Sapphire. 

For some superheroes, love is blind. Heiress 
Sapphire Stagg seems unbothered by the fact that 
her boyfriend, adventurer Rex Mason, has been 
mutated into the freakish DC hero Metamorpho the 
Element Man. Wyatt Wingfoot, a strapping, Native 
American friend of the Fantastic Four, was not both- 
ered by the fact that his girlfriend was a green giant- 
ess: She-Hulk. And Marvel's mutant enchantress 
called the Scarlet Witch married the synthetic 
humanoid known as the Vision. 

Perhaps no superhero has had a thornier love life 
than Marvel's Man without Fear, Daredevil. When sec- 



& 



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Love Interests 



retary Karen Page trips and falls into the arms of blind quished her villainous ways and they shared a rela- 

lawyer Matt Murdock in Daredevil #7 (1965), Mur- tively normal rapport. When Elektra, Murdock's former 

dock — secretly Daredevil — wishes, "If only — you could college lover, returned to his life, the results were dis- 

stay this way — forever!" He changed his tune in the astrous — Elektra had become an assassin, on a colli- 

1980s, when Page, then a strung-out junkie, sold the sion course with the law-abiding Daredevil. — ME 
secret of his Daredevil identity for the price of a fix. 

His next girlfriend, the Black Widow, had since relin- Luke Cage: See Power Man 



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Sty 




Aflac/ara 



Madara is the title character of Spirit War Madara, 
an action/adventure fantasy that first appeared in 
Japan in 1987. First serialized in Famicon Journal, 
the series later expanded to an OVA (Original Video 
Animation) series and video game; together, all 
three elements made up the multimedia franchise 
called the "Madara Project." In the world of Madara, 
magic and technology co-exist — characters sport 
cybernetic enhancements but can also perform 
spells of varying power. It is also a tale of a son's 
revenge against his father. 

Madara appears to be a normal, rambunc- 
tious teenager, the son of Tatara, the Holy Elder of 
a small village. Beneath the surface is a tragic 
beginning: Madara is actually the son of Emperor 
Miroku and Princess Sakuya, but he was sacrificed 
by his father to Mazoku (a powerful demon on par 
with the devil) to forestall a prophecy that foretold 
Miroku's downfall. Miroku did not stop there — he 
divided the infant Madara's chakkera (the points 
of energy within the body) among his generals. 
The ninth chakkera — Madara's spirit — was stolen 
by the kind-hearted Hakutaku and, in a manner 
similar to Moses, was placed in a basket on a 
river, later to be found by village Elder Tatara. 



Tatara fashioned a bionic "gimmick" body for 
Madara and raised him. 

Years later, now a teenager, Madara receives a 
new gimmick body, but this is a "Battle" gimmick, 
equipped with blades and electrified cables. When 
Miroku's troops invade his village, Madara fights 
them with the power of his gimmick body and the 
magical sword Shinken Kusanagi. When Tatara is 
mortally wounded, he tells Madara of his origins, 
and that he can only regain his real body by killing 
Miroku's generals who have his eight chakkera. As 
each general is killed, Madara regains parts of his 
real body, but he grows physically weaker. In terms 
of experience and mental strength, he grows 
stronger, for he will need these skills to confront 
and defeat his father. 

Madara is a cyborg, a hybrid of humanity and 
technology. The use of cyborgs as superheroes first 
appeared in Japan in the 1960s in works created by 
Shotaro Ishinomori. His works — primarily Cyborg 
009, Kamen Rider (Masked Rider), and Jinzo Ningen 
Kikaider (Artificial Human Kikaider) — have cyborgs 
as the main characters. Like the heroes of Ishi- 
nomori's works, Madara wants to regain his humani- 
ty. While his cyborg abilities make him stronger than 
the average human, they also make him different, an 
outcast, and he longs to be a "normal" human 



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Madman 



being. One could take this as a commentary on 
Japanese culture, with its emphasis on being a part 
of the whole, or working for the good of all. Rene- 
gades or those who stand out have a very difficult 
time in what is largely a homogeneous society. 

During his quest, Madara gains several important 
allies, including Kaze Hime ("Wind Princess") and the 
powerful warriors Majin Souen and Gufu. Miroku's gen- 
erals include the giant batlike creature Kajula, On Kai 
Yoma (who resembles a gigantic eyeball with tenta- 
cles), and Jyato. Despite his appearance — he looks 
like a walking, talking rabbit — Jyato is evil to the core, 
and was Tatara's killer. Due to his bloodline, Madara 
can utilize the spiritual energy within himself, and 
using the power of the Shinken Kusanagi causes the 
image of a dragon to appear on his forehead. The 
image also marks him as the legitimate heir to Miroku. 

The original concept for Madara was credited to 
Eiji Otsuka, but the art and story for the manga was 
done by Sho-u Tajima (who would later create the 
more contemporary manga Brothers). At times, 
Hidetomo Aga assisted with monster designs. The 
concept of Madara was similar, however, to Osamu 
Tezuka's 1967-1968 manga Dororo, except that the 
latter was set in feudal Japan, with the hero Hyaki- 
maru fighting monsters based on Japanese mytholo- 
gy. Dororo was made into an animated series in 
1969. Madara itself was a success; in the 1990s 
an OVA series based on the manga was made, as 
well as a video game for the Super Famicon (the 
original Japanese name for the Super Nintendo) 
video game system. Bandai Entertainment and 
MOVIC Studio were responsible for the animation. In 
May 2003, the anime distributor Media Blasters 
released the OVA series in the United States. — MM 



Madman 



Of the scores of new superheroes introduced during 
the 1990s, Michael Dalton Allred's Madman is one 
of the hippest and most stylish. Rendered in a sim- 



ple yet expressive manner — running decidedly 
counter to the stoic, overembelished, and exagger- 
atedly muscular style that became endemic to 
mainstream fin de siecle superhero comics — Mad- 
man's premiere issue (Madman #1, Tundra, 1992) 
gave the world its first glimpse of Frank Einstein, 
the man behind the mask of Madman. Allred's cre- 
ation, beautifully colored by his wife Laura, was one 
of the first superheroes designed for the ironic sen- 
sibilities of twentysomething postmodern comics 
readers — an audience that would undoubtedly show 
little interest in standard superhero fare. 

Reanimated after death by Dr. Egon Boiffard 
and Dr. Gillespie Flem, a pair of mad scientists wor- 
thy of inclusion in the cast of Buckaroo Banzai, the 
man destined to become Madman awakens with 
almost no memories. Unable to recall his real iden- 
tity, he adopts the name Frank Einstein (which 
sounds a little like "Frankenstein" if spoken too 
quickly); he also finds himself gifted with unpre- 
dictable psychic powers (including prophetic 
dreams and an intermittent sense of danger or 
security that Einstein describes as "spiritual inner 
eye awareness"), heightened agility, an apparently 
instinctual ability to survive being attacked, and an 
irrational hatred for beatniks. Clearly, Einstein's life 
isn't as simple as that of most mainstream super- 
heroes. For starters, he is full of unanswered (and 
perhaps unanswerable) questions about his identity 
prior to his death. And being a reanimated corpse, 
he is rather unattractive. Einstein's personal insecu- 
rities and neuroses drive him to garb himself in a 
pajama-like white costume with a red lighting 
bolt/exclamation point motif; the outfit includes a 
white mask, intended for vanity's sake rather than 
for the protection of a secret identity. Despite his 
extraordinary abilities and his mask — worn only to 
bolster Madman's poor self-esteem — Einstein does 
not think of himself as a superhero. 

After Dr. Boiffard dies at the hands of Mon- 
stadt, a lunatic seeking immortality, Einstein 
embarks on a desperate quest to restore life to his 
friend and benefactor, while also fighting to rescue 



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Madman 



his girlfriend Joe (Josephine Lombard) and Dr. Flem 
from some menacing monsters. Succeeding in his 
mission, Einstein discovers his innate propensity for 
heroism, and begins routinely defending Snap City — 
an ultrahip urbis that lies somewhere between the 
1939 World's Fair retrofuturity of Scott McCloud's 
lot! and the quotidian skyline of the Mort Weisen- 
ger-era Superman (not to mention Allred's own 
post-Grunge Pacific Northwest milieu) — from every 
imaginable super-menace. Because of his death- 
addled memory, Snap City is the only place Einstein 
can even vaguely remember having called home; he 
loves the town, describing it as "a groovy place 
where just about anything can happen." 

Immediately dubbed "the Madman of Snap 
City" because of his weird, corpselike appearance 
and his strange turns of phrase (fairly typical of Ein- 
stein are such utterances as "Meanies never win. 
And you can quote me on that."), Einstein finds him- 
self regularly squaring off against rogue robots, late- 
show monsters (including a vomit-beast known as 
the Puke), and crazed beatniks, with a little help 
from gal-pal Joe and an alien called Mott (a native 
of the planet Hoople, a reference to one of Allred's 
favorite 1970s bands). Unlike virtually anyone else 
in the superhero trade, his signature weapons 
include a hollowed-out, lead-filled Duncan yo-yo and 
a slingshot, lending a fair amount of credence to 
the "Madman" moniker. 

After producing six issues of Madman in 1992 
series for small-press publishers Tundra and 
Kitchen Sink (winning the 1993 Harvey Award for 
Best New Series), and three issues of Madman 
Adventures for Tundra in 1993, Allred took his con- 
cept to Dark Horse Comics, a haven for creator- 
owned properties since its founding in 1985. Dark 
Horse furnished Allred's stylishly bizarre hero with a 
much larger audience than ever before with a new 
series, Madman Comics, which debuted in 1994. 
Madman's new outing was well received despite fre- 
quent and lengthy lapses between issues, especial- 
ly toward the end of its twenty-issue run (December 
2000). Madman teamed up — and briefly switched 









-l-k-ffl |4 




v^J^? 







Madman #1 © & ™ 1992 Michael Allred. 

COVER ART BY MICHAEL ALLRED. 



bodies — with DC Comics' Superman in Super- 
man/Madman Hullabaloo!, a three-issue miniseries 
released in 1997. Two years later, Dark Horse 
released Madman/The Jam, a two-issue miniseries 
that paired Allred and his character with another 
postmodern hero (with the participation of Bernie 
Mireault, the Jam's creator). 

After nearly dying at Monstadt's hands in the 
horror-detective yam presented in Madman Comics: 
The G-Men from Hell (four issues, 2000), Madman 
became part of Snap City's first superhero group in 
The Atomics (AAA Pop Comics, 2000). Allred wrote 
and drew this title with obvious affection for the Sil- 
ver Age (1956-1969) artistic powerhouse Jack 



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Mai, the Psychic Girl 



Kirby, though filtered through a postmodern, some- 
what tongue-in-cheek lens. In The Atomics, Madman 
finally makes peace with the beatniks he has fought 
over the years, and helps change several of them 
from alien spore-infected mutants into a fledgling 
team of mismatched heroes nostalgically reminis- 
cent of early issues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic 
Four or Avengers. Among Madman's new super-com- 
panions are the stretchable Mister Gum (better 
known by Snap City's populace, unfortunately, as 
the Booger), the Slug (a purple mutant with protu- 
berant eyestalks), the Iron Man-like Metalman, and 
the enigmatic and acne-afflicted teenage time-trav- 
eler known as Zap-Man. The Atomics concluded its 
run in 2001 after fifteen issues. 

Unable to remain within the confines of comics 
and trade paperback reprints, Madman's likeness 
has found its way onto T-shirts, candy bars, lunch 
boxes, action figures, and even Zippo lighters. Holly- 
wood has also taken notice of the character, with 
the release of G-Men from Hell (2000), a Madman- 
based film directed by Christopher Coppola (brother 
of actor Nicolas Cage and nephew of director Fran- 
cis Ford Coppola), from a screenplay written by 
Richard L. Albert and Michael Allred himself. Vari- 
ous Atomics characters and Madman himself have 
returned for one-shots from 2002 to the present, 
and another, big-budget Madman film from director 
Robert Rodriguez has been in development since 
the early 2000s. —MAM 

Mai, 
the Psychic Girl 

During the 1980s, the comic-book industry in Ameri- 
ca experienced what could only be called a creative 
renaissance. New companies — the independents — 
arose and offered titles, such as Mage and Ameri- 
can Flagg! that went far beyond the typical super- 
hero fare. Even the venerable DC universe under- 



went a major revision with the Crisis on Infinite 
Earths miniseries that led to revamped versions of 
major heroes including Superman, Batman, and 
Wonder Woman. Writer/artist Frank Miller brought a 
gritty, hard-edged tone to Marvel's Daredevil and 
went on to create the dark, futuristic Batman tale 
The Dark Knight Returns. From England, writer Alan 
Moore delivered two groundbreaking titles, Miracle- 
man and Watchmen. 

Another revolution was slowly beginning during 
that time: the influx of Japanese manga into Ameri- 
ca, adapted into English. First Publications began 
publishing a translated version of the classic Lone 
Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and the late Goseki 
Kojima. In 1987, Eclipse Comics joined with Viz 
Communications to publish three manga titles (later 
expanded to four) that introduced many readers into 
the diverse world of Japanese comics. The titles 
were The Legend of Kamui; Area 88; Mai, the Psy- 
chic Girl; and Heavy Metal Warrior Xenon. Viz had 
been founded as an American subsidiary of 
Shogakukan, one of the largest publishers of 
manga. The titles released by Eclipse and Viz had 
originally been published in Japanese by 
Shogakukan in either the bi-weekly comics maga- 
zines Big Comics or Shonen (Boys) Sunday Comics. 
Big Comics' target audience was adult males, with 
teenage boys being the primary audience for Shon- 
en Sunday. 

Of the four titles, Mai, the Psychic Girl by 
Kazuya Kudo (story) and Ryoichi Ikegami (art) is the 
closest to a "superhero" tale, but the title goes 
beyond the standard superhero story. Mai at its 
core is a coming-of-age story, with a young school- 
girl dealing with a tremendous power, and facing an 
organization that believes in nothing less than the 
destruction of the world to suit a nefarious pur- 
pose. The title has its origins in Shogakukan's 
Shonen Sunday comic magazine. This in itself is 
unusual, because the primary character is a girl. 
Another unusual element is the presence of both a 
writer and artist; normally, it is the artist who both 
draws and writes in manga. Kazuya Kudo himself is 



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Mai, the Psychic Girl 



a popular writer (another title written by him, 
Pineapple Army, was later translated into English 
and released in America by Viz). Ryoichi Ikegami is 
well known in Japan for his realistic art style, and 
counts American comic artist Neal Adams as an 
important influence. Beginning with AIUEO Boy and 
Otoko Gumi (Male Gang) in 1973 and 1974, respec- 
tively, Ikegami would collaborate with many of the 
top manga writers. Strangely enough, in the 1970s, 
Ikegami created the art for a Spider-Man manga, 
which was released in America in the 1990s by 
Marvel Comics. 

Mai ran for fifty-three chapters in Shonen Sun- 
day. Mai Kuju, on the surface, is a typical fourteen- 
year old Japanese schoolgirl who hangs out with 
her friends, is slightly boy-crazy and is facing the tri- 
als of puberty. She lives with her father, Shuichi, an 
executive of the Marubishi Trading Company. Mai's 
mother Maki had passed away some years earlier. 
Below the surface, however, lies a secret: Mai pos- 
sesses great psychic powers, the strongest being 
psychokinesis. The powers were passed on to her 
by her mother, and while at the start of the story 
Mai uses them in a playful manner — such as drop- 
ping pinecones or stopping a baseball thrown by a 
pitcher — the story soon takes a serious turn. The 
Wisdom Alliance, a secret international organization 
headed by Shogen Ryu, has targeted Mai and four 
other teenagers with psychic powers — Baion 
Yuwon, David Perry, Turm Garten, and Grail Hong — 
and has placed them under surveillance. Shuichi 
Kuju, returning from a trip to America, has uncov- 
ered this, as well as the Wisdom Alliance's ultimate 
goal. He flees with Mai, pursued by the agents of 
the Wisdom Alliance, but he and Mai are separated, 
and Mai believes that her father is dead. She is 
helped by a college student named Intetsu, and by 
Senzo Kaieda — a former ally of the Wisdom Alliance 
who turns against them to protect Mai — and Kaie- 
da's monstrous bodyguard Tsukiro. 

The Wisdom Alliance sends the other four psy- 
chic children to find Mai and capture her by any 
means possible. Eventually, Mai does find her 



father, who reveals the Wisdom Alliance's ultimate 
goal: to start a worldwide nuclear war at 9:09 A.M. 
on September 9, 1999, and use the psychic chil- 
dren to start a new race of humans. In a final battle 
over the city of Tokyo, Mai must confront David Perry 
and Baion Yuwon in a fight to the death; she alone 
will decide Earth's destiny by promising Shogen Ryu 
that she will do everything in her power to prevent 
the Wisdom Alliance's goal of nuclear war. 

For American readers, Kudo and Ikegami's 
story certainly was not the typical superhero fare; 
Mai does not wear a costume, and is, at times, 
made brutally aware that using her powers has con- 
sequences. One sequence in particular shows Mai 
saving a young puppy, Ron, with her power, but at 
the same time causing a major traffic accident. 
Along with telekinesis and telepathy, Mai's powers 
also include psychic blasts of immense power, and 
she is capable of flight. Mai also matures as a char- 
acter, despite her young age. Ikegami's art was a 
major draw for the series, with a more realistic look 
than most manga. Many of the characters have a 
tragic secret in their past, such as Kaieda, who 
reveals late in the series that Tsukiro is his own 
son, turned into a beast-man due to an experiment 
that he himself approved. 

Eclipse and Viz began publishing Mai as a 
fifty-three-issue bi-weekly series in 1987. James D. 
Hudnall (Strikeforce: Moritori) and Satoru Fuji 
translated and adapted the series into English, and 
Wayne Truman performed the art touch-up and let- 
tering. Some scenes featuring nudity were cut from 
the earlier issues, but were restored when Viz 
released a four-volume graphic novel collection of 
the series from 1989 to 1990. A three-volume 
"Perfect Collection" was released by Viz in 1996. 
Mai was well received by critics and readers in 
America — more so than in its native land; many 
praised the series for avoiding typical superhero 
cliches and for also introducing many readers to 
the world of manga. The series was translated into 
several other languages, including French and 
Spanish. While there was never an animated adap- 



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The Man from Atlantis 



tation, there were plans for a live-action film, but 
they never came to fruition. 

Mai stood as an important first step in the 
gradual popularity of manga in America. Today, 
dozens of manga titles are available in bookstores 
and comics shops around the United States, and Viz 
has become one of the largest companies adapting 
manga for American readers. Ryoichi Ikegami is one 
of the most popular manga artists among American 
readers, and translated versions of his later works, 
such as Crying Freeman (with Kazuo Kioke), Samurai 
Crusader, and the eerily accurate political thriller 
Sanctuary (written by Sho Fumimura), have been 
very successful. He was a featured guest at the 
1995 San Diego Comic-Con, where he was awarded 
the prestigious Ink Pot Award. It was also at that 
year's Comic-Con that Ikegami participated in a 
panel discussion with his idol, Neal Adams. — MM 

The/Ulan 
from /Iff atrtis 

After a severe storm, the body of a man is found on 
the beach. Dr. Elizabeth Merrill tries to help save 
the man at the U.S. Navy hospital, only to find that 
he has gills, and webbed hands and feet! The man 
revives in water, and consents to weeks of tests at 
the Naval Underwater Center; after all, he cannot 
remember who he is or where he came from. Merrill 
dubs him "Mark Harris," and learns that he has 
extraordinary strength and speed in the water, 
although he'll die if he stays out of the water for too 
long. Soon, Harris is dragooned into aiding the navy 
look for a missing submarine, in the process cross- 
ing paths with the dangerous megalomaniacal sci- 
entist Dr. Schubert. Eventually, Harris agrees to con- 
tinue aiding Dr. Merrill and the scientists of the 
Foundation for Oceanic Research. Traveling in the 
specialized submersible dubbed "Cetacean," Merrill 
and her crew help Mark fight danger and villains, as 



well as look for clues to his origins ... which may 
well be connected to the lost city of Atlantis! 

The Man from Atlantis debuted on NBC as a 
two-hour pilot film on March 4, 1977. Relative 
unknown Patrick Duffy starred in the title role, often 
wearing little but swim trunks marked with a 
curlicue symbol. When underwater, he swam with an 
undulating style that resembled the swimming of 
dolphins, contributing to his otherworldliness. Belin- 
da J. Montgomery played Merrill, who had a low-key 
romantic interest in Harris, while Victor Buono 
played recurring villain Schubert. The character of 
Mark Harris was similar enough to that of Marvel 
Comics' Sub-Mariner to negatively affect plans to 
develop that property as a series; ironically, in 
1978, Marvel published a licensed Man from 
Atlantis comic book that ran for seven issues! Four 
tie-in novels were also published. 

Because ratings were strong for the pilot film, 
NBC commissioned three further telefilms to air in 
May and June 1977, all featuring the same cast. A 
semi-regular Man from Atlantis series showed up in 
the fall, but NBC scheduled it haphazardly, preempt- 
ing it constantly and changing nights that it aired. 
The Man from Atlantis stories ranged all over the 
map, with aliens, mad scientists, natural disasters, 
alternate dimensions, giants, doubles in a time- 
shifted Wild West, and even Romeo and Juliet tak- 
ing roles in the ongoing saga! Whether the victim of 
bizarre stories or headache-inducing scheduling 
from NBC, after four telefilms and thirteen hour-long 
episodes, Man from Atlantis sank below the waves, 
never to be heard from again. — AM 



Manbtmter 

In a career that has spanned some sixty years and 
featured more changes than a chameleon, Man- 
hunter's finest hour is still considered to be a 
revered but brief seven-part revival in the mid- 
1970s. Manhunter was launched in the already 



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Manhunter 



overcrowded pages of Adventure Comics #58 in 
1941, as a sort of plain-clothes private eye who 
specialized in tracing missing persons. Those sto- 
ries about Paul Kirk (the Manhunter of the title) 
were engaging enough, but the fans wanted super- 
heroes, which is exactly what the incoming 
writer/artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 
delivered. Following the death of a policeman 
friend, Kirk vows to avenge him and — between pan- 
els — conjures up a red costume with a blue mask, 
and sets about beating up all and sundry. 

For the next eight issues, Simon and Kirby 
served up page after page of nonstop action, with 
the Manhunter taking on hoods, lowlifes, and the 
occasional Nazi. There were rarely any attempts at 
characterization or exposition; readers never 
learned what Kirk does to earn a living beyond 
being either a big-game hunter or young sportsman 
and, as long as the stories were exciting, they didn't 
care. However, when Simon and Kirby left the strip 
to concentrate on the Boy Commandoes, the life 
went out of the strip and it was soon canceled. 

Thirty years later, in 1973, editor Archie Goodwin 
and young artist Walt Simonson started work on a 
series of short stories in the back of DCs Detective 
Comics, once again starring Paul Kirk, Manhunter. This 
revival recounted how Kirk had been injured in 1946 
and kept in suspended animation by a secret cabal of 
scientists, until he was revived twenty-five years later 
as a sort of super-mercenary. Goodwin and Simonson 
had become fascinated with Japanese culture, and the 
strip is full of black-clad Ninjas, Shuriken throwing 
stars, and innovative multi-paneled storytelling. Even 
Manhunter's costume was revolutionary — a cross 
between a Samurai suit and an exoskeleton, complete 
with Mauser pistol and vicious knives. The story 
revolved around Manhunter turning on his masters 
and trekking halfway around the globe, through the 
Himalayas, Marakesh, and Constantinople, ending up 
in Gotham City in an inevitable tangle with Batman. 

Mixing filmic influences, tight plotting, exciting 
art, and international espionage, the strip was an 



immense critical success, winning numerous fan 
awards. Fearful of lesser talents picking up the strip 
at a later date, Goodwin had the courage to kill off 
his Manhunter in a literally explosive finale. Even 
so, each decade since the strip's demise has fit- 
tingly seen a new collection, keeping it in print for 
successive generations of readers. As of 2004 Kirk 
stayed dead but, of course, that does not guarantee 
that fans have heard the last of the Manhunter 
name — far from it. 

Barely a year after the Detective Comics series, 
Kirby dreamed up a new Manhunter, public defender 
Mark Shaw (appearing in 1975's First Issue Special 
#5), who was recruited into a secret society of super- 
lawmen. Kirby's reinvention clearly owed a lot to the 
Phantom in its vision of a race of law enforcers 
stretching back through the centuries, but it was to 
be this Manhunter's only appearance — for a few 
years, at least. The Manhunter cult was revived in a 
late 1970s issue of Justice League, and the 1980s 
saw a flurry of Manhunters, initially starring in the 
complex Millennium comic in which android Man- 
hunters attacked just about every DC character in 
print. This led to a continuing Manhunter comic for 
the first time in the character's history, which fol- 
lowed up Millennium in an equally bewildering way. 
Clearly believing that you could never have too many 
Manhunters, DC brought out yet another version in 
1994, but this incarnation was a musician who 
appeared to have been possessed by a supernatural 
creature called the Huntsman. Its edgy approach 
included the beloved hero selling his soul to the devil 
(cue the sound of the fine, upstanding Paul Kirk turn- 
ing in his grave) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the strip 
failed to find an audience. 

Meanwhile, since only a few years after the 
original Kirk was in that grave, writers have been 
picking up on the Goodwin/Simonson series' device 
of antagonistic clones made by the same shadowy 
organization that revived Kirk. First, a renegade 
clone led the short-lived mid-1970s Secret Society 
of Super-Villains in their comic, and much later a 
less dastardly Kirk duplicate joined the commercial 



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Manimal 



superteam The Power Company in the early 2000s. 
However, come and go as Manhunter(s) undoubted- 
ly always will, it is Goodwin and Simonson's master- 
piece that will forever have a place in the hearts of 
true comics fans. — DAR 

Mammal 

Professor Jonathan "J. C." Chase (portrayed by 
actor Simon MacCorkindale) appeared to be a 
suave and sophisticated professor teaching animal 
behavioral sciences at New York University, or aid- 
ing the police investigations of animal-related 
crimes. But at night — or in times of danger — he 
could utilize a superpower he had inherited from his 
father, turning from man into animal, becoming the 
superhero known as Manimal. Often becoming a 
panther, a hawk, a snake, a horse, or a cat, Chase 
would use his shape-changing abilities to stop crim- 
inals, such as smuggling ambassadors, Russian 
spies, and horse thieves. His secret was known to 
only two people: an African-American Vietnam veter- 
an friend of his named Tyrone C. Earl (first Glyn Tur- 
man, later Michael D. Roberts), and a pretty police 
detective/budding love interest named Brook 
McKenzie (Melody Anderson). 

One of the most unusual superhero shows to 
air on television, Manimal debuted on NBC on Sep- 
tember 30, 1983, with an extra-length pilot film. The 
show was created by Glen A. Larson, no stranger to 
either the noncostumed superhero genre or the sci- 
fi/horror realm. Manimal featured excellent special 
effects and makeup work, as a huffing and puffing 
Chase would transform into animals on-camera, 
mostly through quick-cut close-ups. Unfortunately, 
even the large budget didn't allow for many exotic 
changes, meaning viewers were shown the same 
transformation scenes in various episodes. Despite 
its slick look and cool premise, Manimal was can- 
celed after one telefilm and seven episodes. 

The character didn't completely disappear, 
however. In worldwide syndication the show was a 



s# 



hit, particularly in France. And in 1998, Larson was 
doing well with the second season of the syndicat- 
ed superhero series NightMan. In a November 
episode titled "Manimal," NightMan met Jonathan 
Chase and his daughter, Teresa Chase (Carly Pope). 
She discovered that she had inherited her father's 
powers, and a knack for fighting crime as well. Pro- 
fessor Chase was on hand to help NightMan and 
his daughter catch a time-traveling Jack the Ripper! 
Unfortunately, neither Manimal nor his daughter 
(Womanimal?) proved successful enough to growl 
up a new pilot, and Manimal retreated back into the 
zoo of obscurity. — AM 



Martian 
Manhuntev 

Although the debut of DC Comics' second Flash 
(Showcase #4, 1956) is universally regarded as the 
start of the Silver Age of comics (1956-1969), 
J'onn J'onzzthe Martian Manhunter — a second- 
string superhero — predates the Flash by nearly a 
year. Created by writer Joe Samachson (scripter of 
many Seven Soldiers of Victory and Sandman tales 
for DC) and artist Joe Certa (who had drawn DCs 
Robotman and Fawcett's Captain Marvel Jr.) as a 
backup feature for Batman and Robin (Detective 
Comics #225, 1955), the Manhunter is accidentally 
teleported to Earth from his native Mars by Profes- 
sor Mark Erdel, whose "robot brain" has locked 
onto him from across the unknown depths of time 
and space. Terrified by the sudden appearance of 
J'onn J'onzz — a thick-browed, nearly seven-foot, 
300-pound green humanoid — the professor immedi- 
ately keels over dead, leaving the Martian stranded 
on Earth. Altering his appearance with his natural 
shape-changing abilities, the Martian assumes 
human form, anglicizes his name to "John Jones," 
and takes on a day job as a terrestrial police detec- 
tive, using his innate telepathic powers to trick his 

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human colleagues into believing that they already 
know him. In his spare time, J'onzz uses his other 
talents — invisibility, flight (derived from telekinesis), 
superstrength, superspeed, and "Martian vision" 
(similar to Superman's heat-vision) — in a relentless 
war against both street criminals and costumed vil- 
lains. His major weakness is fire; just as kryptonite 
is Superman's Achilles' heel, the Manhunter is pow- 
erless in the presence of open flames. 

During his first few years on Earth, J'onzz uses 
his invisibility power to conceal his superheroics, 
and relies mainly on his detective skills to solve 
crimes (his feature was in Detective Comics, after 
all). This changed in 1959 (Detective Comics 
#273), when he lost his ability to use his other pow- 
ers while invisible. His existence subsequently 
becomes common knowledge, and he becomes 
widely known as the Martian Manhunter. This leads 
to his eventual decision to ditch not only his "John 
Jones" identity (at first in favor of whatever human 
form the crisis dujour requires him to take) but to 
stop adopting human guises altogether in favor of 
full-time superheroics in his alien form. His 
demeanor is distant and logical, a classic "out- 
sider" personality that anticipates Star Trek's Mr. 
Spock by more than a decade. 

With J'onzz's identity changes still underway 
during his Detective run, J'onzz found himself in the 
hands of writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike 
Sekowsky, serving double duty as a charter member 
of the Justice League of America (The Brave and the 
Bold #28-#30, 1960; Justice League of America 
#1, 1960), DC editor Julius Schwartz's wildly suc- 
cessful revival of the defunct 1940s superteam the 
Justice Society (also written by Fox, this feature had 
ended in Mi-Star Comics #57, 1951). It is only in 
this capacity — as a supporting character in an 
ensemble title — that the Martian Manhunter finally 
began appearing on comic-book covers. While 
J'onzz remained a major player in the JLA, his 
Detective Comics run ended in 1964 with issue 
#326, with the Elongated Man (a future JLA mem- 
ber) taking his place; two months later, the Man- 



hunter's feature resurfaced in the pages of The 
House of Mystery (beginning in issue #143), a title 
that had previously run only anthology-style horror, 
science-fiction, and fantasy tales. Now helming his 
own feature and commanding a spot on each 
issue's cover, J'onzz had definitely moved up in his 
adopted world. Unfortunately, the character proved 
not to be quite the draw DC had hoped, and he lost 
his cover slot to a new lead feature, Dial 'H' for 
Hero (House of Mystery #156, 1966). The following 
year, J'onzz found himself bereft of even back-page 
status (as of House of Mystery #174) and had only 
the Justice League's headquarters to call home. 

Thanks to the flybys of Mars performed by the 
Mariner spacecraft in the 1960s, planetologists — 
as well as the comics readership — became aware 
that the real Mars was incompatible with sentient 
life such as the Martian Manhunter. DC therefore 
had to engage in some judicious "retconning" 
(retroactive continuity) to better explain J'onzz's ori- 
gins. When the Manhunter finally returns to his 
homeworld (Justice League of America #71, 1969), 
he makes the horrific discovery that something has 
purged the Red Planet of all life. He also learns that 
his people had fled whatever menace had killed the 
Martian biosphere, and leaves the JLA — and the 
four-color page — to find them. His quest is ultimate- 
ly successful, and he eventually returns to Earth 
and his fellow heroes (Justice League of America 
#100, 1972). 

During the 1980s and 1990s, J'onn J'onzz con- 
tinued to be a stalwart member of the JLA and Jus- 
tice League International, becoming almost a father 
figure for some of the younger and brasher mem- 
bers of the team, such as the Blue Beetle, Booster 
Gold, Fire, and Ice. In fact, he has been integral to 
every incarnation of the Justice League from the 
very beginning. Under such writers as Keith Giffen, 
J. M. DeMatteis, Dan Jurgens, Gerard Jones, and 
Mark Waid, J'onzz loosens up a little emotionally, 
developing a dry sense of humor, though he is still 
often played as a silent, stolid straight man for ban- 
ter-prone characters such as the Blue Beetle. Dur- 



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Marvel Boy 



ing the 1990s, the Manhunter becomes the Justice 
League's chairman; his leadership skills are praised 
by no less a personage than Batman himself (JLA 
#2, 1997), who says J'onzz has "the best grasp of 
group dynamics of anyone I've ever met." 

As has happened with many superheroes, the 
Martian Manhunter's origin story has been embroi- 
dered greatly during the last two decades, making 
him increasingly complex and more relevant to mod- 
ern audiences. In 1988 J'onzz starred in a four- 
issue Martian Manhunter miniseries, in which writer 
DeMatteis and artist Mark Badger plagued the Man- 
hunter with a vision of H'ronmeer, the Martian god 
of death, fire, and lies. This culminated in several 
shocking discoveries, including the fact Dr. Erdel 
still lives. Erdel reveals that the Manhunter, grief- 
stricken over the deaths of his wife, daughter, and 
entire species from a plague, had lashed out in 
pain and destroyed Erdel's teleportation apparatus, 
thereby stranding himself on Earth. The Man- 
hunter's vulnerability to fire turns out to be purely 
psychosomatic, a post-traumatic manifestation of 
J'onzz's repressed memories of his dead world's 
funeral pyres. To heal J'onzz's shattered psyche, 
Erdel had implanted happy memories of Mars 
based on old pulp science-fiction stories — the Man- 
hunter's Martian appearance is one such piece of 
implanted information. Erdel then faked his own 
death to leave J'onzz free to adapt to his new life 
on Earth. Using Erdel's rebuilt equipment, the Man- 
hunter returns briefly to Mars, where he bids 
farewell to everything he has lost. When he returns 
shortly to Earth, he regards it as his home more 
now than ever before. 

Working with artists Tom Mandrake, Eduardo 
Barreto, and Jan Duursema, writer John Ostrander 
helmed an open-ended Martian Manhunter series 
that ran for thirty-six issues (1998-2001). Noting 
J'onzz's conspicuous lack of the "rogues' gallery" 
so typical of other superheroes, Ostrander embell- 
ished the character's backstory further by introduc- 
ing his evil brother Ma'alefa'ak J'onzz (who is better 
known by his supervillain moniker, "Malefic"), the 



architect of the plague that destroyed the Martian 
people. Ostrander also intertwined the history of 
Mars and the J'onzz family with Jack Kirby's New 
Gods characters, revealing that the Martian Man- 
hunter has long been an enemy of the diabolical 
and supremely powerful quasi-deity known as Dark- 
seid. In Martian Manhunter 1,000,000 (1998), 
Ostrander and Mandrake served up a possible 
future in which the Martian Manhunter is alive and 
performing heroic deeds on Mars in the year 
85,271 A.D. 

"[J'onn J'onzz is] the alien on Earth who still 
remains alien," Ostrander has said of the taciturn 
extraterrestrial hero. "And thus he's the most clas- 
sic in terms of a detective as well — if he remains 
the classic outsider, unlike Superman, who was 
raised to almost think of himself as human. J'onn 
always has known that he's the alien and yet, at the 
same time, he feels very close [to] and very identi- 
fied with the people of Earth." Today he remains a 
key player in the Justice League, a long-lived charac- 
ter whose alien-ness remains both intact and 
intriguing. — MAM 

/Watvef Boy 

For a company founded on a title called Marvel 
Comics, the temptation to create a hero called Mar- 
vel Boy was always going to be hard to resist, and 
there have been many incarnations of that name 
over the years. The first Marvel Boy was Martin 
Burns, who enjoyed two different origins in just two 
appearances. In the first (in Daring Mystery #6, 
1940), he becomes the reincarnation of Hercules, 
who had been driven to return to Earth by the grow- 
ing Nazi threat. In his second origin (in USA Comics 
#7, 1941) he inadvertently knocks over a mummy — 
"Hercules' mummy," as per the myth-mash that char- 
acterized all of this Marvel Boy's stories — during a 
museum trip and some of the mummy extract (what- 
ever that might be) enters a cut in his skin; presto, 
instant superhero! In both cases, young Martin is 



550 



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Marvel Comics 



presented with a (different) costume by an animated 
shadow that just happens to be lurking nearby. 

Fast-forward a decade and, following the col- 
lapse of the superhero genre, up popped a new 
Marvel Boy: Bob Grayson, son of intrepid genius sci- 
entist Professor Matthew Grayson. Frightened by 
growing instability in Europe, the professor had 
fashioned a nuclear-powered spaceship and spirited 
his young son away to safety on Uranus. Now in 
futuristic 1950, the grown-up Grayson returned to 
Earth in a Roman-style, bare-legged costume, pop- 
ping uranium pills and dazzling hoods with his "light 
jewel," which fired a beam of light that was tem- 
porarily blinding. The Marvel Boy stories were enjoy- 
ably scatterbrained, as he flitted from Uranus to 
Earth and back, tangling with aliens, commies, and 
swamis. After two issues, his Marvel Boy comic was 
retitled Astonishing, and beautifully drawn Marvel 
Boy stories (by Russ Heath and Bill Everett) contin- 
ued to appear until issue #6, after which it was con- 
verted to a horror comic. 

In a move to retain copyright on the name, Mar- 
vel Boy strips were reprinted in the 1960s and 
1970s, and the hero himself was revived by writer Roy 
Thomas in a Fantastic Four issue (#164 in 1975). 
Grayson had apparently been in suspended animation 
and woke up with crime on his mind, renaming him- 
self Crusader. He was defeated by the Fantastic Four 
and promptly died. His armbands (tiny generators 
filled with the energy of miniature stars) were passed 
on to Stark Industries, where a young would-be 
S.H.I.E.L.D. spy called Wendell Vaughn tried them on, 
fought off some enemy agents, and duly became Mar- 
vel Man (in Captain America #217). Adding blue tights 
to the original costume, Marvel Man next met the 
Hulk, changed his name to Quasar, and flew off to 
Uranus where, after three years of sleep, he was told 
he was the universe's new protector. Flying back to 
Earth, he would go on to enjoy a healthy run in his 
own comic for six years (1988-1994) as a sort of 
lighthearted Green Lantern. 

But if Marvel Man became Quasar, that name 
was now going spare again, and so ... enter Vance 



Astrovik, a.k.a. Marvel Boy, in the pages of the New 
Warriors in 1990. (This character was a "real world" 
variant of Guardians of the Galaxy leader Vance 
Astro, after the arbiters of Marvel Comics continuity 
decided that he hadn't left the twentieth century to 
join that futuristic team after all.) Rejected by the 
Avengers, the telekinetic Marvel Boy was recruited 
by Night Thrasher to join his fellow tyro heroes in 
the New Warriors, which proved to be one of the 
surprise hits of the 1990s. In an unusual move that 
very much mirrored the increasingly violent state of 
life in the late twentieth century, storylines revealed 
that Marvel Boy was an abused child, and in issue 
#20 he killed his father after a particularly savage 
beating. As a result, he was sent to jail where he 
changed his name to Justice and fought for the 
cause of prisoners' rights. In due course, Justice 
was released and, together with new Warriors girl- 
friend Firestar, went on to get accepted into the 
Avengers this time. All of this meant that there was 
another vacancy in the Marvel Boy department. 

The fifth Marvel Boy duly arrived in 2000, cour- 
tesy of cutting-edge writer Grant Morrison with the tal- 
ented J. G. Jones on art, as part of the company's 
more mature Marvel Knights line. This time around, 
Marvel Boy was Noh-Varr, the sole survivor of a 
crashed spaceship of the Kree race, and the strip's 
premise was effectively a retelling of the early (1968) 
Captain Marvel strip, right down to the design of Mar- 
vel Boy's costume. Over six issues, Noh-Varr (effec- 
tively a living weapon) came up against Mr. Midas (a 
billionaire dressed in Iron Man's old armor, for some 
reason), S.H.I.E.L.D., Nexus the Living Corporation, a 
beautiful killer called Oubliette, and pretty much the 
whole planet. Noh-Varr is undoubtedly the least sym- 
pathetic Marvel Boy so far, albeit the best crafted, 
but almost inevitably there will be more. — DAR 

Aflatvef Comics 

Martin Goodman was a publisher of pulp maga- 
zines — inexpensive collections of prose short sto- 



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Marvel Comics 



ries packaged under illustrated covers — who, in the 
1930s, oversaw a periodicals line including Com- 
plete Western Book, Marvel Science Stories, and 
Star Detective (the latter of which, in a 1937 edi- 
tion, featured a tale with the prophetic title "The X- 
Man"). In the late 1930s Frank Torpey, representing 
a consortium of popular fiction authors and illustra- 
tors calling themselves Funnies, Inc., persuaded 
Goodman to enter a promising new entertainment 
medium: comic books. Goodman's first effort was 
Marvel Comics #1 (1939), an anthology title spot- 
lighting the adventures of the Angel (not the version 
who would appear decades later in the company's 
X-Men title), the jungle hero Ka-Zar, the Western 
character the Masked Raider, Bill Everett's Sub- 
Mariner (listed on the cover as "Submariner"), and 
Carl Burgos' Human Torch, who was depicted on the 
cover melting through a steel wall. The issue sold 
extremely well, and Goodman's company, calling 
itself Timely Publications (or Timely Comics), was 
now in the comic-book business. An important edi- 
tor was Joe Simon, who also wrote and drew many 
of the publisher's earliest efforts. 



WHEN TITANS CLASH 

After the success of competitor DC Comics' 
Superman and Batman, new superheroes inundated 
the marketplace as an exponentially expanding 
arena of publishers scurried for a piece of the pie. 
Timely experimented with new characters, most of 
which failed to connect with an audience: The Blue 
Blaze, Flexo the Rubber Man, the Phantom 
Reporter, and Timely's first superteam, the 3 Xs, 
were so short-lived that they escape mention in 
many historical volumes. Goodman struck gold, 
however, whenever he highlighted the Human Torch 
and the Sub-Mariner. And when he paired them in a 
three-part summer 1940 serial in Marvel Mystery 
Comics, the superhero "crossover" was born, and 
circulation exploded, giving birth to two new ongoing 
series: The Human Torch (Fall 1940) and Sub- 
Mariner (Spring 1941). In late 1940 Goodman hired 



his wife's young cousin as an editorial assistant to 
help manage Timely's growing line. This seemingly 
nepotistic choice proved to be the most important 
personnel decision Goodman ever made: The 
teenager was Stanley Martin Lieber, who, as Stan 
Lee, would one day be the publisher's driving force. 

THE COMING OF 
CAPTAIN AMBZICA 

In March 1941, as Adolf Hitler's campaign of 
conquest was pushing the world into war, 
editor/writer Simon and artist Jack Kirby introduced 
a new superhero comic that helped distinguish 
Timely as one of the major publishers. Simon 
recalled, in Les Daniels' Marvel: Five Fabulous 
Decades of the World's Greatest Comics (1991), 
"We were looking for a villain first, and Hitler was 
the villain." Simon and Kirby's antithesis of this real- 
life menace was their paragon of patriotism, Cap- 
tain America. Once the United States entered World 
War II, Captain America, The Human Torch, and 
other titles regularly featured the heroes combating 
Axis enemies — for example, the cover of Captain 
America #13 (April 1942) depicts "Cap" punching a 
grossly caricatured Japanese soldier while proclaim- 
ing, "You started it! Now we'll finish it!" Readers 
embraced the superhero war effort, with many 
comic books selling hundreds of thousands of 
copies per issue. In December 1943 Captain Ameri- 
ca became a matinee idol by starring in the first 
installment of a live-action, fifteen-chapter Republic 
Pictures movie serial. Funny-animal titles like Super 
Rabbit joined Timely's publishing line, and the staff 
increased to handle the workload. Stan Lee 
assumed a larger editorial role, even writing some 
stories, and many artists accepted salaried staff 
positions to draw comic books. 

Then the war ended, sounding the death knell 
for the first wave of superheroes. Some comics pub- 
lishers withered away, and those that stayed in busi- 
ness canceled or diminished their superhero lines. 
By the end of the 1940s Timely's remaining super- 



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hero titles — Sub-Mariner, The Human Torch, and 
Captain America — were axed, the latter bearing the 
insult of piggybacking the burgeoning horror trend 
with its last issue: In Captain America's Weird Tales 
#75 (February 1950), the hero appeared in name 
only. Logos reading "Marvel Comics" sometimes 
appeared on the covers of late 1940s books, hinting 
at the name the company would one day adopt. 

By the late 1940s the publisher's funny-animal 
comics were accompanied by crime, romance, girl's 
adventure, and Western titles; a sampling of Timely 
series from this era includes Komic Kartoons, All 
True Crime, My Romance, Cowgirl Romances, Millie 
the Model, Patsy Walker, and Two-Gun Kid. As the 
United States slipped into the post-World War II 
atomic age, the optimistic vehemence of the 
1940s — when readers rallied behind Captain Ameri- 
ca and other comics that became more propaganda 
than entertainment — gave way to a new era of sus- 
picion and paranoia. 

ATLAS SHRUGS 

In 1950 the Korean conflict inspired a slew of 
war series like Battle and War Adventures, featur- 
ing gritty portrayals of the brutality of human com- 
bat. The company was gutted in the early 1950s by 
a sweeping personnel layoff, a cost-cutting mea- 
sure initiated by Goodman to maximize profits as 
part of a new distribution pact that added the 
imprint "Atlas" onto each of the company's covers. 
Failed 1953-1954 attempts to revive Captain 
America (as a "Commie Smasher!"), Sub-Mariner, 
and The Human Torch resulted in the publisher's 
avoidance of superheroes for the balance of the 
decade (though some elegant and now largely for- 
gotten attempts at reviving the genre with newer 
characters like Venus and Marvel Boy had been 
made earlier on). Atlas added explicit horror titles 
to its line, a decision it regretted during the 1954 
United States Senate witch hunt that attacked 
graphic comics content and almost extinguished 
the entire industry. Sales declined, publishers fold- 



ed, page rates shrunk, and writers and artists were 
out of work. 

By the end of the 1950s Goodman managed to 
keep his comics house alive by brokering a deal 
with Independent News Co. to distribute Atlas' peri- 
odicals, but there was a catch: The company could 
produce no more than eight titles a month, not a 
surprising limitation considering that its new distrib- 
ution source was owned by its competitor, DC 
Comics. The company dropped the Atlas label and 
went nameless for a brief period. Disgruntled and 
on the brink of resignation, editor/writer Stan Lee 
sadly surveyed what was left of a once-thriving line: 
A smattering of monster titles featuring characters 
with childish names like "Torr," "The Thing That 
Shouldn't Exist," and "Fin Fang Foom." 

THE MARVBL AG£ OF COMICS 

An early 1960s golf game between Goodman 
and DCs publisher Jack Liebowitz offered Lee an 
epiphany, at least indirectly. Liebowitz remarked of 
the stellar sales generated by DCs new Justice 
League of America title — the most recent addition 
to its line of successfully reworked superheroes — 
and Goodman then directed Lee to produce a 
superteam for their own company's comics line. Lee 
took this as a challenge to create a series with 
emotional resonance — "I was really interested in 
the characters as people," he commented — the 
result being Fantastic Four#l in November 1961. 
The "FF" consisted of a family (a snobby scientist, 
his reserved fiancee, her impulsive brother, and an 
irascible friend) that gains superpowers and 
becomes a force for good. This family was a dys- 
functional one, however, filled with bickering but 
united by love. The novelty of this new breed of 
heroes, along with Lee's dialoguing verve and the 
energetic artwork of Jack Kirby, made Fantastic Four 
a runaway success. The Marvel Age was born. 

The publisher, now calling itself Marvel Comics, 
continued to strike with unpredictable, problem- 
plagued, self-consumed, and unlikely superheroes, 



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an exciting universe of characters all co-existing in 
the same fictional world. The Incredible Hulk, Thor, 
Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Iron Man came along, as 
did supergroup titles The Avengers and The X-Men. 
Lee wrote and edited the burgeoning line, and man- 
aged his workload by formulating the "Marvel 
method" of scripting: He'd craft a terse plot that the 
penciler would illustrate, with Lee scripting pages 
after they were drawn. This shortcut not only helped 
the writer/editor manage more titles, it also vested 
the artists in their storytelling. Lee provided a 
"voice" to Marvel Comics, speaking colloquially to 
his readers in his letters pages (and awarding 
selected letter writers a coveted "No-Prize," which 
was just that: a specially designed envelope con- 
taining nothing inside) and in his hype-laced "Stan's 
Soapbox" columns. He created intimacy between 
readers and comics professionals by humanizing 
his fellow creators with nicknames: Jack "King" 
Kirby, "Genial" Gene Colan, "Jazzy" Johnny Romita, 
and his own alias, Stan "The Man" Lee. Doctor 
Strange, Sgt. Fury (later to become Nick Fury, Agent 
of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and Daredevil joined the line, as did 
additional writers, artists, and editors. 

Although the distribution deal with Independent 
News/DC strangled Marvel at its eight-title maxi- 
mum throughout most of the 1960s, anthology 
books like Strange Tales and 7a/es to Astonish 
allowed more characters their venue. Marvel's 
superhero comics enjoyed growing sales, mass- 
media exposure through TV cartoons and merchan- 
dising, a company-generated fan club (the Merry 
Marvel Marching Society, or M.M.M.S.), and counter- 
culture acceptance on college campuses. As of 
1968 the distribution restriction was lifted and a 
barrage of new characters and titles appeared. And 
throughout the decade, readers never knew what to 
expect in a Marvel title: Captain America was discov- 
ered frozen in ice, the Green Goblin exposed Spider- 
Man's identity, Galactus threatened to engulf the 
entire planet, and visionary artists like Jim Steranko 
drew for Marvel while DC Comics expatriate Neal 
Adams relocated there. Lee had created a so-called 



"House of Ideas," and his drive to produce super- 
heroes with realistic resonance became a core phi- 
losophy that steered the company for years to come. 
Industry giant DC lumbered through the 1960s, not 
considering this upstart Marvel a threat until it was 
too late — as the 1970s began, Marvel was now 
comics' best-selling publisher. 

we House of weAs 

DC struck back, however, under the leadership 
of editorial director Carmine Infantino. Superstar 
artist Kirby defected to DC (for a few years, before 
he returned to Marvel), and the companies waged 
content and market-share war for several years. 
Marvel helped define new genres like sword-and- 
sorcery (through its acquisition of Robert E. 
Howard's Conan the Barbarian as a comic-book 
property), horror (via gripping titles like The Tomb of 
Dracula and Man-Thing), and martial arts (Master of 
Kung Fu and Iron Fist). DC countered with innova- 
tive alternatives, but Marvel controlled the 1970s. 

Marvel introduced two iconic anti-heroes, the 
Punisher in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974) 
and the clawed mutant Wolverine in The Incredible 
Hulk #181 (1974), then followed with an all-new 
incarnation of an old standby in Giant-Size X-Men #1 
(1975). Marvel and DC even shook hands long 
enough to co-produce the wildly successful one-shot 
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1975). Mar- 
vel milestones during the second half of the 1970s 
include Howard the Duck, The Incredible Hulk live- 
action television show, Star Wars comics adapta- 
tions, and clones of Marvel's two most visible 
heroes in Spider-Woman and The Savage She-Hulk. 
Lee was booted upstairs into executive manage- 
ment before vacating the House of Ideas for Holly- 
wood in 1980, where he helped bring Spider-Man, 
Fantastic Four, and other characters to animated 
television. He was succeeded at Marvel by a revolv- 
ing door of editors in chief, including Jim Shooter. 

Appointed in 1978, Shooter, perceived by many 
as a taskmaster, elicited love/hate reactions from 



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Marvel Comics 



staff and freelance creators. Early in his near- 
decade-long tenure, Marvel released some of its 
most celebrated, creator-driven successes: Walt 
Simonson's Thor, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's 
collaboration on X-Men, the "adult fantasy and sci- 
ence fiction" magazine Epic Illustrated, Byrne's pop- 
ular run on Fantastic Four, the expansion of X-Men 
into a franchise beginning with The New Mutants 
graphic novel (1982), and Frank Miller's dark take 
on Daredevil, the latter of which introduced the pop- 
ular assassin Elektra in 1981. 

After the publication of the toy tie-in superhero 
crossover Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars 
(1984), a critically lambasted but highly profitable 
limited series that sold roughly 750,000 copies per 
issue, Shooter reportedly initiated a heavy-handed 
editorial presence that soured many writers and 
artists; other creative personnel embraced his 
vision and stood steadfastly in his corner. Despite 
his controversial management style, Shooter as edi- 
tor in chief helped direct Marvel toward a period of 
commercial success. 

an eMPme czmmL.es 

Changes within Marvel's financial infrastruc- 
ture occurred in 1986, when New World Pictures 
bought Marvel with an eye toward media develop- 
ment of its characters. More new titles were pro- 
duced, including a line of comics (including Star 
Brand, Nightmask, and Psi Force) in a separate 
reality from the Marvel superheroes called the 
"New Universe," an experiment that flopped. Shoot- 
er left the company in 1987, replaced by Tom DeFal- 
co, who continued to help the line grow. The Punish- 
er now starred in his own series, as did Wolverine. 
The House of Ideas produced so many ideas that 
characters strayed from their source material. 
Some books grew so dense with continuity that they 
were inaccessible for anyone other than the devo- 
tee. But they still sold well. 

In 1989 Revlon chief and investor supreme Ron 
Perelman bought Marvel and took it public. To 



ensure shareholder profits, Marvel exploited gim- 
micks like variant covers, cover enhancements, ram- 
pant franchising, and its cadre of young, hot 
artists — Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and Jim Lee, 
among others. Marvel cultivated then manipulated a 
speculator boom that pushed sales of some titles 
into the millions. Most of Marvel's output was 
pedestrian at best, pandering at worst, piggybacking 
on the success of collector and speculator sales. 
Before long Marvel became part of a conglomerate 
that included action-figure manufacturer Toy Biz and 
trading-card company Fleer. Corporate raider Carl 
Icahn attempted a hostile takeover of the company, 
and his struggle with Perelman merited a book on 
the subject: Dan Raviv's Comic Wars: How Two 
Tycoons Battled Over the Marvel Comics Empire ... 
And Both Lost!!! (Broadway Books, 2002). In 1993 
Marvel strong-armed its own distribution network 
and continued to feed the speculator frenzy, but by 
the mid-1990s — after McFarlane and friends had 
jumped ship and formed their own publishing com- 
pany, Image Comics — the excessive glut of product 
forced the bottom to drop out of the market. Specu- 
lators fled, and on December 27, 1996, Marvel 
Entertainment Group, Inc. filed for bankruptcy. 



MABVSL COMICS ZS&OBN 

After floundering for several years, with indus- 
try naysayers predicting its demise, Marvel Comics 
was creatively rejuvenated: Chief creative officer Avi 
Arad appointed Bill Jemas as president and Joe 
Quesada — an extremely popular comic-book 
artist — as editor in chief. A leaner, more stream- 
lined Marvel has since focused on a core line of 
exciting, accessible characters, with successful cre- 
ators like Brian Michael Bendis, Grant Morrison, 
Bruce Jones, and others reshaping the Marvel uni- 
verse for the twenty-first century. Best-selling titles 
have included Ultimate Spider-Man and, now as 
before, X-Men and The Incredible Hulk. Marvel 
emerged from bankruptcy after the unparalleled 
financial success of Sam Raimi's live-action theatri- 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Mary Marvel 



cal blockbuster, Spider-Man (2002). Reinforced by 
the success of additional blockbuster movies star- 
ring Marvel characters — including X-Men (2000), 
X2: X-Men United (2002), and Daredevil (2003)— 
Marvel Comics has reclaimed its title as the 
"House of Ideas." — ME 

Marvelman: See Miracleman 



Mavy Mawei 

Perhaps fearing that success inevitably inspires imi- 
tation, Fawcett Comics seemed to have stolen a 
march on its competitors by copying its all-conquer- 
ing Captain Marvel itself. First, they created Captain 
Marvel Jr. and then, in one genre-spanning month in 
late 1942, they hit both the funny animal market 
with Marvel Bunny and the largely untapped female 
market with Mary Marvel. Writer Otto Binder and 
artist Marc Swayze introduced Mary in Captain Mar- 
vel Adventures #18, in a tale that reveals that Cap- 
tain Marvel's young alter ego, Billy Batson, has a 
long-lost twin sister, Mary (Batson) Bromfield, sepa- 
rated from him at birth and brought up by a wealthy 
foster family. As luck would have it, Mary is then 
promptly kidnapped, giving Captain Marvel senior 
and junior ample opportunity to show off their pow- 
ers by soundly thrashing the kidnappers. Somehow, 
the miscreants escape, defeat the superheroes, 
and turn on Mary who, upon uttering a plaintive cry 
of "Captain Marvel," is magically transformed into 
the red-mini-skirted Mary Marvel — apparently, she 
had never spoken his name aloud before. Like her 
brother, the super-powered Mary can fly and is pos- 
sessed of almost unlimited strength, and so she 
makes short work of dispatching her captors. 

Fawcett was never overly concerned with expla- 
nations for its heroes' powers, and readers had to 
be satisfied with the ubiquitous, long-bearded wiz- 
ard Shazam popping up to say that this was simply 
what was meant to happen. In any case, logical or 




Mary Marvel #2 © 1946 Fawcett. 

COVER ART BY JACK BINDER. 



not, the three heroes pledge to fight crime together, 
and the following month Mary graduated into her 
own feature in Wow Comics #9, displacing the 
bizarrely named Mr. Scarlett and Pinky from the 
cover spot. Swayze was deemed too important to 
draw a new feature such as Mary's and was 
returned to the Captain Marvel feature, leaving the 
new strip to be drawn by Jack Binder, brother of the 
strip's principal writer Otto; this made them one of 
the few brother teams in comics history. 

Unlike Billy Batson, who was transformed into 
a muscular adult, his sister Mary was still only a 
young girl after uttering the magic words, possibly in 
an attempt to appeal to a young readership. 
Indeed, for Mary Otto Binder deliberately down- 
played the heroics typical of the other Fawcett 



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The Mask 



comics, preferring instead more human-interest sto- 
ries. (In fact, unlike her contemporary, Wonder 
Woman, Mary was very much unliberated, content 
to be helping out her male family members.) Howev- 
er, Mary did have her share of villains, including 
Georgia Sivanna (from the ever-increasing Sivanna 
family of mad scientists), Mr. Night, and Nightowl, 
but she was just as likely to spend her time frolick- 
ing with gnomes or rescuing lost puppies. In addi- 
tion to her wealthy foster parents, the supporting 
cast included hayseed best pal Freckles, who occa- 
sionally donned a costume to become (wait for it) 
Freckles Marvel, and whose main purpose was to 
be rescued. Another costumed cohort was Uncle 
Marvel, a con man who persuaded Mary to sell her 
heroic services for cash but soon reformed to 
become a nuisance in many later strips of all the 
Fawcett characters. 

Sales were strong enough during World War II 
to warrant Mary's own title, and Mary Marvel #1 
appeared in 1945, while a line of Mary Marvel 
dresses sold in the thousands. The next year saw 
the launch of the Mary Marvel fan club but sales 
soon started to slump (possibly as the result of a 
maturing audience switching over to romance titles) 
and in 1947 Wow became a Western comic. Barely 
one month later, Mary's own title was transformed 
into Monte Hale Western and she had to make do 
with a berth in Marvel Family until the 1950s super- 
hero slump killed that off in 1954. 

By the time of her initial demise, Mary had 
become a teenager, and when she was revived by 
DC Comics some thirty years later she was still a 
teenager. As part of the Shazam! title, Mary starred 
in occasional Marvel Family adventures as well as a 
few solo backups. In these tales, usually featuring 
Mary surrounded by a gang of teenage girlfriends, 
she was portrayed as a would-be Nancy Drew, solv- 
ing quirky mysteries — and with beautiful art by Bob 
Oksner she never looked better. Captain Marvel 
went on to become a regular fixture in the DC lineup 
but for much of the 1980s and 1990s Mary lan- 
guished in obscurity, her last appearance made in 



1999. For a readership lacking in young girls it 
would seem that there is now no audience for the 
innocence and simplicity of Mary Marvel. — DAR 

the Mask 

Superheroes have always offered vicarious empower- 
ment to the average, the meek, and the disenfran- 
chised. When orphan whelp Billy Batson transforms 
into the mighty Captain Marvel by shouting "Shaz- 
am," for example, one thinks, If only I had such a gift. 

Stanley Ipkiss might disagree with you. This 
human doormat is the lowest of losers — until he 
buys an ancient mask in a curio shop. Donning the 
eerie visor, he is transmogrified into a mischievous 
oddball with a green cranium and a devilish, toothy 
sneer — plus malleability, invulnerability, and the 
power to pull objects (especially weapons) out of 
thin air. Meet the Mask, or "Big-Head," as he is 
known in public, who embarks upon a mission of 
revenge against his tormentors. Premiering in Dark 
Horse Presents #10 (1987), the Mask is a venge- 
ful, human Bugs Bunny with an "R" rating — unlike 
that "wascally wabbit," however, when the Mask 
blows up someone, he or she stays dead. As the 
body count increases in Big-Head's wake, resolute 
cop Lt. Kellaway is determined to stop this crazy 
killer, and the heat is on hapless Ipkiss. 

The Mask was envisioned by Dark Horse 
Comics president Mike Richardson, writer Randy 
Stradley, and artist Chris Warner, but given life by 
writer John Arcudi and illustrator Doug Mahnke. 
Dark Horse published multiple storylines featuring 
the mask (the object) falling into the hands of 
(make that onto the faces of) a variety of people, 
with the moral to the story (if there was one) being, 
vengeance carries a price. Each person who has 
worn the mask has been intoxicated by its power, 
but eventually beset by disaster. From his Dark 
Horse Presents appearances the Mask clobbered 
his way into a four-issue miniseries titled Mayhem 



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Master of Kung Fu 




Adventures of The Mask #1 ™ & © 1996 Dark Horse 
Comics, Inc. 

COVER ART BY BRUCE TIMM. 

(1989), then into a succession of miniseries and 
specials all his own, including The Mask (1991), 
The Mask Returns (1992), The Mask Strikes Back 
(1995), and The Mask: Toys in the Attic (1998). 

A nonlethal, kid-friendly version of the character 
became a movie icon in The Mask (1994), a box- 
office smash starring rubber-faced comedian Jim 
Carrey as Ipkiss/Mask and featuring a scene-steal- 
ing dog named Milo. (The Mask is also noted for its 
breakout performance by Cameron Diaz as a femme 
fatale turned Ipkiss' love interest.) A hefty special- 
effects budget brought to life the Mask's implausible 
Looney Tunes-inspired antics, and Carrey in the role 
coined a short-lived catchphrase: "Ssssmokin'!" A 



s# 



spate of merchandising accompanied the film, and 
Son of the Mask made it to movie houses in 2004. 
The Mask, promoted as "From Zero to Hero," 
spawned a television cartoon spinoff (1995-1996) 
in both syndication and on Saturday mornings, which 
in turn inspired a Dark Horse comic book in the "ani- 
mated" style, Adventures of the Mask (1995-1996). 
Other animation-based and traditional Mask comics 
followed for a few years, including a four-issue Dark 
Horse/DC crossover teaming Big-Head with Bat- 
man's arch foe in Joker/Mask (2000). — ME 

Master 
ofKvngFv 

If the 1960s was the decade of superheroes in the 
comics world, the 1970s was definitely the decade 
of fads. Among the horror, sword-and-sorcery, and 
science fiction genres that captivated fandom, the 
rise of the kung fu comic was one of the fastest 
and most unexpected. The popularity of Bruce Lee's 
movies and David Carradine's Kung Fu television 
show inspired all the major comics publishers — DC, 
Atlas, Charlton, and Marvel — to jump onto the mar- 
tial arts craze. Marvel married the concept of the 
Far East martial arts hero with the traditional Ameri- 
can superhero, and a genre was born. 

The first of Marvel's superpowered martial 
artists, who initially saw the light of day in Special 
Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973, was Shang- 
Chi, Master of Kung Fu, whose name means "the 
rising and advancing of a spirit." It seems that Mar- 
vel had held the rights to comics' version of Sax 
Rohmer's legendary fictional Chinese criminal 
genius Fu Manchu for some years and, while look- 
ing for a premise for its first kung fu strip, decided 
to join the two properties together. Consequently, 
the comic opens with Shang-Chi, Fu Manchu's "liv- 
ing weapon" son, on a mission to assassinate his 
father's great enemy, Dr. Petrie. 

TH£ SUPBBHeZO BOOK 



Master of Kung Fu 



Having seemingly done the deed, Shang-Chi 
was confronted by Dr. Petrie's longtime colleague 
Sir Denis Nayland Smith and told the terrible truth 
about the father whom he had believed was only 
interested in world peace. Teaming up with Sir Den- 
nis and his fellow Fu-hater, Black Jack Tarr, Shang- 
Chi dedicated his not inconsiderable skills to 
defeating his father's dastardly plans. In the strip's 
early days, creators Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin 
(soon to be replaced by Doug Moench and novice 
artist Paul Gulacy) concentrated on page after page 
of martial arts action as the team countered Fu 
Manchu's endless quest for power. The comic neat- 
ly tapped into the public's insatiable hunger for all 
things kungfu, and Marvel had a hit on its hands. 

Throughout 1974, Marvel unleashed a torrent 
of kung fu-related titles: Special Marvel Edition was 
renamed Master of Kung Fu with issue #17; a black- 
and-white magazine called Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 
was launched; a new hero, Iron Fist, followed in Mar- 
vel Premiere; and, in September, a quarterly Giant 
Sized Master of Kung Fu comic was added. In 
Britain, Shang-Chi stories were reprinted in Avengers 
Weekly, and soon the demand for new strips to be 
reprinted meant that the U.S. office was effectively 
drawing episodes for the United Kingdom, to be 
printed later in the United States. At the heart of 
what was a genuine publishing phenomenon, the 
Master of Kung Fu comic itself gradually improved 
as the talents of Moench and Gulacy matured. 

Moench started adding new characters to 
Shang-Chi's band of Fu Manchu-fighters: Clive 
Reston (part Sherlock Holmes, part James Bond), 
the Marlon Brando look-alike Lamer, and Leiko-Wu, 
Asian trouble-shooter and love interest. With issue 
#29, Shang-Chi and company began working directly 
for British intelligence and started to encounter 
other foes in a succession of Bond-inspired extrava- 
ganzas. The likes of Velcro and Mordillo lived up to 
their Bond-villain inspiration with their secret 
islands, private armies, femmes fatales, and plans 
for world domination. The new direction built to a 
climax with the whole cast battling Fu Manchu and 



MARVEL COMICS GROUP 







Master of Kung Fu #17 © 1974 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM STARLIN AND ERNIE CHUA. 



his evil daughter Fah Lo Suee on a vast space sta- 
tion, with the fate of the entire planet Earth at 
stake. In the end, Fu Manchu escaped, Larner died, 
and Gulacy moved on to other, more lucrative areas, 
having established his reputation as one of his gen- 
eration's brightest stars. 

As the 1970s progressed, the kung fu craze 
inevitably waned, and one by one the various mar- 
tial arts books folded. Shang-Chi was the last hero 
standing, having built up enough of a following in 
his own right. The comic lasted until 1983, buoyed 
by lengthy runs from artists Mike Zeck and Gene 
Day (who died soon after leaving the feature), and 
the redoubtable Moench, who stayed almost to the 
bitter end. In its last few years, old favorites such 



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Metal Men 



as villains Shockwave, Razorfist (who had blades 
instead of hands), the Cat, and Pavane reappeared 
with regularity, as did Fu Manchu (inevitably), but 
critics agree the comic's main selling point was the 
sensitivity of Moench's characterizations. 

Following a lengthy hiatus, Shang-Chi was 
revived in a few issues of Marvel Comics Presents 
(collected in the 1991 title Bleeding Black) and a 
Moon Knight special. Fans then had to wait another 
decade before being reunited with Shang-Chi, this 
time in a 2002 miniseries by Moench and Gulacy. 
Despite these rebirths, ultimately the Master ofKung 
Fu was a quintessential^ 1970s concept. — DAR 

Metal Men 

Born out of necessity and desperation, the Metal 
Men were one of the more inventive concepts of the 
1960s. The strip was created over the course of 
one weekend in 1962 by writer/editor Robert 
Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, to fill the pages of 
Showcase #37 when a previously scheduled feature 
suddenly fell through. Kanigher dreamed up a group 
of robots, each made out of a different metal and 
each having powers and personality reflecting its 
particular metal. The origin story recounts how bril- 
liant, pipe-smoking government scientist Dr. Will 
Magnus creates six robots in his giant, secret labo- 
ratory and fits each with a Responsometer, which 
gives them human characteristics. During their cre- 
ation, the robots are affected by a powerful Aurora 
Borealis event, which somehow gives them the per- 
sonalities and emotions of real people. 

The robots' abilities were as distinct as their 
"personalities." For example, Gold — the leader — 
could stretch for miles and was brave and serious. 
Mercury could melt at room temperature and was a 
real hot-head. Platinum (or Tina as she called her- 
self) was tough and resilient, and could weave her- 
self into all sorts of constructions; she was also in 
love with Doc Magnus. Lead acted as a barrier and 




Metal Men #48 © 1976 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY WALT SIMONSON. 



was large and slightly slow-witted, while Iron was 
incredibly strong, if slightly dull, and Tin was a 
rather weak, timid, stuttering character who tried 
his best but lacked the powers of his teammates. 

Kanigher was an endlessly creative writer, 
often basing his stories on gimmicks or plot twists; 
with the science-based Metal Men his writing occa- 
sionally resembled a chemistry lesson. The team 
were in some ways the ultimate establishment 
heroes, funded by the Pentagon and operating out 
of an army compound at the government's behest, 
but for all that, what made the strip so enjoyable 
were the robots' clashing personalities, particularly 
the cantankerous Mercury. Readers also immedi- 



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Metamorpho 



ately responded to the timid but plucky Tin who, like 
them, had no real powers, but the focus of the strip 
was more often on the doomed love of Platinum for 
her all-too-human creator. 

Right from the beginning, the Metal Men's foes 
were often robots themselves, be they giant robots, 
wooden robots, dinosaur robots, or even robot ter- 
mites. The group also had a cadre of chemical 
opponents, including the Gas Gang and the giant, 
walking chemical vat, Chemo. Uniquely, the Metal 
Men often died in their stories, only to be resurrect- 
ed by Doc Magnus in the next issue, but after a 
while their Lazarus-like rebirths began to wear thin. 
In 1963, after four issues of Showcase, the Metal 
Men were given their own title, which was also pro- 
duced by the Kanigher/Andru team, but when artist 
Andru left to take over the Flash, the comic's direc- 
tion began to change. Andru's replacement, Mike 
Sekowsky, soon became editor and writer, too, and 
introduced a darker element, with a storyline involv- 
ing the characters becoming hunted outcasts while 
Doc Magnus went into a coma. 

With issue #37, the Metal Men effectively dis- 
pensed with their "superhero" identities altogether, 
much as the Teen Titans and Wonder Woman had. 
They met up with wealthy financier Mister Conan 
and assumed human identities. Donning synthetic 
skin, Gold became jet-set swinger Guy Gideon; Tina 
was Tina Piatt, a model; and Lead and Tin became 
Ledby Hand and Tinker — a sort of Simon and Gar- 
funkel singer/songwriter duo. Iron assumed the 
form of builder Jon "Iron" Mann, while Mercury 
became the red-haired artist Mercurio, whose wild 
appearance and savage temper apparently echoed 
Mike Sekowsky's. Sadly, the new direction, which 
touched upon the supernatural and involved an 
insane Doc Magnus bent on world domination, was 
to prove stillborn as the comic was soon canceled 
(with issue #41 in 1970). 

After a lengthy fallow period, several guest 
slots with Batman in The Brave and the Bold and 
three reprint issues in 1973 resulted in a second 
chance for the team when their series was revived 



(with issue #45 in 1976). The human identities had 
gone, Doc Magnus was cured of his megalomania- 
cal tendencies, Chemo was rampaging again, and 
all was right with the world. Over the following 
twelve issues, the Metal Men battled Eclipso, the 
Plutonium Man, and Dr. Strangeglove. They squab- 
bled, fell in love, and died a couple of times. Even 
so, the public sadly failed to warm to them and, 
astonishingly, in the years since then the group has 
largely faded from view, with the exception of a 
1993 miniseries, which revealed that Doc Magnus 
himself had been a robot all along — a twist that 
genuinely no one saw coming. With regular revivals 
of almost every obscure vintage DC strip, it has sur- 
prised fans and critics alike that this staple of the 
Silver Age of comics (1956-1969) has been so 
neglected. — DAR 

Mefamovpbo 

Throughout the 1960s, DC Comics used its Show- 
case and The Brave and the Bold titles to introduce 
new characters, and as the decade progressed 
these heroes became stranger and stranger. Meta- 
morpho the Element Man first appeared in The 
Brave and the Bold #57, in 1965, from editor Mur- 
ray Boltinoff and writer Bob Haney, with art by DCs 
sole female artist at that time, Ramona Fradon. 
Metamorpho was originally dashing, reckless sol- 
dier of fortune (and occasional Grand Prix racer) 
Rex Mason, who was besotted with wealthy, blond 
heiress Sapphire Stagg. Sadly, Stagg's father, 
Simon Stagg, disapproved of their romance and 
sent Mason on a deadly quest to an Egyptian pyra- 
mid to bring back the famed Orb of Ra. This being 
a comic book, the Orb somehow rearranged 
Mason's chemical makeup so that he could control 
the elements in his body, and he found that he 
could do the most extraordinary things. He now 
had the strength of marble and a knockout punch 
with the power of cobalt. He could transform him- 
self into a slide made of calcium, change into gas 



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Metamorpho 




TO * R0UIN& mtBOBSYIKAP. i 
PLUS A rHOUSANPAND ONE 
OTHER FA6ULOU5 FORMS/ 



The Brave and the Bold #58 © 1965 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY RAMONA FRADON. 



or fire, and assume just about any size or shape 
you could imagine. 

The downside to all this was that Mason was 
now incredibly ugly, his whole body being a mass of 
hideously pasty and textured skin in a variety of 
orange and purple hues. As a result of this, Mason 
more or less moved in with the Staggs, as the dis- 
gruntled Simon Stagg vainly tried to reverse the Orb's 
effects. Curiously for comics, the smitten Sapphire 
was still as much in love with Mason as ever. Unfor- 
tunately, another resident of the Stagg mansion, the 
brutish bodyguard Java (in fact a caveman somehow 
revived by Stagg pere on one of his many expedi- 
tions), was also in love with Sapphire, resulting in all 
manner of plots to dispose of the afflicted Mason. 



Following two successful issues of The Brave 
and the Bold, Mason — now calling himself Meta- 
morpho — graduated to his own comic, which went 
on for seventeen issues. A typical Metamorpho 
story involved Mason, the Staggs, and Java travel- 
ing around the world, from one luxury villa to anoth- 
er, and somehow blundering into an inevitable tan- 
gle with bizarre wrongdoers. Among this motley 
band of villains were the likes of Stingaree, the 
Balkan Brothers, Dr. Destiny, Achille le Heel, and 
Mason's female counterpart Urania, the Element 
Girl. As their names suggest, this was a superhero 
strip with its tongue firmly lodged in its cheek and, 
despite his macabre appearance, Metamorpho was 
usually one of DCs more lighthearted heroes. In 
fact, with its settings on the French Riviera, in 
Africa, and in America's high society, the strip was 
reminiscent of that staple of swinging 1960s cine- 
ma, the caper movie. 

Much of the feature's appeal derived not just 
from Haney's entertaining writing but from Fradon's 
charmingly inventive artwork, and when she left 
comics to raise a family, the comic suffered a slow 
decline, finally going under in 1968. Metamorpho's 
savior was to be editor Murray Boltinoff, who had a 
tendency to stick the character into whichever 
comic he happened to be working on at the time. 
This meant that Metamorpho guest starred in 
numerous adventures with Batman and Superman, 
as well as enjoying short runs as a backup feature 
in Action Comics and World's Finest. In the 1980s, 
he became something of a superteam specialist, 
joining first the Outsiders and then the Justice 
League. In one mid-1980s issue of The Outsiders, 
Metamorpho and Sapphire finally married, a satisfy- 
ing resolution to one of DCs more enduring (and 
endearing) courtships. In Justice League Europe he 
was stationed in France and was very much the star 
of the team, enjoying a series of suitably quirky 
adventures and fraught tussles with the locals. This 
exposure led to a short-lived series in the 1990s 
that misguidedly adopted a darker approach and 
failed to engage the fans. — DAR 



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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 



Mighty Morpb'nf 
Power Rangers 

A group of multicultural high-school students, guid- 
ed by their mentor, an interdimensional being 
named Zordon, guard the universe against evildoers 
and miscreants. Each of the teens — Jason Lee, 
Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, Kimberly Hart, and Trini 
Kwan — is given access to "extraordinary powers 
drawn from the ancient creatures [known as] 
dinosaurs." When they are in danger, they point 
their Morphers to the sky and call out the names of 
their "dinosaurs": Mastodon! Pterodactyl! Tricer- 
atops! Sabertoothed Tiger! Tyrannosaurus! The 
teens then morph into "a formidable fighting force 
known to one and all as the Power Rangers." 

Armed with Power Coins, Power Crystals, Blade 
Blasters, colossal fighting machines called Zords 
(that connect to form one colossal Megazord), and 
the ancient secrets of martial arts, the Mighty Mor- 
phin' Power Rangers (MMPR) followed the success 
of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the next 
karate-kicking defenders of the world. As Power 
Rangers, they are superstrong, super-fast, and 
super-determined. Donning high-tech racecar dri- 
ver-like bodysuits and plastic masks and helmets, 
they are primary-colored heroes well versed in com- 
bat skills. In fact, most fans identified the original 
five rangers by their colors: the Red Ranger (Jason), 
the Black Ranger (Zach), The Blue Ranger (Billy), the 
Pink Ranger (Kim), and the Yellow Ranger (Trini). 
Though the Rangers' names and colors have 
changed over the years — and their look updated to 
a high-tech style featuring space and astronomy 
themes — they are still a fun-loving group of teens 
sworn to save the earth from destruction. 

The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were intro- 
duced in Japan in 1975 as Secret Task Force Gor- 
anger, a children's television show produced by Toei 
Company Ltd., one of Japan's largest movie studios. 



Haim Saban, founder and former executive produc- 
er of Saban Entertainment, encountered a live- 
action "Dinosaur Task Force" series in 1992, while 
he was traveling in Japan, and decided to repack- 
age the show for a U.S. audience as The Mighty 
Morphin' Power Rangers. (Toei still holds the rights 
to the Power Rangers in Asia and produces the 
Japanese version of the heroes.) 

Since the Power Rangers premiered on the Fox 
network in 1993, they have "built one of the most 
passionate groundswells of devotion in the history 
of kids' entertainment," said San Francisco Examin- 
er writer Peter Stack. The Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers show ran for three seasons, from 1993 to 
1996, in which the Rangers battled the likes of Rita 
Repulsa, Goldar, Finster, Squatt and Babo, Scorpina, 
Lord Zedd, Ivan Ooze, Rito Revolto, and Mastervile. 

Twentieth Century Fox released the Saban 
Entertainment-produced Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers: The Movie in 1995. In this live-action fea- 
ture, the super-warriors face off against Ivan Ooze, 
a centuries-old evildoer out to destroy Zordon. 
Though critics panned the film (despite its $40 mil- 
lion worth of special effects), kids loved it, finding 
comfort in the familiar. Licensed children's books, 
action figures, masks, T-shirts, bed sheets, a comic- 
book series from Hamilton Comics, and other mer- 
chandise enjoyed healthy sales in the retail mar- 
ket — the action figures alone ranking within the top 
three boys' character toys on the U.S. market. Until 
the arrival of the Power Rangers, it was almost 
unheard of for Japanese character merchandise to 
dominate the American retail market; at its height, 
trade publications reported annual U.S. sales of 
Power Rangers merchandise of $100 million. 

By 1996, the popularity of the Power Rangers 
had waned. But because toy sales were still strong 
and the television show was near the top of the rat- 
ings list, Saban executives decided to reinvest in 
the property in an effort to attract a younger genera- 
tion of viewers. A massive licensing and merchan- 
dising program was kick-started and the Power 
Rangers look was updated. Multiple changes were 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Milestone Heroes 




The masked cast of The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. 



made to the TV show's title, which became Power 
Rangers Zeo (1996); Power Rangers Turbo (1997); 
Power Rangers in Space (1998); and Power 
Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999). By the end of the 
1990s, the Rangers had a new lease on life, the 
Nielson Galaxy Explorer hailing Power Rangers as 
the "most popular kids show of the 1990s." 

The 2000s saw more name changes to the 
series, including Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue 
(2000); Power Rangers Time Force (2001); Power 
Rangers Wild Force (2002); Power Rangers Ninja 
Storm (2003); and Power Rangers Dino Thunder 
(2004). Despite this seeming confusion and the 



concerned cries of parents who claimed the 
superteam promoted violence through its extensive 
portrayals of physical combat, the show has contin- 
ued to increase in popularity during the new millen- 
nium. — GM 



Milestone Heroes 

It is common for comics companies to give them- 
selves exalted names, but in the case of Milestone 
the point was particularly well taken. Debuting in 



** 



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Milestone Heroes 



1993, it was the first comics company established 
by African Americans and devoted to superheroes 
of color. Seeking strength — and normalcy — in num- 
bers, Milestone's founders (writer Dwayne McDuffie, 
artist Denys Cowan, business writer Derek Dingle 
and, briefly, Michael Davis, future head of Motown 
Animation) decided to launch an entire line rather 
than a single character, aiming to reflect the range 
of real life rather than put one more token "minori- 
ty" superbeing on the shelves. 

This ambitious scope helped guarantee that 
none of Milestone's comics would seem to be a 
gimmick, even as the creators' perspective helped 
assure a certain uniqueness, presenting ideas and 
issues seldom seen in mainstream superhero 
comics (and hardly ever handled as credibly as 
Milestone did). Milestone had standards of quality, 
and a level of freshness and wit, that stood above 
much else that was produced during an early to 
mid-1990s glut of new (though not often original) 
superheroes. 

The comics' setting itself is unusual for the 
New York-centric norm of superhero stories; Mile- 
stone's tales take place in the fictional Midwestern 
metropolis of Dakota. Many of Dakota's superbe- 
ings appear after a single catastrophic event, in 
which a major gang rumble ("The Big Bang") is bro- 
ken up by the authorities with a mysterious gas that 
kills many and mutates the survivors (and unwitting 
bystanders) into superheroes and villains. (Mile- 
stone's comics were notable for uncommon touch- 
es of realism, and even this fantastic event was 
eerily restaged by Vladimir Putin at a Moscow the- 
ater in 2002, with much less glamorous results.) 

The best known of these "Bang Babies" was 
Static (featured in a comic of the same name from 
1993 to 1997), a teen who acquires electromagnet- 
ic powers and has since starred in the popular Kids 
WB! network cartoon Static Shock. Static's book 
was emblematic of Milestone's realism: a bullied 
schoolkid, Static's alter-ego Virgil Hawkins can't do 
much more about it after gaining his powers than 
he could before, for fear of revealing his superhero 




Blood Syndicate #17 © 1994 DC Comics/Milestone 
Media. 

COVER ART BY CRISSCROSS. 



identity; his tendency to run off when duty calls 
costs him even the most menial of occupations (it 
seems that only white Daily Planet reporters get 
better job security); the outcast kid has to deal with 
his own homophobia when a friend comes out; and 
after Static recognizes a dealer in a drug bust as 
another close classmate's boyfriend, he lets him 
go. (Moral shadings were commonplace for "The 
Dakota universe," in this book and no less in The 
Blood Syndicate [1993-1996], about a team of 
super-thugs who form a kind of underground United 
Nations from the fragments of their former gang 
factions, with no one but each other to turn to.) 



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Miracleman 



Not all Milestone's heroes were "Bang Babies," 
though. Hardware (starring in his own book from 
1993 to 1997) was a high-tech armored warrior 
whose alter ego, Curtis Metcalf, rebels against the 
white corporate mentor who won't give the brilliant 
black inventor credit for his creations. The CEO 
turns out to be running a criminal enterprise as well 
as an unethical business, and over the course of 
the series Hardware finds a way between his legiti- 
mate indignation and his self-sabotaging rage. 

Icon (starring in his own book from 1993 to 
1997) was the modern superhero name of an alien 
whose ship crashed in the American South in 1839; 
seeking to blend in, he takes on the appearance of 
the earthlings he sees, who unfortunately happen 
to be African-American slaves. Blessed (or cursed) 
with a superhuman lifespan among other strange 
powers, the alien has assumed the identity of a 
wealthy conservative lawyer in Dakota by the 
1990s, and is convinced to use his powers for jus- 
tice by an idealistic teen who becomes his sidekick, 
Rocket. The book intriguingly examined the spec- 
trum of black ideology (from the assimilated-in- 
more-ways-than-one Icon to the rebellious Rocket, 
who becomes comics' first unwed teen mom super- 
hero). There is also a poignant undercurrent of 
pride in Icon's selection of a black identity regard- 
less of the consequences. 

As Milestone enjoyed an initial flush of suc- 
cess, the line expanded in 1994, with Shadow Cabi- 
net (a creepy secret society of superheroes that 
resonates with post-September 11 questions of 
civil rights versus national security), Xombi (a weird 
and irreverent series about a slain Asian-American 
scientist reanimated by his own experimental nano- 
machines), and Kobalt(a somewhat satiric white 
superhero series). 

In its heyday, Milestone introduced some of 
comics' most successful and interesting new artists 
(including Humberto Ramos and John Paul Leon), 
counted famous fans from Clarence Thomas to Chuck 
D, and published over 200 comics in four years. The 



company ran several issues without Comics Code 
approval, pushing the envelope of edgy subject matter 
in a way that Milestone's establishment distribution 
partner, DC Comics, honored by carrying every book 
(and probably growing in the process). 

Sadly, a contracting market took Milestone with 
it, and the company's comic-book production 
ceased by mid-1997. However, the broader Mile- 
stone Media operation soldiers on, and hasn't run 
out of victories: There has been the Static Shock 
cartoon (2000-present), a 2001 comic miniseries 
(again published by Milestone and distributed by 
DC) to tie in to in, and another interesting Static 
Shock story (dealing with prejudice against Arab 
Americans) in volume 2 of the industrywide benefit 
compilation 9-11 (DC Comics, 2002). Milestone 
Media has put out children's books on African-Amer- 
ican history makers, and at least one scholarly trea- 
tise has been published on the company's comics 
{Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their 
Fans by Jeffrey A. Brown). It may still be a long time 
before this milestone fades from view. — AMC 

Miracleman 

Newspaper reporter Mike Moran dreams of flying 
children and of exploding spaceships. When he is 
caught in a hostage situation in real life, Moran 
sees the backward reflection of the word "atomic," 
and it triggers something in his brain. Whispering 
the word "Kimota," Moran is transformed into Mira- 
cleman, a superstrong, nearly indestructible being. 
With the return of his long-forgotten alter ego, 
Moran begins to unravel the memories and secrets 
of his past, including the fate of Kid Miracleman 
and Young Miracleman, his sidekicks in the 1950s, 
who have similarly disappeared in the years since. 
But one of them is now a malicious tycoon with no 
conscience or scruples, and he'll stop at nothing — 
even the destruction of London — to stay on top of 
the world. And even as Moran explores his past, 
and fathers a very special daughter, his real life is 



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Miracleman 



unraveling around him, and the scientist responsi- 
ble for his creation has other plans. 

In the post-World War II economy in England, 
the comics business was booming. Publisher Len 
Miller was doing well reprinting the adventures of 
American hero Captain Marvel, until 1954, when 
Fawcett Publications settled with DC Comics and 
agreed to stop publishing the adventures of the 
Shazaml-shouting hero. Suddenly left without a 
main character, Miller instructed comics 
writer/artist Mick Anglo to create a knock-off of 
Captain Marvel. Anglo and his studio created Mar- 
velman, whose magic word was "Kimota!" He was 
accompanied on many of his adventures by Kid Mar- 
velman and Young Marvelman, and often faced the 
evil genius Emil Gargunza, aliens, and strange 
thugs. Marvelman became the first true British 
superhero, and his popularity soared for nine years. 
But the business changed, and in 1963, the last 
Marvelman adventure was published. 

In 1981, ex-Marvel U.K. editor Dez Skinn was 
striking out on his own to create a new anthology of 
creator-owned comics, and he planned to bring Mar- 
velman back. Impressed by a proposal by new writer 
Alan Moore, Skinn commissioned the first new Mar- 
velman story for Warrior #1 (March 1982). Moore's 
story, combined with detailed art by Garry Leach, 
blew readers' minds. Moore took the 1950s concept 
and brought it into the 1980s, posing the question, 
"What effect would a real superpowered character 
have on our world?" As Marvelman continued, Alan 
Davis took over as artist, and the strip became War- 
rior's most popular feature. But creator and financial 
problems behind the scenes — as well as a threaten- 
ing letter from Marvel Comics when Skinn published 
a Marvelman Special (1984) — led not only to the end 
of Marvelman in Warrior, but the eventual closing of 
the magazine itself. Marvelman had won British 
comics' Eagle Awards, and attracted attention in the 
United States, but it was now out of a home. 

Skinn approached U.S. publishers about pick- 
ing up the Warrior properties, but both DC and Mar- 




Miracleman #1 © 1985 Eclipse Comics. 

COVER ART BY GARRY LEACH. 



vel declined Marvelman. Pacific Comics eventually 
agreed to publish the series, but went bankrupt 
before it could appear. Pacific's assets were 
bought by Eclipse Comics, and Marvelman finally 
had a publisher again. After a controversial name 
change to avoid litigation from Marvel Comics, the 
new Miracleman #1 debuted in August 1985. The 
series was an immediate critical and sales hit. 
Issues #l-#6 featured reprints of the Warrior 
material, but new material — drawn by artist Chuck 
Beckum (now known as Chuck Austen) — also 
began appearing in issue #6 (February 1986). As 
the publishing schedule began to fluctuate, artists 
Rick Veitch and John Totleben finished the stories 



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Miss Fury 



for Moore's run on the series, concluding with Mira- 
cleman #16 (December 1989). 

Moore's stories were universally praised, and 
are often cited as the inspiration for such later 
series as Watchmen (also by Moore), Marvels, and 
DCs Kingdom Come. Despite the acclaim, two Mira- 
cleman issues raised retailer concern in the United 
States. Issue #9 (July 1986) featured explicit 
scenes of childbirth, resulting in some retailers 
refusing to carry the book, or placing it in their adult 
section. The violence of Miracleman #15 (Novem- 
ber 1988) — in which Kid Miracleman causes the 
destruction of half of London and the deaths of 
more than 10,000 people — was not nearly as boy- 
cotted, but comics historians do note it as one of 
the most violent mainstream comics published to 
that date. As he left the series, Moore gave his suc- 
cessor a storytelling challenge: Miracleman had 
now reshaped planet Earth into a Utopia, presiding 
over it as a benevolent supergod. 

Hand-picked by Moore, writer Neil Gaiman took 
to the challenge with relish. He planned three story 
arcs called "The Golden Age," "The Silver Age," and 
"The Dark Age." Gaiman's scripts were interpreted 
by artist Mark Buckingham, who used a different art 
style for every story. Issues #17-#22 (June 
1990-August 1991) comprised "The Golden Age," 
telling stories of the people in the new Utopia, and 
how they viewed or interacted with Miracleman. Two 
more Miracleman issues were published, and 
another completed, but #24 (August 1993) was 
destined to be the final Miracleman from Eclipse; 
the company closed shop shortly thereafter. In addi- 
tion to the two dozen Miracleman issues, Eclipse 
had released five trade paperback collections; the 
miniseries Miracleman; Apocrypha (which featured 
out-of-continuity stories by outside writers and 
artists, 1991-1992); The Miracleman Family (fea- 
turing reprints of 1950s Anglo material and 
released in 1988); and the stand-alone Miracleman 
3-D. Miracleman also appeared as a character in 
the crossover miniseries Total Eclipse 
(1988-1989). 



In April 1996, Image Comics co-creator Todd 
McFarlane bought Eclipse's assets, planning to bring 
back several of the properties, including Miracleman. 
Unfortunately, the ownership of the rights to the char- 
acter is in question, with Gaiman and Buckingham 
owning a portion, and the once Eclipse-owned rights 
on shaky ground, keeping future Miracleman comic- 
book material in doubt. Despite this, McFarlane fea- 
tured Mike Moran in cameo scenes in Hellspawn 
#6-#7 (February-April 2001), and released limited- 
edition artwork of Miracleman, as well as Miracleman 
statues. Whether Miracleman will ever shout "Kimo- 
ta!" again in comics, or whether the excellent and 
much-sought-after material by Moore, Gaiman, and 
their artistic cohorts will ever appear in print again, is 
an answer only the future holds. — AM 

Miss Fuvy 

Several superheroes started life in comic books 
before going on to be adapted for newspapers. 
These include heroes that are household names 
today: Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman. Unusu- 
ally, Miss Fury's creation was the other way around. 
Her first newspaper appearance was in April 1941, 
and she is considered the first major costumed 
superheroine in comics history, beating the likes of 
Wonder Woman, the Black Cat, and many others 
into print. Her creator, Tarpe Mills, was a pioneer 
herself, being almost certainly the first woman to 
work on a superhero strip and certainly the first to 
create one. She was involved in some of the very 
earliest comic-book series in the late 1930s, work- 
ing on the likes of The Ivy Menace, Drama of Holly- 
wood, and The Purple Zombie for titles such as 
Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies and Star 
Comics. Mills was born June Mills but adopted the 
more ambiguous forename Tarpe so that her pre- 
dominantly male readership would not realize that 
their favorite strips were drawn by a woman. 

Like Mills, Miss Fury had an alter ego; in civil- 
ian life she was (in best Bruce Wayne fashion) 



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Modern Age of Superheroes (1980-Present) 



wealthy socialite Maria Drake, who makes a fateful 
decision when on her way to a costumed ball: Dis- 
covering that someone else is going to the ball 
wearing the same costume as hers, she desperate- 
ly hunts for a suitable replacement and settles 
upon an African ceremonial costume made out of a 
panther skin that had been used in magic rituals. 
The figure-hugging, all-black outfit, with ears, claws, 
and a tail, was certainly one of the most striking to 
be seen in the early days of comics. Right from the 
start, it brings our heroine adventure and peril. With 
athletic prowess, keen detective skills, and a super- 
costume bar none, Miss Fury is equipped to take on 
America's hoodlums and crooks. 

In her first few months of publication, the 
superheroine met the dashing detective Dan Carey 
and the seductive spy Erica von Kampf as well as 
assorted criminals, con men, and damsels in dis- 
tress. At the outset of World War II many of Miss 
Fury's adventures were set in Brazil, where she 
fought the bald, monocled General Bruno — the very 
personification of a Teutonic villain — and his Nazi 
battalions, hidden in a hollow mountain. Another 
frequent nemesis was the glamorous Era, with her 
guerrilla fighters, and the ever-present von Kampf 
could always be relied upon to pop up with an evil 
scheme or two. But Miss Fury was every bit the 
femme fatale herself, and had a string of allies 
including Gary Hale, Fingers Martin, Albino Joe, and 
her admirer from afar, Detective Cary. 

Mills may not have been as polished as some 
of her contemporaries but she was nonetheless a 
fine storyteller, and her never-ending cliff-hangers 
(in many ways, the strip was one long narrative) 
moved along at a frantic pace. Mills appreciated 
glamor, and the feature was characterized by its 
succession of beautiful women in elaborate, fash- 
ionable, and often risque clothing. She was some- 
thing of a glamour girl herself, posing seductively 
for press releases, complete with her ever-present 
white cat, and she closely resembled the star of her 
strip, Maria Drake. With its bold linework and 
action-filled plots, the Miss Fury series was a natur- 



al for the burgeoning comic-book industry, and Time- 
ly Comics (better known now as Marvel Comics) 
released eight issues of Miss Fury reprints between 
1943 and 1946, with pinups and cutout dolls 
thrown in for good measure. 

Miss Fury ran for a very respectable ten years, 
outlasting most of its superhero rivals but also 
courting controversy. In the strip's later years, Maria 
Drake adopted a child rescued from the clutches of 
the evil Doctor Diman, little knowing that he was the 
son of her weak-willed ex-fiance, Hale, and her arch- 
nemesis von Kampf. Just as daring was one 1947 
exotic costume that was so revealing (by the stan- 
dards of the day) that thirty-seven newspapers 
promptly canceled the strip. At the height of its pop- 
ularity, the feature was printed in hundreds of news- 
papers across the United States as well as in 
Europe, South America, and even Australia, but in 
1952, like many other adventure strips, it was final- 
ly laid to rest. The taste in newspapers was increas- 
ingly leaning toward sophisticated soap-opera strips 
and humor features, and Mills retired from comics. 

In recent years, Miss Fury has been introduced 
to curious newcomers through further reprints, 
including a 1979 book collection from Archival 
Press and a short-lived series from Adventure 
Comics in 1991. —DAR 



Modern Age 
of Superheroes 
0980'PresenQ 

By the advent of comics' Modern Age (1980-pre- 
sent), American society in the real world had 
responded to escalating crime, violence, and ethical 
deterioration with cynicism, and could no longer 
relate to the traditional, altruistic do-gooder. "Super- 
heroes needed a reason to be superheroes," stated 



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Modern Age of Superheroes (1980-Present) 



television screenwriter James Grant Goldin in the 
2003 History Channel documentary Comic Book 
Superheroes: Unmasked, when referring to post- 
1980 costumed crime fighters. And thus was born 
the "new" superhero, motivated into action by stim- 
uli other than "saving the day." 

NBW PI2ZCTI0NS ANP WB 
PIZeCTMAZKBT 

As the writer/artist of Marvel Comics' Daredev- 
il during the early 1980s, Frank Miller transformed 
what was once a second-banana comic book into a 
compelling study of one man's struggle against a 
vast and seemingly unstoppable network of crime. 
In late 1980, Miller introduced Elektra as Daredev- 
il's former lover turned assassin-for-hire. Like many 
comic-book characters, Elektra had survived the 
murder of a parent, but instead of focusing her 
emotions into benevolence, she mastered martial 
arts and sold her services as a professional killer. 
While her marks usually represented the scum of 
the earth, Elektra executed them efficiently, without 
compunction — and readers applauded her blunt- 
ness. Elektra joined the Punisher and Wolverine, 
both of which were introduced in 1974, as Marvel's 
anti-heroes. Yet in the early Modern Age their brutal 
methods were toned down due to the censorship of 
the industry's watchdog board, the Comics Code 
Authority (CCA). 

The art form of superhero comic books matured 
through its Golden (1938-1954), Silver 
(1956-1969), and Bronze (1970-1979) Ages, but its 
presentation remained essentially the same: a 64- or 
32-page periodical published on inexpensive 
newsprint paper. That format began a metamorpho- 
sis in 1981. Comics venues were dwindling, as news- 
stands, drug stores, and other outlets stopped sell- 
ing them due to their low profit margin. Specialty 
shops — described in Comic Book Superheroes: 
Unmasked as "private clubs catering to a hardcore 
base of comic-book fans" — began carrying new titles, 
offering comic-book publishers a fresh lease on life. 



This "direct sales" market, where retailers 
ordered a finite number of copies of each series, 
offered three benefits: it helped the industry distrib- 
ute its product straight to the consumer, it eliminat- 
ed the return of unsold copies, and it sidestepped 
the approval of the CCA. DC Comics was the first 
major publisher to explore the direct market with 
"direct only" one-shots including Madame Xanadu 
(1981). DC experimented with offset printing, which 
offered richer, more vibrant colors on a brighter 
paper stock. Graphic novels — epic stories in one 
longer, and sometimes larger, package — were intro- 
duced to help the medium nurture storylines too 
complex for monthly serialized periodicals. 

CZZATOZ-OWNBl? 
COMICBOOKS 

"Independent" publishers that catered to the 
direct market entered the business. San Diego, Cali- 
fornia-based Pacific Comics opened shop in Decem- 
ber 1981 with Captain Victory and the Galactic 
Rangers #1, written and illustrated by the legendary 
Jack "King" Kirby (co-creator of Captain America, the 
Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and countless other super- 
heroes), the first "creator-owned" comic book, allow- 
ing Kirby to retain copyright of the characters. 
Despite this distinction, the majority of Pacific's sub- 
sequent content shied away from superheroes, 
favoring horror and science fiction instead. 

Creator ownership, the absence of Comics 
Code restrictions, and upscale printing created an 
alluring scent that attracted visionary and reac- 
tionary comic-book writers and artists to deeply 
invest themselves into their work. More indepen- 
dents arose — like Capital Comics, Eclipse Comics, 
Comico the Comic Company, First Comics, and Dark 
Horse Comics — and creator-driven, cutting-edge 
superheroes premiered from these houses, includ- 
ing Mike Baron and Steve Rude's Nexus, Matt Wag- 
ner's Grendel and Mage, Bill Willingham's Elemen- 
tal, Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle's Crossfire, 
Evanier and Will Meugniot's DNAgents, Dave 



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Modern Age of Superheroes (1980-Present) 



Stevens' Rocketeer (in the Pacific [Comics] Pre- 
sents anthology), Neal Adams' Ms. Mystic, John 
Ostrander and Tim Truman's Grimjack, Mark Verhei- 
den and Chris Warner's The American, and Mike 
Grell's Jon Sable, Freelance. Many of these new 
superheroes scoffed at historic mores and pushed 
the medium into grittier, sexier, and more thought- 
provoking terrain. 

Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! 
(1983-1989), published by First, illustrates this 
superheroic shift. Set in the near future, where 
mega-corporations and the United States govern- 
ment have escaped Earth's civil and moral collapse 
by relocating to Mars, American Flagg! starred a 
washed-up actor named Reuben Flagg, who trades 
on his media image to gain employment as a secu- 
rity agent. Fans related to the storyline, having 
recently witnessed the election of U.S. president 
Ronald Reagan, who parlayed his former movie and 
television career into a public persona that 
appealed to a disgruntled, post-Carter America. 
Flagg's ego-driven motivation was only one pioneer- 
ing element of this series: Its language and sexual 
content skirted R-rated territory in a marketplace 
traditionally accustomed to Disney-esque values, 
making American Flagg! unusually controversial. 
Chaykin's American Flagg! stands firm as a bench- 
mark of the new superhero. 

WHZZZ HAVE AU TH£ GOOP 
GUYS GONE? 

By the mid-1980s, the Comics Code became 
more relaxed, and Marvel published Wolverine and 
The Punisher titles, and examined racial prejudice 
in X-Men. DC revamped its old-guard superhero line 
in its continuity-altering twelve-issue series Crisis 
on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), which included the 
deaths of two major characters, Supergirl and the 
Flash. Readers discovered in the pages of The New 
Teen Titans that team member Speedy had a child 
out of wedlock, and over at Marvel, author Bill Mant- 
lo pinpointed child abuse as the root of the Incredi- 



ble Hulk's uncontrollable anger (a theme appropriat- 
ed in director Ang Lee's 2003 blockbuster film, The 
Hulk). Frank Miller returned to superheroes with 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), in which 
a surly Batman takes up arms to save Gotham City 
from rampant crime. These were not your father's 
superheroes: No longer men in capes who flew 
around saving the day, the superhero had become a 
reflection of the world around him: dark, deter- 
mined, and no-nonsense. 

Superhero subject matter could no longer be 
neatly resolved in one 22-page story. Nowhere is 
this better evidenced than in DCs Watchmen 
(1986-1987), a densely plotted and rendered 
twelve-issue series by writer Alan Moore and artist 
Dave Gibbons, two of a contingent of British cre- 
ators who entered American comics in the 1980s. 
Watchmen portrays the personal struggles of a dis- 
cordant superteam and their foibles — which include 
sexual impotence and strategic genocide — and 
stripped superheroes of any innocence they may 
have still held in the eyes of a comic-buying public. 

Superhero titles like Watchmen and Dark 
Knight created a more literary climate in the comics 
business. Writer Neil Gaiman, another Brit, entered 
the field in the late 1980s and rose to acclaim with 
his award-winning DC title The Sandman 
(1989-1996), featuring the dream lord Morpheus. 
While the events of Sandman transpired within the 
so-called DC universe, uniformed superheroes 
(beyond robed deities) were absent: "I don't know 
any people who wear costumes," Gaiman remarked 
in 2003 on Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked. 
The lyrical Sandman series fascinated a cult audi- 
ence, and issue #19 of the series was the first — 
and only— comic book to ever win the World Fantasy 
Award for "Best Short Story." Gaiman's series was 
the cornerstone of DCs imprint, Vertigo, which has 
featured avant-garde anti-heroes like Hellblazer and 
Preacher. Pioneering protagonists like James 
O'Barr's disturbing Crow, who rose from the dead to 
become a crime fighter, and Concrete, an Earthman 
whose brain was grafted into a rock-hard alien body, 



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Modern Age of Superheroes (1980-Present) 



surfaced from independent companies and contin- 
ued the reinvention of the superhero. At this point it 
was clear that there were no "rules" to be followed, 
no set of criteria that determined whether a charac- 
ter really was or was not a hero. 

THE GIMMICK AG£ 

By the early 1990s, comic-book sales were 
shrinking. Literary kudos aside, comics did not 
appeal to most kids, who by this time were distract- 
ed by a cornucopia of entertainment options. Addi- 
tionally, the era of the provocative superhero had 
created a level of sophistication beyond the interest 
of most children — hyperactive computer games and 
violent movies offered more eye candy. 

Comics received a temporary financial booster 
shot from a speculation frenzy, predicated upon the 
revelation that rare Golden Age comic books were, 
in the 1990s, commanding prices of thousands of 
dollars. There's money in collecting comic books, 
the thinking went, and kids of all ages poured into 
comics shops buying and hoarding comics. Variant 
covers and cover enhancements lured consumers 
into buying multiples of the same book, and sales 
of special issues climbed into the millions, making 
some royalty-earning or rights-holding artists deliri- 
ously wealthy. Heavily armed counterterrorists, dis- 
enfranchised street fighters, and demonic entities 
became the norm in the world of superheroes. 
"Events" shook up the status quo for longtime 
superheroes, like the (temporary) death of Super- 
man in 1992. 

During this period of explosive growth, super- 
hero universes sprouted from a variety of compa- 
nies: Dark Horse revealed its "Comics' Greatest 
World," with Barb Wire, X, The Machine, and Ghost; 
Malibu Comics' "Ultraverse" introduced Prime, Pro- 
totype, and Hardcase; and Valiant (later Acclaim) 
Comics published Solar, Rai, Magnus Robot Fighter, 
and Bloodshot. The major newsmaker of the era 
was Image Comics, founded when Marvel's best- 
selling artists (including Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, 



and Rob Liefeld) left the company to create their 
own company and publish their own material 
(Spawn, WildC.A.T.S, and Youngblood). Two other 
hot Marvel artists soon defected to Image, the 
results being Erik Larsen's The Savage Dragon and 
While Portacio's Wetworks. 

Speculators finally got wise and defected from 
the fold in the mid-1990s, causing an abrupt col- 
lapse that so depressed the marketplace, Marvel 
Comics filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Comic books 
are dead, the skeptics cried. 

MULTIMZPIA SLtPZRHBZOZS 

But superheroes lived. Beginning with director 
Tim Burton's blockbuster movie Batman (1989), 
superheroes have maintained constant visibility in 
film, on television, in video games, on apparel, as 
toys, and on Internet sites. To the public at large, 
the concept of the superhero is universally known, 
but its source material, the comics, are not. The 
line dividing the "action hero" — the imperfect but 
determined non-costumed protagonist of movies 
and games — and the superhero has blurred, though 
the latter name is not usually applied to some of its 
most obvious heirs. Due to their larger-than-life 
acrobatics and cultural symbolism, action heroes 
like Lara Croft, the Terminator, Charlie's Angels (of 
the movies), and even the alien-busting Men in 
Black could clearly be called superheroes, although 
none of these characters adhere to conventional 
superhero trappings likes masks, costumes, or 
secret identities. 

This media awareness has hindered and 
helped superhero comic books. Negatively, super- 
heroes in mass media feed the entertainment 
options that have lured consumers away from 
comics reading. Positively, the income generated by 
the licensing of comics characters has allowed the 
comic-book business to stay alive; Marvel paid off 
its creditors and emerged from bankruptcy after 
reaping huge profits from the blockbuster film Spi- 
der-Man (2002). 




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Moon Knight 



In the 2000s, the audience for superhero 
comic books is small but remarkably loyal. Sales of 
collected editions have been encouragingly healthy, 
however, with the public's familiarity with super- 
heroes helping sell trade paperbacks to the book- 
store market. The path of Future Comics, a 2002 
startup company, typifies this: After a difficult first 
year of trying to find an audience for its comics 
Freemind, Deathmask, and Metallix, in 2003 Future 
abandoned the production of monthly titles and 
moved exclusively to releasing trade paperbacks 
and pursuing movie development. 

The look, shape, and content of comic books will 
undoubtedly continue to evolve in the years to come, 
to match the changing tastes of consumers. But, 
given its mass-media popularity, regardless of the 
naysayers, the superhero — and, no doubt, the super- 
hero comic book — will continue to endure. — ME 



Moon Knight 

Ever since the creation of Batman in 1939, that 
character has been a constant source of inspiration 
both for DC Comics and its competitors. Marvel 
Comics' most transparent Batman clone was Moon 
Knight, who built up a sizeable cult following of his 
own, despite his obvious debt to the Caped Crusad- 
er. Moon Knight's first appearances came in two 
issues of Werewolf by Knight (#32 and #33) in late 
1975, by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin. 
Within a year, reader reaction was so strong that 
the character fought the Werewolf once more and 
starred in his own solo strip in Marvel Spotlight #28 
and #29. 

In his civilian life, Moon Knight was three people 
— or, more accurately, three separate personalities/ 
personas of one rather schizophrenic man. Initially, 
there was just one man, Marc Spector, an academ- 
ic's son who rejected his father's restrictive way of 
life and followed his own, more reckless path, first 
with the CIA and then as a mercenary under the 



vicious, tattooed Ronald Bushman. During one mis- 
sion, Spector stumbles upon Bushman looting an 
archaeological dig in Sudan and about to kill the 
daughter of his recent victim, the dig's leader, Dr. 
Alraune. Spector saves the daughter, Marlene, but 
seemingly at the cost of his own life. However, local 
followers of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu drag 
his lifeless body to a nearby temple, and there he is 
miraculously resurrected. Back in the United 
States, with new love Marlene and old mercenary 
pal John Paul Duchamp ("Frenchie") in tow, Spector 
vows to turn his back on his past misdeeds and 
begin his life anew as a force for good. 

Spurred on by either schizophrenia or bril- 
liance, Spector adopted two new personalities to 
aid him in his new calling: Steven Grant (millionaire 
philanthropist) and Jake Lockley (a rough-edged cab 
driver, always on the lookout for tips from his under- 
world informer, Crawley). As Moon Knight, Spec- 
tor/Grant/Lockley donned a white, caped, hooded 
costume (almost an inverse of Batman's black 
getup) and scoured the night sky from his moon- 
copter, piloted by Frenchie. The many similarities to 
Batman are unmistakable: the same creature-of- 
the-night ploy, millionaire playboy alter ego, loyal ser- 
vant, helicopter, mansion, and driven personality. In 
addition, longtime artist Bill Sienkiewicz was an 
obvious follower of legendary Batman artist Neal 
Adams. However, Sienkiewicz (who came aboard for 
Moon Knight's first, extended solo series as a back- 
up in Hulk magazine from 1978 to 1980) was also 
the strip's saving grace, as he pushed and trans- 
formed his initially derivative — if attractive — artistry 
into one of the medium's most incendiary talents. 

After the Hulk series and a solo outing in Mar- 
vel Premiere, Moon Knight was finally awarded his 
own title in late 1980 (aptly called Moon Knight), 
which Moench and Sienkiewicz gradually built into a 
fan favorite. Within a couple of years, Sienkiewicz 
had taken elements from a wide range of sources, 
including illustrators Bob Peake and Bernie Fuchs 
and cartoonist Ralph Steadman, to make his work 
on the comic the most daring and innovative on the 



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Ms. Marvel 



stands. The comic featured regular villains such as 
the Werewolf, Bushman, and the Midnight Man, but 
it was the literate tone and experimental art that 
readers loved. However, while the title was a critical 
success, it was never an enormous hit with the 
wider readership and, with issue #15 in 1981, it 
was one of the first comics to be distributed solely 
to specialty shops, a bold move that would later be 
adopted across the comics industry. 

Sienkiewicz left the comic with issue #30 and 
it was canceled eight issues later, but over the fol- 
lowing two decades the title was revived four times 
by a variety of creators. The longest-lasting of 
these — Marc Spector, Moon Knight— ran for sixty 
issues and featured guest appearances from Mar- 
vel's edgier heroes, such as the Punisher and Ghost 
Rider, whose hard-hitting strips the new comic was 
trying to emulate (right down to a bullet-proof Kevlar 
costume). Moon Knight was also an occasional 
member of the Defenders and of both East and 
West Coast branches of the Avengers, but he has 
always made more sense on his own. 

Following success in the early 1980s, Moon 
Knight's creative team has gone on to further great 
achievement — Sienkiewicz with The New Mutants 
and Elektra: Assassin among many others and 
Moench (ironically) with numerous Batman titles. 
Moon Knight himself last appeared in a 1999 
miniseries, his best days long behind him. However, 
he will no doubt enjoy occasional forays into the 
Marvel universe in the future. — DAR 



Ms. /WatveT 

For a long time, Marvel Comics has been ever-vigi- 
lant in its quest to preserve ownership of charac- 
ters and names. This has led to a host of female 
counterparts to male stars, such as Spider-Woman 
and She-Hulk, and a plethora of heroes with the 
word "Marvel" in their names. Having secured copy- 
right on the names Captain Marvel (some three 




Ms. Marvel #1 © 1977 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN ROMITA. 



decades after the Fawcett star first hit the stands), 
Marvel Boy, and Marvel Girl, it was Ms. Marvel's 
turn at stardom. The job of fleshing out the new 
character's identity fell to writer/editor Gerry Con- 
way. In the first issue's editorial (Ms. Marvel #1, 
January 1977), Conway fell over himself to stress 
his feminist credentials and practically apologized 
for not being female but, rhetoric aside, this liberat- 
ed heroine was cast very much in the typical, 
action-packed Marvel mold. 

Ms. Marvel was Carol Danvers (also Supergirl's 
last name, by the way), previously seen as a NASA 
security chief in the early days of the 1960s Cap- 
tain Marvel strip, but now branching out into maga- 



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Multiculturalism 



zine editing, as the Gloria Steinem of the Marvel 
universe. Unbeknownst to her, during a heated bat- 
tle years earlier while she was caught in an explo- 
sion next to Captain Marvel, some of his alien 
genetic structure had melded with hers, creating a 
Kree/human hybrid. This manifested itself in black- 
outs during which she donned a more revealing, 
navel-baring version of the Captain's duds and flew 
off to batter ne'er-do-wells. In time, her two person- 
alities merged and she acquired a family, a new 
writer (the X-Men's Chris Claremont), a (navel-cover- 
ing) costume revamp, and her own villains. The lat- 
ter included future X-Men villain Mystique (in issue 
#16), Deathbird, Steeplejack, and Hecate. Later 
developments included a guest appearance by Cap- 
tain Marvel in issue #19 and a zippy new black cos- 
tume in the following issue. However, by its twenty- 
third issue, the comic was dead; the unpublished 
issue #24 would have debuted another future X- 
Men regular, Rogue. 

Despite (or because of) the comic's cancella- 
tion, Ms. Marvel immediately resurfaced in The 
Avengers (from #181) and experienced the first of 
many traumatic events, when she suddenly became 
pregnant by an interdimensional admirer called Mar- 
cus (son of occasional Avengers foe Immortus). 
Within a week, she gave birth to an infant Marcus; it 
turned out to be a confusing plan to allow him to 
escape his otherworldly imprisonment, as he 
instantaneously grew to maturity and the two went 
off into the sunset, hand in hand. Except, of course, 
it was all an evil mind-control plot, and an embit- 
tered Carol Danvers reappeared a year later, only to 
be zapped by Rogue, who stole her powers and 
mind. The X-Men's Professor X restored some of her 
consciousness but, after convalescing with the 
team for a while, she was captured by evil aliens, 
the Brood, who experimented on her, ultimately 
unleashing her full, Kree-engineered cosmic power. 
Confused? You will be.... 

Now calling herself Binary (in X-Men #164, 
1982) and drawing almost limitless power from a 
"white hole," she punched Rogue into orbit and, 



overcome with remorse, hooked up with a bunch of 
intergalactic pirates called the Star Jammers, leav- 
ing the known universe for the rest of the 1980s. 
On eventually returning to Earth, she rejoined the 
Avengers, put on her earlier costume, and started 
calling herself Warbird for no obvious reason. As a 
reasonably settled member of the Avengers, the 
future should have been secure for Danvers but, as 
her powers inexplicably began to wane, she turned 
to the bottle and was eventually court-martialed out 
of the team for reckless behavior. Post-millennial 
developments included a move to Seattle, where 
the soused superheroine hit rock-bottom and joined 
Alcoholics Anonymous. This led ultimately to a 
recall (her third) to the Avengers, where she looks 
set to stay for the duration. — DAR 

MuWcvHvvaffsm 

During comics' Golden Age (1938-1954), the 
nascent medium of superhero comic books was 
overrun with cultural stereotypes, a manifestation 
of societal prejudices widely, and sometimes inno- 
cently, held at the time. Captain Aero's "little Chi- 
nese pal," Chop Suey; the Lone Ranger's "faithful 
Indian companion," Tonto; and Mandrake the Magi- 
cian's obedient African aide, Lothar, were among the 
characters that marginalized the value of minorities. 

THB PAYS OF *KZAUTS» 
ANP "JAPS" 

To be fair, there was no bigoted Star Chamber 
orchestrating these characterizations. Comic books, 
like movies, novels, and radio, simply reflected Amer- 
ica's perception of non-whites as second-class citi- 
zens — and minorities were in no position to argue at 
the time. Interestingly, Germans — other than Adolf 
Hitler, a short, comical-looking man ripe for carica- 
ture — were rarely stereotyped physically, given their 
physiological similarities to Anglo Americans. Yet 
they spoke with thick accents and were referred to 



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Multiculturalism 



by the derogatory term "Krauts." However, the Japan- 
ese — "Japs" — were rendered with fangs or with 
buck teeth, colored with yellow skin, and sometimes 
represented with pointed ears. An offensive stereo- 
type by contemporary standards, granted, but to the 
U.S. mindset in the early 1940s, these were the 
devils that bombed Pearl Harbor, so they "got what 
they deserved" with these depictions. 

And they "got what they deserved" from the 
superheroes. Comics covers routinely showed their 
stars attacking Japanese (and Germans, and on a 
few occasions, Italians), but perhaps no cover was 
more graphic in its anti-Japanese sentiment than 
Timely (Marvel) Comics' The Human Torch #12 
(1943), presenting the flaming hero burning off the 
arm of a fanged Japanese torturer. Take that, you rat! 

The Torch's acrimonious foe-turned-ally, Namorthe 
Sub-Mariner, was comics' first mixed-race superhero, 
the offspring of a land dweller and a water breather. His 
multicultural heritage was often referenced in passing 
but never fully explored during the Golden Age. Some 
comics historians have theorized that Namor's patent- 
ed anger stems from his crossbreeding— he never felt 
truly accepted by either of his races, leading him to 
take out his frustrations on others. 

"Oriental" menaces, representing the "Yellow 
Peril" fear of world conquest, were a 1930s staple 
of the "pulp" magazines, with characters like Shiwan 
Khan from The Shadow and author Sax Rohmer's Fu 
Manchu inspiring comic-book villains like the Claw. 
First seen in Lev Gleason's Silver Streak Comics #1 
(1939), the Claw was a sharp-toothed, insidious 
monster, with pointy ears, razor-sharp fingernails, 
fiery breath, and the ability to grow to humongous 
proportions. World War II only worsened the Asian 
stereotype. Kato, the Japanese houseboy and high- 
kicking companion to the Green Hornet, became a 
Filipino after the Pearl Harbor bombing. 

On the rare occasions they appeared in print, 
African Americans were shown as manservants or 
comic-relief sidekicks. Mexicans were filthy bandits, 
as Zorro and other Western heroes were constantly 



reminded. Native Americans grunted in broken Eng- 
lish, as did Chief Skullface, nemesis of the Golden 
Age hero Black Owl, who routinely threatened to 
"scalpum" his feathered foe. 

ZABLY MULTTCULTUBALISM 

Yet favorable multicultural depictions did occur 
during the Golden Age, most notably in Blackhawk. 
Premiering in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941), 
the Blackhawks were a squad of international fight- 
er pilots, crusading for the Allied forces but pledg- 
ing allegiance to no single country — although their 
number included a buck-toothed and portly cook, 
Chop Chop. Chinese typecasting was nowhere to be 
seen, though, in "Carnival of Fiends," the Torch tale 
in All Winners Comics #1 (1941): Chinese are 
referred to as Chinese Americans, and they rally 
behind the Allied war effort. 

After World War II and into the 1950s, super- 
heroes evoked a more unified world viewpoint. 
Tonto received his own comic book from Dell 
(1951-1959), which appeared on the stands with 
Magazine Enterprises' Straight Arrow (1950-1956), 
starring a Native American protagonist who fought 
rustlers and white thieves. Superman and Batman 
joined England's Knight and Squire, France's Muske- 
teer, "South America's" Gaucho, and Italy's 
Legionary in "The Club of Heroes" in World's Finest 
Comics #89 (1957). This trend spilled over into 
radio and television as well. "The most explicitly 
progressive [radio] series was [The Adventures of] 
Superman, which had its hero fighting racial and 
religious bigotry for several years after the war," 
commented author J. Fred MacDonald in Don't 
Touch That Dial: Radio Programming in American 
Life from 1920 to 1960 (1979). Wrote MacDonald: 
"The appearance of the non-Anglo-Saxon heroes — 
the Indian brave, Straight Arrow; the Latino avenger, 
[TV's] Cisco Kid — also guided postwar youngsters 
toward tolerance." 

There were exceptions to this growing depic- 
tion of diversity: Blacks mostly disappeared from 



S&b 



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Multiculturalism 



comics. The spread of Communism made villains of 
Russians and Chinese, trends that continued into 
the 1960s. Prize Comics' Fighting American 
(1954-1955) lampooned Soviets with bad guys like 
Poison Ivan. Marvel even devoted a short-lived 
series to an "Oriental" villain: The Yellow Claw 
(1956-1957), starring a sinister mastermind who 
embodied every negative stereotype ever assigned 
to Asians: He was bald, slant-eyed, yellow-skinned, 
pointy-eared, and had long fingernails and a "Fu 
Manchu" goatee. In contrast, this series introduced 
a positive Chinese American character: FBI agent 
Jimmy Woo, a highly trained and resourceful lawman 
dedicated to bringing the Yellow Claw to justice. 

THE 1960S 
SPA2K BNUGHTBNMBNT 

After writer/editor Stan Lee inaugurated the 
Marvel universe with the publication of Fantastic 
Four#l (1961), he placed his superheroes in New 
York City instead of a fictional metropolis, and Mar- 
vel's artists started drawing people of color into the 
comics. At first, the multicultural inclusions were 
subtle, like a black pedestrian in the background, 
but by the mid-1960s, non-whites ascended to posi- 
tions of prominence. Fantastic Four #50 (1966) 
introduced Native American Wyatt Wingfoot, who 
became a long-standing supporting-cast member of 
the series, and issue #52 (1966) premiered Prince 
T'Challa, better known as the black superhero called 
the Black Panther. And agent Jimmy Woo returned in 
Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I. E.L.D., engaging in 
high-tech (for the times) espionage epics that bor- 
rowed heavily from the James Bond movies. 

None of Lee's series better advocated cultural 
tolerance than X-Men. First seen in 1963, the X- 
Men were mutants — the next step on the evolution- 
ary ladder — who fought to protect the humans who 
distrusted them. While a groundbreaking metaphor 
for racial harmony, X-Men originally played it safe, 
making each of its mutant characters Caucasian. 

Despite the multicultural inroads paved by Lee 
and other Marvel writers during the 1960s, cold-war 



pigeonholing had yet to fade: Iron Man's origin was 
rooted in the Vietnam War, and the hero battled the 
Chinese troublemaker Mandarin and a Vietcong vil- 
lain named Wong Chu. Despite occasional non-flat- 
tering portrayals, Marvel's comics depicted a world 
of color and diversity, even with the company's mis- 
fit heroes, the green Hulk and the orange Thing. 

When ABC's live-action The Green Hornet 
(1966-1967) TV show debuted, its producers 
expected its lead — clean-cut Caucasian hunk Van 
Williams — to become a heartthrob, but were blind- 
sided when Asian import Bruce Lee, playing sidekick 
(emphasis on the kick) Kato, stole the show with his 
dazzling martial arts abilities. Lee was one of the 
few non-white actors on television at the time, but 
before long people of color became more visible. 

Through most of the 1960s, DC Comics' series 
stayed exclusively Caucasian, with the exception of 
a handful of aliens like the green-skinned Martian 
Manhunter (who became a white man in his secret 
identity of John Jones) and through one-page public- 
service announcements extolling the virtues of eth- 
nic tolerance. DC changed its stripes in Justice 
League of America (JLA) #57 (1967), with "Man, 
Thy Name is — Brother!" by scribe Gardner Fox, 
acknowledged among some comics historians as a 
selfless humanitarian. "One man is very much like 
another — no matter what the name of the god he 
worships — or the color of his skin," Fox's opening 
caption begins. The tale involves the intervention of 
three Justice Leaguers — the Flash, Green Arrow, 
and Hawkman, plus the JLA's "mascot" Snapper 
Carr — into the personal lives of three non-white 
Americans — a young black, a Native American, and 
a native of India — who struggle against barriers 
spawned by racial prejudice. The issue's cover, by 
artists Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, 
depicts the heroes and their friends of color clasp- 
ing hands before the symbol of the United Nations. 

DC continued to take slow but deliberate steps 
to portray non-Caucasians in their superhero 
comics, with varying results. The Brave and the 
Bold{B&B) #71 (1967) introduced Batman's "old 



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Multiculturalism 



friend" John Whitebird, a Native American, but con- 
tains a wealth of unintentionally offensive refer- 
ences, including Batman's greeting of Whitebird 
("Holy Peacepipes! Are you going on the warpath 
again?"). Four issues later, B&B #75 (1967) takes 
place in Gotham City's Chinatown, a borough that 
embraces its native heritage and modern Western- 
isms (Chinese American teens beam "Cool!" and 
"Marv!"), and largely avoids the stereotypes seen in 
issue #71, although issue #75's villain is a Yellow 
Claw-like conqueror called Shahn-Zi. 

MATNSmZAM 
MULTTCULTUZALISM 

In the late 1960s through the early 1970s, 
multiculturalism hit the American mainstream. Non- 
white actors appeared on TV programs as diverse 
as Star Trek (1966-1969) and Hawaii Five-0 
(1968-1980), and in movies like Shaft (1971). 
Superhero comics followed suit: the African Ameri- 
can Falcon became the partner of Captain America, 
Wonder Woman learned martial arts from a Chinese 
teacher named l-Ching, Spider-Man mediated cam- 
pus unrest, Batman encountered a league of inter- 
national assassins, and Green Lantern and Green 
Arrow hopped into a pickup truck to traverse the 
American landscape seeking solutions for racism 
and other social cancers. 

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972) was the 
first American comic book starring a black super- 
hero, but numerous others followed, including Black 
Goliath, Black Panther, and Black Lightning. Marvel 
then premiered a headlining Chinese superhero, 
Shang-Chi (a.k.a. Master of Kung Fu) in Special 
Marvel Edition #15 (1973). Shang-Chi was a hero 
of great nobility and determination, but his father, 
the archetypical Fu Manchu (yes, that Fu Manchu), 
added yet another sinister Chinese conqueror to 
contemporary comics. Compelling characterization, 
memorable storytelling (first by Steve Englehart and 
Jim Starlin, then by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy), 
and an international film and TV kung fu craze made 



Shang-Chi a hit: Special Marvel Edition was 
renamed Master of Kung Fu (MOKF) with issue #17, 
and kept kicking for 125 issues. 

MOKFs success spawned a fistful of martial- 
arts titles from a variety of publishers, some of 
which featured white heroes in Asian settings (Mar- 
vel's Iron Fist and DCs Richard Dragon, Kung Fu 
Fighter). Marvel's The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, a 
black-and-white magazine-sized comic, introduced 
the Sons of the Tiger, a multiethnic group of martial 
artists, and the White Tiger, the first Puerto Rican 
superhero. Also bowing during this period were Mar- 
vel's Daughters of the Dragon — fighting Pis Colleen 
Wing (a Chinese American) and Misty Night (an 
African American) — and Mantis, a Vietnamese 
member of Marvel's conventional superteam the 
Avengers (appearing in print, quite unusually, at the 
height of the Vietnam War). In subsequent years, 
Asians as martial artists (and, narrowing the trend, 
Japanese as ninjas) have become a staple of 
comics, with DCs Lady Shiva and Valiant's Rai 
among their number. 

THE INTZGBATet? 

By the mid-1970s, superhero comic books had 
become fully integrated. The X-Men were reintro- 
duced in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) with a new, 
multicultural roster: Cyclops (Anglo American), 
Colossus (Russian), Storm (African), Banshee 
(Irish), Wolverine (Canadian), Sunfire (Japanese), 
Nightcrawler (German), and Thunderbird (Native 
American). The X-Men's original message of cultural 
tolerance became even more profound given the 
team's color mix, a theme that has yet to fade: 
Despite their differences, these mutants work 
together as a unit and live together as a family. Sir 
Ian McKellen, the distinguished British actor who 
portrayed the evil mutant Magneto in the live-action 
blockbusters X-Men (2000) and X2: X-Men United 
(2003), remarked favorably of the X-Men's message 
of harmony at the 2003 British Independent Film 



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Multiculturalism 



Awards: "X-Men and its story about mutants, about 
people who feel disaffected with society, and whom 
society is hard on, appeals most to young blacks, 
young Jews, and young gays." 

The cultural composition of the X-Men estab- 
lished a template upon which the contemporary 
superhero team has been built. Numerous super- 
groups created or revived in the wake of Giant-Size 
X-Men #1 have contained a multicultural mix (some 
including extraterrestrials for good measure), such 
as the New Teen Titans, the Outsiders, Infinity Inc., 
Gen 13, WildC.A.T.S, Generation X, the Legion of 
Super-Heroes, the New Mutants, Ulraforce, the Sui- 
cide Squad, the New Warriors, X-Force/X-Statix, and 
Cyberforce. 

Other teams have been built specifically 
around ethnicity, or a cultural connection. DCs Glob- 
al Guardians are just that: superheroes assembled 
from around the world, like Israel's Seraph and 
Brazil's Green Flame (a.k.a. Fire of the Justice 
League). Marvel's Alpha Flight is a group of Canadi- 
an superheroes whose roster includes Marvel's first 
gay hero, Northstar. TV's Captain Planet and the 
Planeteers (1990) assembled a group of teenage 
environmental protectors, summoned from different 
regions of Earth by the goddess Gaia. A 1996 CD- 
Rom comic unveiled the Jewish Hero Corps, led by 
Menorah Man, and Mystic Comics' Tribal Force #1 
(2002) introduced a little-known group of Native 
American superheroes. 



Occasionally, non-Anglo superheroes have 
starred in their own comics, including, but by no 
means limited to, El Diablo, the Butcher, Blade, 
Shaloman, and Spawn. Ethnic superheroes and 
supporting cast members have become common: 
Superman's titles, for example, have included in 
their cast the African American hero Steel and his 
niece, who assumed his name in 2003, and the 
Hispanic hero Gangbuster. And whites and non- 
whites have formed teams, like Cloak (black) and 
Dagger (white), and Power Man (a.k.a. Luke Cage, 
black) and Iron Fist (white). 

Prejudice and discrimination have been com- 
monly explored through these tales of integrated 
heroes. For example, Amazing-Man, a black super- 
hero retrofitted into the 1940s cast of All-Star 
Squadron with issue #23 (1982), stood up for 
racial equality at a time when Hitler preached ethnic 
cleansing. Despite cultural taboos, some interracial 
romances have occurred, including DCs (black) 
Bronze Tiger and (white) Gypsy and Marvel's (green, 
formerly white) She-Hulk and (Native American) 
Wyatt Wingfoot. No mixed relationship has raised 
more eyebrows than the marriage of the Avengers' 
Scarlet Witch (a white mutant) and Vision (a syn- 
thetic human)! 

Through the meeting of its many cultures — and 
alien and artificial races — the superhero world 
inspires real-life humans to overcome their petty dif- 
ferences and live and work together as one. — ME 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



SSg 




Namor: See Sub-Mariner 



The New Gods 



Jack Kirby was undoubtedly one of the most impor- 
tant creators ever to work in comics. Comics histori- 
an Mike Benton called him "the American artist who 
best represents what comic books are all about." 
Kirby's many creations (with writer Stan Lee) for Mar- 
vel Comics in the 1960s reinvigorated the entire 
industry. When DC Comics boss Carmine Infantino 
hired Kirby away from Marvel in 1970 with the 
promise of total artistic freedom, it was surely the 
coup of the decade. Kirby set himself up with his 
own editorial office in California and effectively creat- 
ed his own line of interconnected comics, which 
have now come to be known as the Fourth World 
series. Three titles premiered in 1971 — The New 
Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle — to 
which was added Kirby's eccentric vision of Super- 
man's Pal Jimmy Olsen, which he had picked up at 
DCs insistence. Every two weeks, one of the four 
titles would hit the streets with a new installment of 
its story, written, drawn, and edited by Kirby at a pun- 
ishing work rate that only he could have met. 

The New Gods would become the central book 
of the tetralogy, with a story in issue #7, "The Pact," 



at last explaining how the various comics all 
knitted together. The story details the stormy 
conflict between two far-off planets: the Eden-like 
New Genesis and the monstrous Apokolips. To 
cement peace between the two worlds, their lead- 
ers — Highfather of New Genesis and Darkseid of 
Apokolips — exchange newborn sons, Scott Free and 
Orion, as hostages against hostilities ever resum- 
ing. Some years later, Darkseid learns of something 
called the anti-life equation (about which Kirby was 
always rather vague; suffice it to say that it was 
something terrifying), which was hidden on Earth, 
and he heads off with numerous evil (and bizarre) 
minions in tow to find it, setting off a new war of the 
"gods" with humanity in the balance. 

The four comics each had different approaches 
to the ongoing tale. The New Gods starred Orion, 
recently arrived on Earth with his devil-may-care col- 
league Lightray, and was the most wide-ranging and 
bombastic of the Fourth World series, featuring 
colossal battle scenes and panoramic artwork. As 
the son of the evil Darkseid, Orion was an unusually 
complex, savage hero, despite his peaceful upbring- 
ing on New Genesis, and The New Gods explored 
his constant battle with both his father's minions 
and his own explosive lineage. The other exchanged 
son, Scott Free, also came to Earth, fleeing his mili- 
taristic upbringing on Apokolips, and assumed the 



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*/ 



The New Gods 




ALL MEW STORIES 
BEST IN COMICS 



-1/ 



ME\Sf 





MWIS MVAOe 

"DOOMED, 



The New Gods #10 © 1972 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JACK KIRBY AND MIKE ROYER. 



identity of top escape artist Mister Miracle. Com- 
plete with cantankerous and diminutive assistant 
Oberon and statuesque, ex-stormtrooper girlfriend 
(and future wife) Big Barda, a fellow Apokolips 
escapee, Mister Miracle was a more lighthearted 
and traditional superhero title. 

The Forever People were five happy-go-lucky 
teenagers from New Genesis: Mark Moonrider, 
Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear, Vykin the Black, and 
Serifan. They could merge together to form a super- 
powered fighter called the Infinity Man. Like Orion 
and Mister Miracle, the Forever People were on 
Earth to fight Darkseid, but they were younger and 
more idealistic, and in some ways were Kirby's take 
on the hippy movement. Jimmy Olsen was the most 



eccentric of the titles. In it, Jimmy and Superman 
teamed up with a new Newsboy Legion and 
Guardian (made up of the sons of the 1940s kid 
gang of that name and the clone of their superhero 
protector), and with renegade bikers called "the 
Hairies," to fight Darkseid's scientists. It was 
Kirby's most prophetic series — anticipating develop- 
ments in DNA research, cloning, and the Internet — 
as well as his most bizarre, featuring alien vam- 
pires, miniature Jimmy Olsens, the Loch Ness mon- 
ster, and comedian Don Rickles. 

The Fourth World was the most complete 
expression of Kirby's limitless imagination and the 
finest example of his monumental, explosive art. 
The comics were replete with double-page spreads, 
panoramic cosmic vistas, almost unimaginable crea- 
tures, and kinetic fight scenes. Kirby peopled the 
strips with as strange a collection of villains as 
comics have ever seen: Granny Goodness, Vermin 
Vunderbarr, Glorious Godfrey, Mantis, Desaad, and 
the Black Racer (a man in armor who propels him- 
self through the air on skis!). Some readers hailed 
the series as a masterpiece, but others found it was 
more than they could take in, and sales were not 
what DC had hoped for. The series came to an end 
in 1972, except for Mister Miracle, which carried on 
until 1974. Kirby's series Kamandi, The Last Boy on 
Earth (which premiered in November 1972) proved 
to be more popular initially, but it has been his 
Fourth World stories that live on in the imagination. 

Five years later, in 1977, both The New Gods 
and Mister Miracle were creditably revived (though 
not by Kirby), with the latter in particular proving to be 
of the highest quality, but both were gone again with- 
in the year, setting the pattern of revivals for years to 
come. The first run of The New Gods was collected 
together in a glossy miniseries in 1984, with Kirby 
providing the ending that he was not allowed to com- 
plete twelve years earlier. There was always the sus- 
picion that he was making the story up as he went 
along, and certainly the new material satisfied no 
one, least of all Kirby himself. That same year, Mattel 
launched a series of toys called the Super Powers 




TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Nick Fury 



(which spun off into a series of comics also drawn by 
Kirby), featuring numerous DC characters, including 
Darkseid. Kirby had wanted to end his series with a 
sequence of deaths, but the toy company was 
against the idea. Nevertheless, the toys and the 
Superpowers comic demonstrated that Darkseid 
himself may have been Kirby's greatest gift to DC, as 
the great, all-purpose villain that the company had so 
patently lacked before. Subsequent battles with the 
Legion of Super-Heroes and Superman, among oth- 
ers, have only served to confirm that conclusion. 

From the late 1980s to 2004, there have been 
four New Gods/Orion series, two Mister Miracle 
revivals, and a single series of The Forever People, all 
with varying commercial and critical success. What 
none has been able to do is to build substantially on 
Kirby's originals. In fact, he created so many charac- 
ters that there is still scope for further exploration for 
many years to come, as more and more fans of his 
work become professionals. Two fans, Paul Dini and 
Bruce Timm, introduced the Fourth World concepts 
into their acclaimed Warner Bros, cartoon, The 
Adventures of Superman, which used parts of The 
New Gods #7 in its storyline; later on, Timm's cre- 
ative team showcased more Fourth World characters 
on the Justice League animated series. Some writers 
have also suspected that the Fourth World was the 
inspiration for an even more famous property, Star 
Wars. George Lucas is a known comics fan, and the 
similarities between the two series are striking, with 
the dark, evil father Darth Vader/ Darkseid, fighting 
his long-lost son Luke Skywalker/Orion, who was 
trained by a benign, bearded mentor, Obi-Wan 
Kenobe/Highfather. Even the Death Star had a more 
than passing resemblance to Apokolips, but until 
Lucas confirms or denies the connection it must 
remain merely an intriguing theory. — DAR 

NickFuvy 

Sergeant Nick Fury was first conceived in 1963 as 
a bet, to see if Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's new 



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Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I. E.L.D. #4 © 1968 Marvel 
Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM STERANKO. 



approach to superheroes could work on a comic set 
in World War II. It did, and Sergeant Fury and his 
Howling Commandos was a successful strip for 
many years. Then, following the popularity of James 
Bond movies and the television show The Man from 
U.N.C.L.E., Lee and Kirby decided to create their 
own spy — a superspy, if you will — and who better to 
fill that role than Nick Fury again? His first contem- 
porary appearance (in Strange Tales #135) reveals 
how Fury was recruited to take charge of the secret 
global peacekeeping organization S.H.I. E.L.D. (origi- 
nally an acronym for Supreme Headquarters Inter- 
national Espionage Law-Enforcement Division, but 
altered in 1989 to Strategic Hazard Intervention 



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Nick Fury 



Espionage Logistics Directorate), which circled the 
planet in a vast heli-carrier, almost like an airborne 
Pentagon. The agency's rationale for Fury's selec- 
tion was that the tough, cigar-chewing war vet had 
the sort of street smarts that the organization 
needed to tackle the evil, green-pajama-wearing 
hordes of Hydra, a rival group made up of interna- 
tional terrorists. 

For the next couple of years, Fury and 
S.H.I.E.L.D. took on Hydra and like-minded cartels, 
such as A.I.M. and T.H.E.M., with a vast array of 
handy gadgets and weapons (flying cars, Fury's 
robot doubles) in a series of frantic strips. With a 
large cast list, including Fury's fellow ex-comman- 
dos Dum-Dum Dugan and Gabriel Jones, uber-geek 
Jaspar Sitwell, and regular guest star Captain 
America, the S.H.I.E.L.D. strip was soon full to 
overflowing. At the end of 1966, young 
writer/artist/actor/historian/escape artist Jim 
Steranko took over the feature and soon made it 
one of the talking points of the 1960s. Like Kirby, 
Steranko knew how to draw an exciting comic, but 
he also mixed in a modern, hip sensibility with ref- 
erences to pop art, surrealism, and psychedelia. 
He also finally got Fury out of his suit and into a 
black leather costume, bulging with muscles and 
weaponry, though his trademark eye patch and sto- 
gie survived the makeover. 

A lengthy battle with the Yellow Claw introduced 
even more S.H.I.E.L.D. members and climaxed in a 
four-page spread, which readers needed two copies 
of the issue to read properly. Soon after, in 1968, 
Fury finally got his own comic, with Steranko at the 
helm, introducing Nick Fury's evil brother, Scorpio. 
The title was a potent force but within a year Ster- 
anko was gone, though his groundbreaking stories 
have been regularly reprinted ever since. By the turn 
of the decade, the whole spy scene had faded from 
popularity and the comic lost direction. 

Although it would be the late 1980s before a 
regular Nick Fury comic was released again, both he 
and S.H.I.E.L.D. were a constant presence in all 
sorts of other Marvel comics. Throughout the 



1970s, Captain America was a member of 
S.H.I.E.L.D., often teaming up with Fury to take on 
Hydra, A.I.M. , or some other group of wierdos. 
Since Iron Man's alter ego, the ever-useful industri- 
alist Tony Stark, was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main idea man, 
the group frequently interacted with the Iron Man or 
Avengers comics, often popping up on flying sleds 
in the nick of time. Probably S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strangest 
guest shot was in Marvel's late 1970s Godzilla 
comic, in which a division led by Dum-Dum Dugan 
attempted to stop the not-so-jolly green giant that 
was leveling Manhattan each month. For those who 
wondered how a man who would be in his sixties 
could still look so good, a controversial one-shot in 
Marvel Spotlight revealed that Fury had been taking 
a (very convenient) youth serum for all those years. 

From 1988 to the present comic fans have 
been awash with Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. series, spe- 
cials, collections, and guest appearances. These 
have variously introduced and killed off numerous 
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, have pitted Fury against aliens, 
the Red Skull, and Hydra (over and over again), and 
have even suggested that S.H.I.E.L.D. was part of 
an intergalactic plot (an idea that Marvel later 
decided to forget). One particularly enjoyable series 
featured Fury attending Smokestoppers Anonymous 
and included a handy secret message decoder. A 
1996 issue of the Punisher apparently killed off the 
great man for good, but the deceased turned out to 
be one of seemingly thousands of Fury robots. In 
print at least, Nick Fury is now almost indestruc- 
tible, and looks set to battle Hydra and its ilk for 
years to come. 

Picking up on his popularity, in May 1998 Fox 
television aired a two-hour telefilm titled Nick Fury, 
Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. David Hasslehoff played the 
title character, who pulls out of a self-imposed 
retirement to fight the forces of Hydra, led by the 
seductive Viper. Comics scribe David Goyer wrote 
the fairly faithful script, but the lackluster telefilm — 
which had been intended as a backdoor pilot years 
prior — did not do well enough in the ratings to merit 
any follow-ups. — DAR 



tf* 



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the Night Man 

Musician Johnny Domino is having a good morning 
in San Francisco, until an alien energy bolt strikes a 
trolley car, sending a chunk of metal into his head. 
After he recovers, he learns that he does not need 
to sleep, his eyes are permanently dilated (making 
light painful), and that he can telepathically "hear" 
other people's evil thoughts inside his own head. 
Using his aikido training, Domino garbs himself in a 
costume and prowls the city rooftops after dark as 
the Night Man, to stop the crimes he knows are 
going to happen. 

Created by writer Steve Englehart, the Night 
Man comic was part of Malibu Comics' Ultraverse 
line, and its lead was destined to become the best- 
known character from the line as far as the general 
public was concerned. Interconnected with other 
series, The Night Man was most attached to Engle- 
hart's The Strangers (in the first issue of that series 
he received the head injury). The Night Man #1 
debuted in October 1993, and in the first story, the 
Night Man pursued Deathmask, the murderer of 
Domino's friend. Other villains he faced included 
Mangle, lead villain J. D. Hunt, hypnotist murderess 
Rhiannon, werewolf Nikolai Apocaloff, the Silver 
Daggers gang, and villainess BloodFly. 

The Night Man series would last until issue 
#23 in August 1995, around the time Malibu was 
bought by Marvel Comics. After a The Night Man vs. 
Wolverine crossover special (August 1995), a 
relaunch was produced with The Night Man 
"Infinity (#0) in September 1995, but this version 
only lasted until issue #4. The hero appeared again 
in The Night Man/Gambit, a three-issue miniseries 
in early 1996. He has not appeared in comics again 
since that time. 

The Night Man did appear on television, howev- 
er, in both animation and live action. DIC produced an 
Ultraforce animated series as part of their Amazing 
Adventures syndicated block in September 1995. 



Nightwing 

Thirteen episodes of Ultraforce were produced — con- 
current with a Galoob toy line — and the fifth episode 
(airing November 12, 1995) featured the Night Man. 

A live-action series called NightMan (note 
name change) debuted in syndication the week of 
September 20, 1997, the creation of producer Glen 
A. Larson. The two-hour pilot established a slightly 
revised origin. Jazz musician Johnny Domino (Matt 
McColm) was now struck by lightning, which re- 
routes his neural pathways. He dons an experimen- 
tal suit created by an ex-high tech weapons inventor 
named Rollie Jordan (Derek Webster) to fight crime 
in Bay City. The prototype suit has anti-gravity and 
stealth capabilities, a targeting laser eyepiece, and 
is bulletproof. Domino doesn't tell his ex-cop father 
Frank Dominus (Earl Holliman) his secret, which 
causes friction between the two. 

Although there were not really any other cos- 
tumed supervillains or other heroes in his TV foray, 
NightMan faced down an array of terrorists, thugs, 
powered civilians such as telekinetic Chrome, and 
occasional magical villains. In one episode, he 
teamed up with Manimal, the animalistic hero of a 
previous short-lived Glen Larson series of 1983, 
while a female version of the title character, Night- 
Woman, appeared in both the first and second sea- 
sons. Night Man creator Steve Englehart wrote three 
episodes of the series; fittingly, his first, "You Are Too 
Beautiful," was the hero's most rerun and most popu- 
lar episode. NightMan aired its last new episode the 
week of May 23, 1999, but the series remains in syn- 
dication and on the air in 2004. — AM 



tTtghfwitig 

DC Comics' Nightwing — formerly Robin the Boy 
Wonder — toiled for forty years under the shadow of 
the Batman as comics' premier sidekick. First 
appearing in April 1940 in Detective Comics #38, 
Dick Grayson, the junior member of the Flying 
Graysons circus family, witnesses his parents' 



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Nightwing 




Nightwing #41 © 2000 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY GREG LAND AND DREW GERACI. 



deaths in a sabotaged trapeze incident. This mur- 
der is also observed by millionaire Bruce (Batman) 
Wayne, who as a child had similarly watched his 
own parents die. Grayson becomes Wayne's ward, 
and soon, after months of rigorous training in the 
subterranean Batcave, joins Batman as his crime- 
fighting ally, Robin the Boy Wonder. Clad in bright 
red, green, and yellow, Robin's bubbly demeanor 
softened Batman's harder edge, and for decades 
this Dynamic Duo blazed through hundreds of 
adventures in comic books, movie serials, radio 
shows, newspaper strips, and the nonsensical live- 
action Batman television series (1966-1968), suc- 
ceeded in the fall of 1968 by an animated pro- 



gram, The Batman/Superman Hour, cut from the 
same campy cloth. 

Then came the 1970s. Licking its wounds from 
marketplace outdistancing by Marvel Comics, for- 
mer top dog DC implemented a host of sweeping 
editorial changes in an effort to win back readers. 
Among them was returning Batman to his roots as 
a "creature of the night" in a movement largely 
orchestrated by writers Frank Robbins and Dennis 
O'Neil, artist Neal Adams, and editor Julius 
Schwartz. Batman — rechristened "the" Batman as 
in days of old — now preferred the shadows to the 
limelight of television, displacing his spirited Boy 
Wonder in the process. 

In Batman #217 (December 1969), Grayson, 
who by this point had matured to his late teens, 
moved from his home in Gotham City and entered 
Hudson University. As Robin the "Teen" Wonder, the 
hero floundered through the 1970s in irregular guest 
appearances and backup stories. Designed as a 
cheerful counterpoint to Batman's darkness, Robin 
without Batman didn't seem to work (notwithstand- 
ing some lighthearted solo stories in more innocent 
earlier decades). He grew introverted, struggled to 
cultivate his own identity, and became estranged 
from Batman in the process. In October 1980, Robin 
was included as the leader of the revamped New 
Teen Titans (a group he'd been shunted into in its 
previous incarnation), and under the watch of writer 
Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez began to 
emerge as a character in his own right. 

When Jason Todd was introduced as the new 
and younger Robin in the 1983 Batman titles, Wolf- 
man and Perez took it upon themselves to reinvent 
the original Boy Wonder. 

Grayson, they discovered, was a cipher, with lit- 
tle individuality outside of Robin's. 

So they appropriated the basic components of 
his heroic guise — his acrobatic flair and detective 
skills — and made the Teen Wonder a natural leader. 
As the Titans' tactician, Grayson was now a man, 
and it was time for him to be Robin no more. In 



& 



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Northstar 



Tales of the Teen Titans #39 (February 1984), he 
permanently retired his crimson tunic, becoming the 
ebon-clad, blue-feathered Nightwing five issues later. 

Nightwing led the Titans through myriad 
escapades, falling in love with and almost marrying 
teammate Starfire. In the lengthy "Knightfall" serial 
that ran through the Batman comics beginning in 
late 1992, the rift between Nightwing and Batman 
intensified when the Dark Knight, after being crip- 
pled by the villainous Bane, selected someone 
other than Grayson to succeed him. Nightwing felt 
that he should have been chosen to inherit the 
"mantle of the Bat" and deeply resented his men- 
tor. Nightwing and Batman ultimately came to grips 
with the reasons behind their emotional separation, 
and Wayne embraced Grayson as his son, even ask- 
ing him to temporarily adopt the Batman guise in 
the "Prodigal" storyline (1994-1995). 

Through these appearances, Nightwing had 
become a fan favorite, and readers clamored for the 
character to headline his own title. DC Comics hesi- 
tated, stayed by the stigma of Grayson's longtime 
sidekick status, but tested his wings in 1995 first 
with a one-shot, then with a four-issue miniseries. 
Critical and commercial reaction to both was strong, 
and in October 1996, Dick Grayson — one of comics' 
most recognizable characters — was at last awarded 
his own ongoing title with the release of Nightwing 
#1. The hero now patrols the streets of Bludhaven, a 
woefully corrupt city near Gotham, in a dual capacity: 
Armed with glove gauntlets (replacing the utility belt 
he wore as Robin), night-vision lenses, martial-arts 
mastery, and unbreakable "Escrima sticks" in his 
guise of Nightwing; and with a badge as Bludhaven 
police officer Richard Grayson. He still frequents 
Gotham City when summoned by Batman, Robin, or 
Oracle, the latter of whom is his former ally and girl- 
friend Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon, and during the sum- 
mer of 2003 rejoined several of his former Titans 
teammates as the leader of the all-new Outsiders. 

Despite the labors of talented DC Comics writ- 
ers and artists, Dick Grayson remains Robin in the 
minds of the public at large. Actor Chris O'Donnell 



portrayed a twentysomething Grayson/Robin in the 
movies Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & 
Robin (1997), although the former film includes the 
character mentioning "Nightwing" as a possible 
heroic name. In the late 1990s, Grayson finally 
broke free of the bonds of pop-culture restraints 
and appeared on television as Nightwing in the ani- 
mated New Batman/Superman Adventures. — ME 

Novthsfav 

Although he was not the comic-book world's first 
openly gay superhero, Marvel Comics' Northstar is 
certainly the most well-known homosexual in 
comics. First appearing in X-Men #120-#121 
(April-May 1979) with a team of heroes called 
Alpha Flight, Northstar was described as "Jean-Paul 
Beaubier, Olympic and professional ski champion." 
His mutant powers included flight and superspeed, 
and when he clasped hands with his sister Aurora 
(Jeanne-Marie Beaubier), they could create brilliant 
bursts of light. 

Northstar would appear a few more times with 
the Alpha Flight team prior to the first issue of their 
own comic book debuting in August 1983. There, 
readers learned that Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie 
were orphans who were raised separately. Jean-Paul 
had run away from his foster family, joined a circus, 
traveled through France, and eventually developed 
his mutant powers. He also became involved with 
Raymonde Belmonde, an older man who became 
his mentor and trainer (and perhaps lover). Later, 
Beaubier joined a radical separatist organization of 
Quebec Nationalists known as Front de Liberation 
du Quebec (FLQ), but he left when their activities 
turned violent. 

By the time he was recruited to join Alpha 
Flight, Jean-Paul Beaubier had become a wealthy 
world-class skiing champion, full of ego, rudeness, 
and unexplained grumpiness. He became a mem- 
ber of the superhero group, reuniting with his trou- 



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Northstar 




Uncanny X-Men #414 © 2002 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY STEVE UY. 



bled sister, who had developed a split personality. 
He also developed an unrequited crush on his 
teammate, Walter Langkowski, a.k.a. Sasquatch. In 
Alpha Flight #41 (December 1986), Beaubier's 
"secret identity" as a mutant superhero was 
revealed to the world, and he was disgraced in the 
competitive skiing community. 

Shortly thereafter, Northstar began to develop 
a seemingly incurable illness. Writer Bill Mantlo 
planned to reveal that the illness was AIDS — and 
planned to have Northstar die — but his editor Carl 
Potts, and Marvel's editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, put 
a halt to that storyline, forcing Mantlo to change the 
disease to a curable magic-based health problem. 



Mantlo made a public outcry about the subject to 
newspapers and magazines; reporters investigating 
found that many Marvel freelancers said that Shoot- 
er had reportedly declared a "no gays in the Marvel 
universe" policy. After Shooter's departure from 
Marvel, new editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco said no 
such policy ever existed, nor was ever enforced. 
Still, despite hints about Northstar's sexual orienta- 
tion dropped by both John Byrne and Mantlo over 
the years, writers were not allowed to have him 
come out of the closet. 

That finally changed with Alpha Flight #106 
(March 1992), in a story called "The Walking 
Wounded." In it, Northstar adopts a young baby girl 
infected with AIDS, but upon her death — and a fight 
with Canadian hero Major Maple Leaf — Beaubier 
came out as a gay hero to the world. The story got 
a huge amount of publicity, prompting Marvel to 
back-pedal, fearing controversy (editors were report- 
edly instructed to refer reporters to DC Comics 
rather than comment!). A 1994 Northstar mini- 
series barely made mention of the character's 
sexuality, though by the late 1990s, mention of his 
homosexuality became almost de rigueurfor any 
story in which he appeared. 

Although he can lay claim to being Marvel's first 
openly gay superhero, Northstar is not the industry's 
first. Alan Moore introduced gay heroes in his 
groundbreaking Watchmen series (1986-1987) and 
also revealed that one of the Miracleman family 
members was gay (Miracleman #12, September 
1987). But it was in DCs Millennium and New 
Guardians (1988) that Gregorio — one often "cho- 
sen" to become the next step in humanity's evolu- 
tion — became the first major gay superhero, Extra- 
no. Since that time, many heroes have come out as 
gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered: Pride in Gay 
Comics; Fade in Milestone's Blood Syndicate; Hero 
in DCs Superboy and the Ravers; Spectral in Mal- 
ibu's The Strangers; Josiah Power in DCs The Power 
Company; Amazon in Marvel's Thunderbolts; Flying 
Fox in Homage's Astro City; Pied Piper in DCs The 
Flash; Cobweb in ABC's Tomorrow Stories and Jack 



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TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Nova 



Phantom and Jetman in ABC's Top Ten; and perhaps 
the most infamous in today's comics world, Apollo 
and Midnighter in Wildstorm's The Authority. 

Given its history, it is ironic that in the modern 
era of Marvel Comics the company features more 
regularly seen gay and lesbian superheroes than any 
other company. The X-Men books alone feature sev- 
eral, making the corollary between social pressures 
on gays and mutants more obvious. Even the 2003 
film X2: X-Men United features a character "coming 
out" to his parents about being a mutant, while in 
New X-Men #134 (January 2003), founding member 
Beast tells Cyclops he is not gay, but, "I might as 
well be! I've been taunted all my life for my individu- 
alistic looks and style of dress ... I've been hounded 
and called names in the street and I've risen above 
it.... Come on, I'm as gay as the next mutant! I 
make a great role model for alienated young men 
and women." X-Statixhas Phat and Vivisector, Exiles 
has Sunfire II, New Mutants has Karma, and Mys- 
tique has its bisexual title character. 

Northstar is no longer alone then, as a gay 
hero or as a publicly-out mutant. He is also more 
high-profile today; after some guest appearances in 
2001 — in which it was revealed that he had written 
an autobiography titled Bom Worma/— Northstar 
joined the cast of Uncanny X-Men with issue #414 
(December 2002). At Professor Charles Xavier's 
school for mutants, he supposedly teaches Busi- 
ness, Economics, and Flight. But mostly, Northstar 
doles out well-meaning lessons of tolerance to 
mutants, when not pining over unavailable straight 
teammates. — AM 



Nova 



In many ways, Nova signaled the end of an era. The 
comic was an avowed attempt to recapture the 
innocence and excitement of the early days of the 
all-conquering 1960s Spider-Man comic. In the 
1970s the tide of comics was turning, however, and 



Spider-Man was swept away in the wave of X-Men 
mania, although he was fondly enough remembered 
to make several spirited comebacks. Nova was 
dreamed up in the 1960s by would-be comics pro 
Marv Wolfman, who was finally able to make his 
dream a reality when he became editor-in-chief of 
Marvel Comics. The Nova comic's first issue in 
1976 introduced readers to underachieving high- 
school zero Richard Rider, who stumbles across a 
dying alien (shades of Green Lantern's origin) by the 
name of Rhomann Dey, from the planet Xandar, who 
presents him with a golden helmet. In the time-hon- 
ored tradition, the helmet gives the startled teen 
fantastic abilities, including amazing strength and 
the power of flight. In the guise of Nova the Human 
Rocket he can do the impossible. 

The comic's high-school milieu would have 
been familiar to any longtime Spider-Man fan, but at 
least Rider had a reasonably functional family — as 
much a rarity in comics then as now. With solid art- 
work from veterans such as Sal Buscema and 
Carmine Infantino, the title was always attractive, 
and a bizarre mix of villains usually guaranteed the 
reader a good time. In addition to arch-foe the 
Sphynx, Nova also tussled with bargain-basement 
bozos such as Diamondhead, the Condor, Power- 
house, Mega Man, and the Corruptor. Nova's twenty- 
five-issue run ended with our hero, along with fellow 
crime-fighters the Comet and Crime Buster (Team 
Nova, anyone?), in pitched battle with the Sphynx 
and assorted hoods, en route to Xandar. 

The storyline was concluded in a few issues of 
The Fantastic Four (issues #208-#212), in which 
Nova and pals defended Xandar from a Skrull inva- 
sion, cosmic anti-hero Galactus battled it out with 
the Sphynx, and Nova was awarded the title of Xan- 
dar's Protector. After a while in space, Rider felt 
homesick and was allowed to return, but at the 
expense of his powers — or so he (and readers) 
thought. After a decade in the wilderness, forgotten 
by his readers and now a depressed high-school 
dropout, he resurfaced in the New Warriors in 
1990, courtesy of writer Fabian Nicieza. Nova redis- 



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Sfy 



Nova 



covered his powers in the most dramatic way possi- 
ble — by being dropped from a tall building (by would- 
be team leader Night Thrasher) and finding, as he 
hurtled to the ground, that his former powers kicked 
in, much to everyone's relief. The New Warriors 
team, made up of sidekicks and rejects, proved to 
be one of the hits of the 1990s, renewing interest 
in Nova and inspiring a second stab at solo suc- 
cess in 1994. 

Through a mistaken newspaper report in the 
team's early days, Nova became widely known as 
Kid Nova, much to his chagrin and his teammates' 
merriment — an incident typical of the New Warriors' 
humorous undercurrent. Sadly, after the exuberance 
of the comic's first few years, darker elements 
began to encroach on the fun and, in the last 
issues of his own (second) comic (issue #18 in 
1995), Nova lost his powers (again). He had failed 
to answer a call to arms from the long-forgotten 
planet Xandar, and so an evil character called Nova 



Omega stripped the hero's abilities. Rider eventual- 
ly recovered his powers two years later, in the last 
issue of New Warriors, only to endure another peri- 
od in the comics wilderness before Image founder 
Erik Larsen gave him one last try. 

The Larsen-scripted Nova, The Human Rock- 
et (1999), began with the New Warriors disband- 
ing and then set about returning Nova to his 
roots, complete with revived villains the Sphynx, 
Diamondhead, and others. Now, more than twen- 
ty years after his first appearance, Rider had 
finally become a college student and, much as 
before, the comic was a melange of misfit angst, 
rollicking adventure, and a zeitgeist-defying opti- 
mism. It lasted seven issues. Ever since, Nova 
fans have had to be content with sporadic guest 
shots from a grown-up Rider in the future- (and 
alternative-universe-) set Spider-Girl comic, at 
least until the powers-that-be decide to disinter 
him once more. — DAR 



tfO 



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Often, J'mtwy 

It's not easy being Superman's pal. For Jimmy 
Olsen, his friendship with Metropolis' Man of Steel 
has led to frequent mutations and imperilments. 
But let's not overlook the fringe benefits: celebrity 
status, occasional superpowers, lots of dates, and 
a bulletproof bodyguard. Not bad for a freckle-faced, 
red-haired, all-American kid. 

Olsen's life in fiction didn't start out so excit- 
ing, though. Like that other venerable mainstay of 
the Superman mythos, kryptonite, Olsen first 
appeared on the 1940s radio show based on the 
comic, and there as in his 1941 comic-book debut, 
he was a rather insignificant Daily Planet copy boy 
with dreams of becoming a newspaper journalist. 
His idol was reporter Clark Kent, secretly Super- 
man, who quickly took notice of Olsen's promise. 
Nor did much time pass before DC Comics' editors 
realized that in Olsen they possessed the same 
benefit for Superman that the recently introduced 
Robin the Boy Wonder provided to Batman: a 
teenage sidekick to whom younger readers could 
relate. Jimmy was promoted to "cub reporter," 
sporting his trademark bowtie and joining Kent and 
Lois Lane on a host of often dangerous escapades, 
along the way encountering — and usually being res- 



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cued by — Superman. His staunch loyalty to the Man 
of Steel made Olsen Superman's pal, a friendship 
that sometimes placed him in harm's way when tar- 
geted by the hero's enemies. 

In the live-action television program The Adven- 
tures of Superman (1953-1957), Jack Larson's 
comically spirited portrayal of the cub reporter 
made Olsen a household name, becoming comics' 
most famous supporting-cast member. DC promptly 
capitalized on this recognition, and in 1954 
released the first issue of Superman's PalJimmy 
Olsen, the entry-level book in Superman's burgeon- 
ing periodicals franchise. In a run lasting a remark- 
able twenty-eight years, Olsen's colorful series 
sometimes took him undercover as a master of dis- 
guise (he masqueraded as Robin to fool Batman, 
and even appeared in drag as a gun moll!), into pop- 
culture parody (Jimmy was "as popular as Ringo" as 
"The Red-Headed Beatle of 1,000 B.C." and made 
Superman "cry U.N.C.L.E." as a secret agent), and 
occasionally into conflict with his superfriend (under 
the influence of the "Helmet of Hate," Olsen zapped 
the Man of Steel with a kryptonite beam). It was 
Olsen's peculiar transformations, however, that 
made his magazine so memorable. His mishaps 
with alien weapons and his ill-advised sips of 
unusual potions caused Olsen to mutate, at one 
time or another, into a giant turtle man, a human 



*» 



One-Hit Wonders 



porcupine, a werewolf, a future man, and even an 
obese version of himself! 

Olsen's favorite conversion was his serum- 
induced change into the elongating superhero Elas- 
tic Lad, a role he so frequently slipped into that he 
earned reserve-member status in the Legion of 
Super-Heroes. The Legionnaires weren't the only 
superheroes with whom Olsen fraternized: He some- 
times joined Superman on adventures with Batman 
and Robin in World's Finest Comics, himself forming 
a recurring partnership with the Boy Wonder. 

To summon his powerful pal in times of cri- 
sis — once an issue, at least, it seemed — Olsen was 
given by Superman a signal watch emitting a fre- 
quency that only the Man of Steel could hear. Olsen 
was idolized by Metropolis teens who formed a fan 
club in his honor, and he dated airline attendant 
Lucy Lane (Lois' sister) and a bevy of other beau- 
ties. This fame sometimes overfed Olsen's ego, but 
his friend Superman was always there to help him 
learn humility. 

Industry superstar Jack Kirby took the creative 
reins of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in 1970 for an 
imaginative but short-lived stint that proved too 
sophisticated for readers of the time. In 1974, 
Olsen's book absorbed the sagging Superman's Girl 
Friend Lois Lane and Supergirl series into a giant- 
sized comic retitled The Superman Family, where 
the junior journalist's adventures continued until 
cancellation in 1982. Olsen returned to his support- 
ing-cast roots, maintaining his position as Super- 
man's ally in the current DC Comics continuity, 
rebooted in 1986. 

The glory days of his own wacky comic may be 
long gone, but Olsen rose again as the star of the 
moody twelve-issue "maxi series" Metropolis 
(2003-2004). And he has been immortalized on 
screen and radio by a host of actors in each of Super- 
man's media interpretations, as well as in song: The 
Spin Doctors' hit "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" from their 
Pocket Full ofKryptonite CD (1993) is Olsen's ballad 
of unrequited love for Lois Lane. — ME 



One-Hit Wonders 

Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman — 
they're the heavy hitters, powerful enough to make 
People magazine's "200 Greatest Pop Culture 
Icons" list for 2003. Then there's what many would 
categorize as the B-list: Iron Man, Green Lantern, 
Thor, and Green Arrow, heroes popular among 
comics fans, but never quite crossing the line into 
the general public's consciousness. Let's not forget 
the more minor titans like the Scarlet Witch, Blue 
Beetle, Ant-Man, and Metamorpho, heroes only a 
mother (or a die-hard comics fan) could love, whose 
shots at stardom come and go. 

And then there are the one-hit wonder women 
and men who just never quite cut the mustard, and 
would be spreading it on burgers at a fast-food joint 
were out-of-work superheroes considered employ- 
able. Heroes who make a lone appearance in 
comics, then ride off into the sunset quicker than 
you can say, "One strike, and yer out!" 

Believe it or not, the amazing Spider-Man 
almost suffered this discomfiting fate. In 1962, 
Marvel Comics head honcho Martin Goodman 
rejected writer Stan Lee's concept of a teenage 
superhero with sp/de/powers — everybody hates spi- 
ders, after all! — but Lee badgered Goodman to pub- 
lish the character in the last issue of an anthology 
series on the chopping block, Amazing Fantasy #15. 
Lee's uncanny intuition for heroes with reader reso- 
nance was right on target — the issue sold like mad 
and Spidey became Marvel's most popular charac- 
ter. Similarly, DC Comics' long-running characters 
the Legion of Super-Heroes premiered as one-time 
guests in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics 
#247 (1958), but readers demanded their return. 
The Legion and Spider-Man got lucky. 

Not so with the superheroic guise of Spidey's 
(or his alter ego, Peter Parker's) relative, dear old 
Aunt May. In Marvel Team-Up #137 (1984), May 
was selected by the omnipotent world-eater Galac- 



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One-Hit Wonders 



tus to be his cosmically powered herald. Encased in 
a gleaming exoskin, geriatric May became — are you 
ready for this? — Golden Oldie. May's still around, 
but Golden Oldie was retired to a home for has- 
been heroes. 

In comics' boom period, the Golden Age 
(1938-1954), publishers introduced new charac- 
ters virtually every month, mostly in anthology 
titles, testing the marketplace to see what clicked. 
Action-starved readers embraced unique newcom- 
ers like the Sub-Mariner and the Spectre, but not 
every hero was a winner. Remember Commandette, 
the movie star by day, female commando by night? 
Or the futuristic fighter called Atoma? Probably not. 
They were attempts to parrot the success of DC 
Comics' Wonder Woman, and each appeared once, 
Commandette in Superior Comics' Star Studded 
Comics (1945), a two-issue series that, curiously, 
featured no issue numbers, and Atoma in Harvey's 
Joe Palooka #15 (1947). 

By the 1950s, the superhero comics market 
had shrunk, and DC Comics was looking to fran- 
chise its remaining characters. Wonder Girl clicked 
in Wonder Woman, but Superman sidekicks Skyboy, 
who flew into World's Finest Comics #92 (1958), 
and Super-Girl (who preceded Superman's cousin 
Supergirl by one year), from Superman #123 
(1958), fizzled after one story each. Aquagirl, who 
teamed with Aquaman in Adventure Comics #266 
(1959) four months before the introduction of 
Aqualad, also sank after a single outing. Those 
failed fighters' names, however, would later be recy- 
cled by DC for wholly different characters. 

Try-out titles, like DCs Showcase (1956-1970, 
with a 1977-1978 revival) and First Issue Special 
(1975-1976) and its competitor's Marvel Premiere 
(1972-1981) and Marvel Spotlight (1971-1977), 
were staples for more than twenty years, offering expo- 
sure to new characters in hopes of launching their own 
series. For every Metal Men and Iron Fist that made 
the cut, there were losers: Witness (if you dare) 
B'Wana Beast, who somehow got two appearances in 
Showcase #66-#67 (1967) to ply his jungle justice; 



Atlas and the Dingbats, from DCs First Issue Special 
#1 and #6, respectively (both 1975), neither of which 
is considered a jewel in the crown of writer/artist Jack 
"King" Kirby; the freakish superteam the Outsiders 
(not to be confused with Batman and the Outsiders 
and its successors), in First Issue Special #10 (1976); 
and the forgettable Thor spinoff Warriors Three in Mar- 
vel Spotlight #30 (1976). 

Occasionally, a one-hit wonder from a try-out 
title would resurface years later. Dolphin, the charm- 
ing undersea heroine created by romance-comics 
artist Scott Pike, may have floated through only one 
issue of Showcase (#79, in 1968, although she did 
have a brief cameo, along with every other Show- 
case star, in 1978's anniversary issue, #100), but 
in the 1990s she joined the cast of DCs Aquaman. 
Kirby's Manhunters instantly disappeared from view 
after their debut in First Issue Special #5 (1975), 
but by the late 1980s were a villainous force in 
many DC titles. And another First Issue Special 
flunkie, a blue-skinned alien called Starman from 
issue #12 (1976), was woven into the fabric of 
author James Robinson's historically rich, all-new 
Starman series beginning in 1994. 

Some champions got one shot at stardom — lit- 
erally. The supple Sentinel, premiering in Megaton 
Comics' Megaton #1 (1983), took a fatal bullet first 
time out of the gate. Detroit's own superhero, the 
Crusader, busted into action on page six of DC 
Comics' Aquaman #56 (1971); several pages later, 
as he leapt across rooftops, anticipating a victory 
that would elevate him beyond "two-bit superhero" 
(his own words) status, the poor guy tripped over 
wires and fell to his death. 

In other cases, one-hit wonders were never 
intended to appear more than once, but, unlike Sen- 
tinel or Crusader, were allowed to fade away peace- 
fully. Two examples: The pink-garbed Ant was actual- 
ly an acrobat tricked into crime to battle the Teen 
Titans in issue #5 of their series (1966), and Cap- 
tain Thunder, an homage to the original Captain 
Marvel, whizzed into battle with the Man of Steel in 
Superman #276 (1974). 



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** 



The Outsiders 



A one-hit wonder of the early 2000s was a mega- 
hit, by comics standards, and turned heads — as well 
as tricks! Image Comics' The Pro (2002) was the out- 
rageous saga of a superpowered prostitute and the 
straight-laced heroes she scandalizes. The salacious 
subject-matter attracted national news coverage, and 
the working girl wonder woman hooked both super- 
hero fans intrigued by the taboo theme and casual 
readers who enjoyed a comic starring a heroine who 
finds superheroes as silly as they do. The Pro was 
sacked after her one-and-only outing, perhaps 
because the creators knew they would never get away 
with it again. In any case, the story was another notch 
in edgy author Garth Ennis' typewriter, and was the 
breakthrough book for gifted cartoonist Amanda Con- 
ner, helping to ensure that The Pro's makers would be 
anything but one-hit wonders themselves. 

Merchandising gimmicks have spawned their 
share of one-shot characters, like Generic Super- 
Hero, who debuted in Marvel's Generic Comic Book 
#1 (1984). Originally an anonymous man who gained 
superpowers after exposure to radium, this one-timer, 
clad in nondescript action garb, was a futile attempt 
at cashing in on the trend of "generic" versions of 
major product brands. Countless one-shot super- 
heroes have been created as product spokesmen: 
Their number includes Hallmark Cards' Captain Laser 
(1984); the Neal Adams-illustrated Captain Cash, 
muscular mascot of the 1977 Connecticut State Lot- 
tery; and the New York State Health Department's 
health-conscious Nutri-Man and Vita-Woman (1983). 

To these and the plethora of additional one-hit 
wonders, atomic also-rans, and fantastic failures, 
superhero fans salute you for a job not so well 
done! — ME 

Oracle: See Batgirl; Birds of Prey 

The Outsiders 

DC Comics spent the 1970s reinventing Batman, 
returning him to his 1939 roots as a brooding 



"creature of the night" and distancing him from the 
campy persona made famous by actor Adam West 
in the television series Batman (1966-1968). By 
the early 1980s, the Caped Crusader had become 
the Darknight Detective, his grim demeanor making 
Batman an outsider among his Justice League of 
America (JLA) teammates. When the JLA refuses to 
intervene in an international crisis involving the kid- 
napping of an associate of philanthropist Bruce 
Wayne (alter ego of Batman), Batman does the 
unthinkable: He quits the JLA! "I've had enough of 
your two-bit Justice League!" he snarls on the cover 
of Batman and the Outsiders #1 (1983), as he 
chooses sides with his "new partners." These Out- 
siders, a merging of heroes old and new, infiltrate 
the politically unstable European nation of Markovia 
to liberate Wayne's friend in a covert mission 
orchestrated by tactician Batman, actions in direct 
defiance of the JLA and the U.S. State Department. 
And thus, these Outsiders are introduced as a fight- 
ing force willing to go beyond conventional means 
to exact justice. (Incidentally, DC had previously 
used the name "Outsiders" twice in the 1970s, for 
a group of bikers in Jack Kirby's Superman's Pal 
Jimmy Olsen run and for a grotesque superteam 
appearing only once in First Issue Special.) 

Joining Batman were old-timers Metamorpho 
the Element Man, gruesome in appearance but 
comical at heart, a chemical combatant who had 
oozed in and out of comics limbo since his pre- 
miere in 1964; and Black Lightning, a street-smart 
African-American hero (a DC rarity at the time) with 
electrical powers, who briefly headlined his own 
comic in 1977. Fleshing out the group were the 
indomitable Katana, a female samurai wielding a 
soul-absorbing sword; the spirited Halo, a teenage 
amnesiac who was one of a race of energy beings 
called the Aurakles; and the regal Geo-Force, the 
Earth-manipulating brother of Terra from The New 
Teen Titans. Under the guidance of writer Mike W. 
Barr and artist Jim Aparo, Batman and the Out- 
siders promptly became one of DCs best-selling 
series, as the team tackled myriad menaces with 



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The Outsiders 



amusing names like Baron Bedlam, the Force of 
July, and the Bad Samaritan. Barr's energetic 
scripting was rife with character development and 
subplots, and Aparo's (and later Alan Davis') art- 
work helped elevate Batman and the Outsiders to 
fan-favorite status. In 1985, the book split into 
two separate titles — the newsstand-distributed 
"softcover" The Adventures of the Outsiders 
series and the direct-sales (sold exclusively to 
comics shops on a nonreturnable basis) "hardcov- 
er" The Outsiders, with Batman defecting and 
newcomer Looker joining the group. Two titles a 
month was too much of a good thing: By February 
1988 both were no more. 

The Outsiders, minus Batman but with a hand- 
ful of new recruits including Wildcat and the Atomic 



Knight, returned with little fanfare in 1994 for a two- 
year stint. In the summer of 2003, a new version of 
Outsiders premiered, a monthly comic written by 
Judd Winnick (an original cast member on MTV's 
The Real World). This band of twenty-somethings 
specializing in "taking on threats no one else will" 
(according to DCs promotions) is fronted by Bat- 
man's former protege Nightwing, and features a 
familiar blend of heroes new and established: Arse- 
nal (once Speedy of the Teen Titans), Metamorpho, 
Black Lightning's daughter Thunder, the Golden Age 
Green Lantern's daughter Jade, a futuristic android 
called Indigo, and a superwoman named Grace. 
With popular Nightwing at the helm, perhaps this 
incarnation of the Outsiders will enjoy the longevity 
denied its predecessors. — ME 



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<$$ 




Tfte 

Phantom 



Comics scholars generally agree that Superman was 
the first true superhero of the comic books, clearing 
marking the entrance of a new kind of hero into the 
marketplace. Though Superman wears an iconic cos- 
tume, he was not the first heroic character to do so. 
That honor goes to the Phantom, a mystery-man hero 
type who clearly ushered in the superhero genre. 
Written by Lee Falk (who earlier had success with the 
newspaper strip Mandrake the Magician) and drawn 
by Ray Moore, the Phantom first appeared in King 
Features Syndicate on February 17, 1936. 

Readers first see the Phantom rising out of 
the sea to rescue beautiful Diana Palmer from 
peril, thus putting in motion events that will be 
repeated endlessly over the coming decades. With 
his purple bodysuit (though readers had to wait for 
a Sunday strip added in May 1939 to actually see 
the costume in color), striped trunks, hood, blank- 
eyed mask, and black leather gun belt bearing a 
"death's head" skull, the Phantom's costume 
defined his persona as a masked avenger. Preced- 
ing Superman by two years, it is here that the 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



superhero blueprint was first fully established: a 
physically impressive, costumed character, com- 
plete with secret identity (Kit Walker), imperiled girl- 
friend, and secret hideout (the Skull Cave). In addi- 
tion, the Phantom came equipped with his super- 
weapons and super-gadgets, including two 
revolvers, homing pigeons he dispersed to send 
and receive messages, and a "skull" ring worn on 
his left hand, the imprint of which clearly meant 
that a person was struck by the hero. 

The Phantom's origin lays hundreds of years in 
the past — the sixteenth century, in fact — when 
pirates raid a merchant ship, killing the crew and 
captain and leaving only his young son alive. 
Washed up on a beach in an unspecified jungle set- 
ting, the child is befriended by a local tribe and 
swears an oath to "devote my life to the destruction 
of piracy, cruelty, and greed, and my sons will follow 
me!" Early versions of the origin name the child's 
father as Sir Christopher Standish, a British noble- 
man, but later versions name him as Kit Walker, and 
his descendants appear to think of themselves as 
American. The child thrives under the tutelage of 
the tribe and creates the Phantom costume, 
inspired by a native idol, to strike fear into the 
hearts of his enemies. Each generation of Walkers 
is trained to take over the mantle of the Phantom 
and, since all wear the same costume, local legend 



** 



The Phantom 



has it that he is in fact the same man 400 years 
later, hence the nickname, "the Ghost Who Walks." 

Over the years, the Phantom accumulated a 
wide cast of characters, including Guran, leader of 
the tribe; trusted friend Bandar; foster son Rex; 
trusted wolf Devil; and horse Hero. After dating love 
interest Palmer for decades, he married her in 
1977 and she later gave birth to twins, Eloise and 
Kit, the latter destined to become the twenty-sec- 
ond Phantom. The supporting cast and constantly 
changing storyline have kept the strip fresh. The 
Phantom's adventures have taken him around the 
globe, and many episodes (particularly in the comic 
books) have related tales of earlier Phantoms, even 
including a nineteenth-century lady Phantom. 

Newspaper strip artist Phil Davis fell ill in 1942 
and his assistant, Wilson McCoy, gradually took 
over the strip, working completely solo from 1947 
to 1961. His successor, comic-book veteran Sey- 
mour "Sy" Barry, then produced the feature for an 
extraordinary thirty-two years, before his assistant, 
George Oleson, finally took up the reins in 1994. If 
the work of Davis and McCoy now appears quaint, 
Barry's has consistently been attractive and pol- 
ished, and it is his Phantom that invariably appears 
on merchandise to this day. 

With any successful comic strip there is an 
inevitable flood of tie-ins and merchandise, and the 
Phantom has been no exception, appearing in or on 
everything from novels (twelve pulp-style paperbacks 
from Avon published in the early 1970s and co- 
authored by Falk), watches, and games to mugs, 
dolls, and rings. In 1943, he was brought to the silver 
screen by Columbia Pictures in a fifteen-chapter seri- 
al starring Tom Tyler (previously seen portraying Cap- 
tain Marvel). A promised follow-up fell into licensing 
difficulties and was hastily rejigged into The Adven- 
tures of Captain Africa, starring John Hart. More suc- 
cessful was a 1996 Paramount movie (simply titled 
The Phantom), directed by Simon Wincer and starring 
Billy Zane and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Longtime fans 
praised the film for capturing the spirit of the strip. 



If the Phantom's celluloid outings have been 
rare, his comic-book life has been long and fruitful, 
starting in 1938 when the David McKay Company 
began reprinting his newspaper strip in Ace Comics, 
King Comics, and Feature Books. McKay printed Phan- 
tom strips throughout the 1940s, and then Harvey 
Comics took over the reins in the 1950s. In the 
1960s, editor/writer Bill Harris and courtroom artist 
Bill Lignante produced new Phantom comic books for 
the first time, for Gold Key from 1962 to 1966 and for 
King Features (the syndicating company, thereby get- 
ting into the comics business for themselves) from 
1966 to 1967. Charlton took over the franchise for 
the next eight years, initially producing a very hand- 
some-looking Phantom comic by the future Aquaman 
team of Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo. Charlton's run 
met with mixed opinions, not least from King Fea- 
tures, but it ended on a high in 1977 after a beautiful 
sequence of issues from artist Don Newton. 

There was then a decade in the wilderness for 
the Phantom before DC Comics tried its hand at a 
title or two in 1988, and since then various compa- 
nies (including Marvel, Wolf, Moonstone, Manu- 
script Press, and Tony Raiola) have kept the Ghost 
Who Walks in the public eye. Two of Marvel's short- 
lived attempts were based on slightly eccentric Sat- 
urday morning cartoons: the 1986 Defenders of the 
Earth, which co-starred King's other main heroic 
properties, Mandrake the Magician, Flash Gordon, 
and Prince Valiant; and the 1994 futuristic Phantom 
2040, starring the twenty-fourth Phantom. 

The Phantom is far from being a solely American 
phenomenon. The character has achieved enormous 
success across the world and has been enjoyed in 
more than sixty countries. Foreign Phantom comics 
first appeared in Italy in 1938, in fact preceding their 
American equivalent, but it is in Scandinavia and Aus- 
tralia that he has been most successful. The jungle 
hero has been a national institution in Sweden since 
World War II, and Stockholm even has its own Phan- 
tom theme park. While the 1970s and 1980s saw a 
decline in U.S. comic books featuring the masked 
avenger, Sweden's Semic Press was producing two 



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The Phantom in the Media 



new stories a month for the Scandinavian market, 
mostly drawn by Spanish artists. These Semic strips 
have tended to explore the Phantom's earlier incarna- 
tions, including the fifth Phantom (who fought Black- 
beard), the thirteenth Phantom (who fought in the 
1812 war) and the sixteenth Phantom (who was 
apparently a cowboy!). 

If the Phantom is popular in Scandinavia, then he 
is a genuine obsession in Australia, dominating the 
comic-book scene there just as Superman, Spider- 
Man, and the X-Men have in the United States. Since 
1948, the Frew Company has been publishing a com- 
bination of newspaper strips and European reprints in 
a variety of formats, every couple of weeks. As of 
2004, Frew has produced more than 1,300 editions 
of its Phantom comic and it is still going strong. If the 
American comic book is no longer a significant pres- 
ence on U.S. newsstands, the newspaper strip itself 
is still in fine health, appearing in more 500 papers 
across the country. The Phantom would seem to be 
one of those very few heroes whose popularity tran- 
scends all boundaries, and he should be stalking the 
world's landscapes for years to come. — DAR 

the Phantom in 
the Media 

The Phantom is killed as Columbia Pictures' The 
Phantom (1943) opens. Your hero's dead in the 
first reel.... How do you continue a fifteen-chapter 
movie serial?, wondered the viewers, on the edge 
of their seats. 

Enthralling the ticket buyers was the name of the 
game for movie makers during the challenging times 
of the Great Depression and World War II. Producers 
were on the lookout for exhilarating, high-profile char- 
acters whose adventures could be quickly and inex- 
pensively developed into movie serials (fifteen- to 
twenty-minute shorts released in weekly chapters). 
King Features Syndicate's successful newspaper strip 



The Phantom — starring a hero who was masked mys- 
tery man and jungle swashbuckler in one — was the 
perfect candidate for a serial, and to ensure an action- 
packed product, Columbia put former stuntman 
"Breezy" Eason behind the camera as director. 

The Phantom quickly resolves its chapter one 
dilemma as the son of the murdered hero assumes 
his father's masked identity, maintaining the immor- 
tality myth of the "Ghost Who Walks." The plot: The 
Phantom (Tom Tyler) aids an expedition of adventur- 
ers seeking an elusive key to the lost city of Zoloz, 
as another party with suspicious motivations 
repeatedly takes measures to stop them. This mea- 
ger premise withstands the fifteen-chapter duration 
thanks to briskly paced cliffhangers, and the Phan- 
tom's understated costume adapts well to the 
screen. Tyler commands a believable presence in 
the garb, which isn't surprising, since he had experi- 
ence in tights two years prior in the serial The 
Adventures of Captain Marvel. 

The Ghost Who Walks next leapt before the 
cameras in The Phantom, a 1961 teleplay and 
unsuccessful TV series pilot directed by Harold 
Daniels. Roger Creed played the mystery man and 
his alter ego Mr. Walker (from the comic strip), 
backed by a strong supporting cast featuring Lon 
ChaneyJr. and Richard Kiel. 

Nursing his wounds from his 1961 failure, the 
Phantom avoided television until 1986, when he 
returned — with friends. Defenders of the Earth, a 
thirty-minute animated program produced for daily 
syndication, teamed the hero with King Features' 
Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, and Lothar, 
plus their teenage offspring. Despite an ambitious 
marketing campaign including an action-figure line 
and a Marvel Comics series, Defenders of the 
Earth's limited scope — protecting the planet from 
Ming the Merciless — was not compelling enough to 
extend its sixty-five episodes, and the show was 
canceled after only one season. Phantom 2040 
(1994-1996), another animated television series 
appearing in syndication, transplanted the hero into 



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An animated rendition of the Phantom in Phantom 2040. 

the urban jungles of Metropia, one of a few Earth 
cities to survive a ravaging of the planet's 
resources. The Phantom struggled against a corrupt 
corporation and terrorists with conflicting ecological 
agendas, and was hunted by a police officer who 
happened to be the girlfriend of his alter ego, Kit 
Walker. Stylish animation and competent scripts 
helped The Phantom 2040 foster a loyal cult audi- 
ence that was, unfortunately, too small to sustain 
the series past two seasons. 



Paramount Pictures was optimistic that its live- 
action blockbuster The Phantom (1996) would 
score big at the box office, as had the previous 
summer's superhero release, Warner Bros.' Batman 
Forever (1995). Paramount's movie had a body- 
sculpted hunk (Billy Zane) ably filling the purple 
tights, two sexy co-stars (Kristy Swanson and then- 
newcomer Catherine Zeta-Jones), a Raiders of 
the Lost Ark atmosphere, and a catchy tag 
line ("Slam Evil!"). The studio thought that 
nothing could go wrong. 

Think again. Director Simon Wincer's The 
Phantom couldn't attract an audience. The Phantom 
lacked the iconic stature of Batman, the movie had 
no bankable stars, and the story, a period piece 
prone to frequent camp, failed to connect with film- 
goers of the 1990s. Hollywood hasn't given up on 
the Ghost Who Walks, however; a new movie ver- 
sion of The Phantom, with a script worked on by Die 
Hard screenwriter Stephen E. de Souza and Olympic 
gold medallist turned scriptwriter Mel Stewart, is in 
development. — ME 

Phantom Udy 

The Phantom Lady started life in 1941 as just one 
of many bit players hiding in the pages of Police 
Comics #1 (published by Quality Comics), but she 
went on to become one of the most controversial 
characters of the 1940s. The strip, like much of 
Police Comics, was put together by Jerry Iger's 
comics studio (or sweatshop) in 1941, and was fair- 
ly unsophisticated at this stage. The Phantom Lady 
was "Washington society's pampered darling" San- 
dra Knight, Senator Henry Knight's beautiful daugh- 
ter, whose life revolved around the theater, dinner 
parties, and dates with her fiance, Don Borden. 
However, in true superhero fashion, she had a habit 
of stumbling into trouble, whereupon she would 
change into a very fetching yellow bathing costume, 
green cape, and boots, and would emerge ready to 
fight crime. With no superpowers to speak of, she 



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had to make do with a pocket-sized blacklight 
"blackout ray," which would temporarily blind her 
quarries while she tied them up. Dedicated to 
defending her country, she was known to say, 
"America comes first, even before Dad!" 

Probably the most remarkable aspect of these 
stories was that none of the characters ever recog- 
nized Phantom Lady as Sandra Knight, despite the 
fact that she didn't wear any sort of mask! Quality 
persevered with the Lady for two years before Flat- 
foot Burns replaced her, but evidently Iger (for one) 
thought that there might well be life in her yet. In 
1947, the notorious publisher Victor Fox contacted 
Iger in the hope of launching a new line of charac- 
ters (this, despite owing Iger thousands of dollars 
from a previous collaboration). Iger agreed and, 
along with the likes of Rulah, Zegra, and a revamped 
Blue Beetle, the Phantom Lady was reborn. It seems 
that Fox had noticed the pinup strips that Iger's stu- 
dio had been churning out for rival publisher Fiction 
House and wanted more of the same for himself— 
and that's what he got, in spades! 

The first issue of the Phantom Lady's own 
comic (confusingly numbered 13 on the cover) hit 
the stands in late 1947 and, right from the start, it 
was clear that things had changed. The new Phan- 
tom Lady was all flowing hair, beguiling curves, and 
legs that went on forever. Her costume was now a 
matching blue halter-top and shorts, with a large red 
cloak and hood, topped off with a dainty little purse 
for her blackout ray. Her new artist was Matt Baker, 
one of the first African-American artists in comics 
(and at the time certainly the most important), who 
was gaining a reputation as the king of pinups. His 
rendition of the heroine seemingly owed a lot to the 
legendary model Bettie Page, and the strip was full 
of glamour poses with ladies in their underwear or 
taking a bath. In fact, the Phantom Lady herself was 
forever bathing, undressing, or getting into catfights, 
much to the alarm of observers such as comic-book 
critic Frederic Wertham. In his devastating indict- 
ment of the comics industry, Seduction of the Inno- 
cent (1954), Wertham singled out the character, cit- 



HIKING CAN ST tr THEM! 




Big Girl Adventures #1 © 2002 AC Comics. 

COVER ART BY MATT BAKER. 



ing the cover of Phantom Lady #17 (where she is 
shown giving the reader a smoldering look while 
straining against imprisoning ropes) as being partic- 
ularly perverse. 

Ironically, the writer of this "depravity" was a 
woman, Ruth Roche, whose scripts were inspired by 
her husband who worked for the police. Like the 
Police Comics episodes, Roche's scripts still 
revolved around the wealthy Sandra Knight and her 
rather dim-witted fiance, but they were now pep- 
pered with stabbings, shootings, and strangula- 
tions, largely directed at women. Despite this, some 



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Phantom Stranger 



feminist critics (including noted superhero author 
and cartoonist Trina Robbins) have suggested that 
the Phantom Lady was a rare example of a strong, 
positive role model for girls, an indomitable heroine 
who never gave up. Victor Fox, however, did give up 
and, in 1949, the controversial comic became the 
much more sedate My Love Secret. 

As is often the case, occasional revivals fol- 
lowed, including a much tamer version from Ajax 
Comics in 1955 and a few reprints from I.W. 
Comics a decade later. In the 1970s, DC Comics 
(now the owners of the rights to Quality Comics' 
superheroes) included her as part of the Freedom 
Fighters, a team who started life in a Justice 
League story and then spun off into their own short- 
lived series. This was the more demure (and less 
pneumatic) Police Comics version of the Lady, hav- 
ing now mysteriously acquired the ability to become 
intangible — a real phantom. In fact, DC briefly 
brought her back in the 1980s as well, and then 
promptly dropped her (probably due to poor sales), 
never publishing her again. 

However, that's not the end of the story. It was 
a fan, publisher Bill Black, who was to be the Lady's 
savior. He first drew her in a new story in his Fun 
Comics in 1982, presumably unaware that DC still 
owned the rights (even though his update was 
based on Fox's blue-costumed incarnation). Clearly 
enamored of her, Black changed her name to 
Nightveil, gave her mystical powers, and included 
her in his glamorous, all-girl superheroine group, 
Femforce. Nightveil went on to her own comic, a 
number of specials, and a devoted following all her 
own — proving that you can't keep a good (or bad) 
girl down. — DAR 



Phantom Stranger 

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, comics were 
peppered with all kinds of mysterious storytellers, 
masked, cloaked, or hatted — narrators such as the 



Mysterious Traveler, the Man in Black Called Fate, 
Mister Mystery, Dr. Drew, and DC Comics' Phantom 
Stranger. The DC series ran for only six issues, from 
1952 to 1953, each issue presenting several short 
mystery tales starring the trench-coat-and-hat-wear- 
ing Stranger. In fact, "starring" is probably too 
strong a word, since the Stranger had the discon- 
certing habit of popping up out of nowhere (and only 
"where I am needed") and apprehending evildoers 
in the nick of time. His creators never made it clear 
who he was or where he came from, his tell-all 
quote being, "I do not foresee the future, I merely 
act upon it." 

In the late 1960s, following the successful 
relaunch of the Spectre and the burgeoning popular- 
ity of its horror comics, DC decided in 1969 to 
revive the Phantom Stranger in Showcase #80. By 
the summer the hero was starring in his own comic. 
Those early tales mostly featured him materializing 
on street corners wherever groups of young children 
were gathered to tell them scary stories, occasion- 
ally starring himself. He was joined in this some- 
what dubious pursuit by Dr. 13 who, like the 
Stranger himself, had enjoyed a brief outing in the 
early 1950s (when he was known as the Ghost 
Breaker). Dr. 13's sole purpose in life appeared to 
be to disprove "evidence" of the supernatural, and 
for the next few years he doggedly trailed the 
Stranger's every move. In a way, their relationship 
was something of a forerunner of the X-Files, with 
Dr. 13 resembling the doubting Scully and the Phan- 
tom Stranger as a precursor to Mulder. 

Until the fourth issue, the Phantom Stranger had 
defeated his enemies with his fists and wits, but that 
issue pitted him against an enchantress called Tala, 
Queen of Darkness and, rather conveniently, he sud- 
denly became incredibly powerful — with attributes 
including the ability to create heat, to cause tempo- 
rary blindness, and to talk to animals. Tala regularly 
popped up for the next couple of years, developing 
something of a crush on the Stranger — in between 
trying to destroy him, of course, as did another evil 
witch called Tanarok. As the strip became more popu- 



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lar, its star appeared in a couple of Batman strips 
and was also inducted into the Justice League of 
America. From that point on, whenever DCs writers 
put their characters into particularly tricky situations, 
they could always summon up the Phantom Stranger 
to get them out of trouble. 

Much of the comic's success was due to its 
writer, Len Wein, and artist Jim Aparo. Together, they 
took the Stranger around the world, to other dimen- 
sions and, finally, to an all-out battle with Tala that 
saw her trying to summon up the Four Horsemen of 
the Apocalypse. However, when the creative team's 
popularity promoted them to other comics, the 
Stranger gradually declined as he returned to his 
1950s roots as a bystander in his own stories. 
Some late adventures with Deadman were not 
enough to stave off cancellation in 1976, but further 
guest slots with Batman, Superman, and Deadman 
kept him in the public eye. A 1980s backup slot in a 
new Swamp Thing comic led to appearances in the 
main strip and finally an issue of Secret Origins, 
which set out to explain where he came from — a 
mere twenty-five years after his first series. 

For a character that had "lived" this long with- 
out an origin story, management decided that just 
one tale would do less than justice, and so DC 
served up four potential explanations. In the first, 
the Phantom Stranger turned out to be the Wander- 
ing Jew who betrayed Jesus, and who had been con- 
demned to walk the earth for eternity. In another 
version, he was the sole survivor of Sodom and 
Gomorrah, given powers by an angel, while in a third 
variant he was an angel himself, cast out of heav- 
en. In the fourth take, he absorbs power from the 
end of the universe, and tracks back in time to the 
beginning — or something like that. Then again, of 
course, the Stranger's true origin might well be 
none of the above! 

In the 1990s, he was reduced for the most 
part to being a bit player in other characters' 
comics, with one final, valuable role to play. In the 
Books of Magic miniseries, the Stranger was one of 
four DC heroes chosen to oversee the emergence 



of a new, powerful sorcerer, who would control all 
the magic in the world. This was the young, spikey- 
haired, bespectacled boy wizard, Tim Hunter, whose 
similarity to the somewhat better-known (and later 
developed) Harry Potter is striking. — DAR 

Plastic Man 

Plastic Man was one of the real stars of the Quality 
Comics lineup of superheroes in comics' Golden 
Age (1938-1954), thanks to the madcap genius of 
his creator, Jack Cole. Cole had led a colorful life, 
including cycling across America at the age of eigh- 
teen, before deciding to dedicate himself to his true 
passion of cartooning and moving to New York in 
1935. After a fitful start as a gag cartoonist, he 
found himself in at the beginning of the nascent 
comics explosion, working for Centaur Publishing 
and Lev Gleason Publications before being head- 
hunted by Quality Comics owner Everett "Busy" 
Arnold. In mid-1941, Arnold asked Cole to create a 
new hero for Quality's upcoming new Police Comics 
title — something in the tradition of Will Eisner's 
Spirit. But Cole responded with his own sort of 
super-detective, a hero who always got his man in 
his own way: Plastic Man. 

In August 1941, the first issue of Police Comics 
introduced an unsuspecting public to a disreputable 
hoodlum called Eel O'Brian, hard at work cracking a 
safe at the Crawford Chemical Works. Disturbed by a 
guard, O'Brian and his gang flee the building, but a 
stray bullet hits a large chemical vat, showering the 
thief with acid. Injured and desperate, O'Brian runs 
for miles before reaching a mountain retreat called 
Rest-Haven, where he is tended to by kind monks 
who shield him from the police. Inspired by their 
trust in him, he decides to turn over a new leaf and 
vows to change his ways. Only then does he discov- 
er that the acid has affected his body in such a way 
that he can now stretch it into any shape he can 
think of. Thrilled by that discovery ("Great guns!! I'm 
stretchin' like a rubber-band!"), he dons a red body- 



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Penny, Plastic Man, and Baby Plas in the animated Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show. 



suit, trimmed with a yellow belt and topped off with 
wraparound sunglasses, and begins his new life's 
work as a crime fighter. 

Under Cole's infinitely creative direction, Plastic 
Man soon developed into one of the wittiest, most 
inventive superheroes on the stands. Originally Cole 
wanted to call his hero the India Rubber Man, but 
was persuaded by Arnold to take advantage of the 
consumer's new fixation with plastic, which advertis- 
ers had just termed the "miracle material" and 
which was quickly making its way into dozens of 
new household products. Plastic Man — or Plas, as 
his friends referred to him — could stretch himself 
into any shape or size. He could roll himself into a 
ball, roll off a skyscraper and bounce right back up 
off the street below. He could make himself into a 
giant sail and fly through the air, and he was so pli- 



able that bullets just bounced right off him. He 
could disguise himself as a chair, a boat, a lasso, a 
bag full of money, a blimp, a net — in fact, anything 
that Cole's fertile mind could dream up. Plas could 
also change his features to impersonate anyone, 
from a beautiful woman to Adolf Hitler himself. But 
while he was seemingly invulnerable enough to with- 
stand being flattened by a steamroller, he was badly 
affected by intense heat (which caused him to melt) 
and cold (which stiffened him like a board). 

Traditional superheroics — the battle between 
good and evil — were hardly the strip's principal con- 
cerns. Rather, Cole used Plastic Man's adventures 
as excuses to showcase his zany brand of humor. 
As an artist he had an outwardly simple style but 
was able to animate his characters with a manic 
zeal, and each panel was crammed with weird char- 



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acters, slapstick gags, or Plastic Man's increasingly 
bizarre contortions. Even today, when many of the 
strips from this era appear quaint or crude, Cole's 
Plastic Man seems fresh, vibrant, and hilarious. 

Feeling the need for a sidekick for his "stretch- 
able sleuth," Cole introduced the polka-dot-shirted, 
rotund Woozy Winks in Police Comics #13 (Novem- 
ber 1942), and the strip rose to even greater 
heights of lunacy. Having rescued a drowning 
swami, Woozy was rewarded with the gift of invulner- 
ability to become "the man who cannot be harmed," 
and he decided to use his great gift for evil by turn- 
ing to crime. When Plas tried to stop him, the great 
crime fighter was attacked by lightning, giant hail- 
stones and instantly sprouting trees, but he finally 
defeated the indolent thief by making him feel 
guilty: "Think of your mother — what would she say if 
she knew about your crime career?" The newly con- 
trite, if barely repentant, Woozy instantly became 
Plas' ever-present crime-busting companion and 
comic foil, a bumbling, always ravenous, leering, 
cynical layabout who naturally stole the hearts of 
his devoted readers. 

Plastic Man soon became the cover star of 
Police Comics and starred in the title for 102 
issues, only being ousted when the title was 
revamped into a true-crime comic in 1950. Plas 
was also given his own comic in 1943, and this 
flourished until Arnold sold the whole company to 
DC Comics thirteen years later. The in-demand Cole 
was co-opted into helping out on The Spirit newspa- 
per feature when that series' creator, Will Eisner, 
was drafted, which meant that he soon needed help 
of his own to keep up production of his beloved 
Plastic Man. By all accounts, Cole was heartbroken 
that he could not handle all the work on his own, 
but various Quality staffers, including Gwenn 
Hansen and Bill Woolfolk on scripts and artists Al 
Bryant, Gill Fox, and Charles Nicholas, all pitched in. 

Cole was at his peak after World War II. His 
kinetic style was now more fluid than ever and each 
page overflowed with sight-gags and increasingly 
bizarre characters. Plastic Man (who was by now an 



FBI agent) never developed a regular cast of bad 
guys but Cole delighted in inventing ever more 
eccentric and bizarre wrongdoers for his hero to dis- 
patch. Among many peculiar fellows, Cole created 
Bladdo the Super Hypnotist, the Sinister Six, Amor- 
pho, Abba and Dabba, and Wriggles Enright — in 
fact, each story could boast someone memorable. 
But as successful and creative as his work on the 
strip was, Cole always craved more and had been 
moonlighting as a gag cartoonist for years, finally 
leaving the strip in 1954. Freed from his comics 
workload, Cole soon found fame and wealth as the 
leading cartoonist in the newly launched Playboy 
magazine, and a few years later began work on the 
newspaper strip Baby and Me. Tragically, the 
intense and complex Cole killed himself at the 
height of his success, in 1958, for reasons that 
have never been clear, thus robbing comics of one 
of its true giants. 

In 1956, while DC was keen to keep publishing 
such newly purchased Quality titles as Blackhawk 
and Gl Combat, they inexplicably chose to ignore 
Plastic Man, and the character was soon forgotten 
by the company. Indeed, it was not until a decade 
later, when DC was approached by an agency want- 
ing to use the hero in a magazine advertisement, 
that anyone in the company realized that it owned 
the character at all. After a tryout in the "Dial 'H' for 
Hero" strip, DC revived Plas for a new series in 
1966, but without Cole's inspiration the comic was 
a disastrous melange of tired TV parodies and 
camp superheroics. A decade later, in 1976, DC 
tried again, with art by the Cole acolyte Ramona 
Fradon, and produced a very attractive series that 
nevertheless never quite realized the heights of the 
strip's golden years. This was followed by a 1980 
run in Adventure Comics, with art by Joe Staton, 
which was probably the truest to Cole's original 
vision of any of the revivals and was prompted by 
the unexpected arrival of a Plastic Man TV series 
(titled The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show, 
which ran on ABC in 1979-1980 for a total of thirty- 
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Power Man 



These ill-fated attempts illustrate a pattern in 
which DC would resurrect Plastic Man each decade 
(for example, in 1988 and 1999) for a well-crafted 
miniseries or one-shot, which singularly failed to 
find an audience. DCs most recent attempt at a 
series, in late 2003, involved the left-field talents of 
the inventive Kyle Baker and might yet prove to be 
successful. Over the years, however, the company 
has met with greater success when it has used the 
hero as a bit-player in its superhero universe, team- 
ing him with Batman numerous times in titles such 
as The Brave and the Bold or inducting him into the 
Justice League of America. In fact, in a 2002 JLA 
storyline, it was revealed that Plastic Man had a 
long-lost son! 

In addition to the well-received series by Baker, 
DC has tried to keep the character in the public eye 
with occasional reprints of the strip's glory years, cul- 
minating in a series of hardbacked "archives," col- 
lecting Plastic Man strips from his very first appear- 
ance onward. Another late-breaking development was 
the publication in 2001 of the trade paperback Jack 
Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Lim- 
its by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd. Though the hero 
may not regain the level of popularity and acclaim he 
enjoyed in the 1940s, the revival of interest in Cole 
and his flexible hero is a long overdue and welcome 
acknowledgment. — DAR 




Power Man #39 © 1977 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY BOB BROWN AND JIM MOONEY. 



Power /W aw 

Not to be confused with Erik Jolsten, a superstrong 
Caucasian Marvel Comics villain that splashed into 
the pages of The Avengers in the mid-1960s, the 
African-American superhero known as Power Man 
(Luke Cage) represents a breakthrough in racial 
diversity from Marvel's first great period of publish- 
ing expansion in the early 1970s. While Power Man 
wasn't Marvel's first African-American superhero — 
that honor goes to T'Challa, the Black Panther, who 
was introduced in 1966 (Fantastic Four #52) — he 
blazed other, arguably even more significant pop-cul- 



tural trails: (1) Luke Cage is the very first black 
superhero to star in a regular series bearing his 
name (beginning in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #1, 
1972); (2) his crime-fighting name does not contain 
the adjective "black" (a la Black Lightning, Black 
Goliath, and the Black Panther); and (3) he is Mar- 
vel's first mercenary superhero. 

Conceived by writer Archie Goodwin and pencil- 
er George Tuska, Power Man starts life as a street- 
wise Harlem native known only as "Lucas," a char- 
acter whose derivation from the protagonists of 
contemporary "blaxploitation" films such as Shaft 
(1971) represents a real innovation for the super- 
hero genre. Framed for the crime of heroin traffick- 



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ing by a former friend named Willis Stryker, Lucas 
finds himself incarcerated in the Seagate maximum 
security prison, where his self-righteous belliger- 
ence provokes the ire of Albert Rackham, a racist 
prison guard. Lucas' sole ally is Dr. Noah Bernstein, 
who believes the prisoner's claims of innocence 
and arranges for him to receive parole in exchange 
for Lucas' participation in a hazardous chemical 
experiment intended to catalyze human cell regen- 
eration and to counteract old age and disease. Hop- 
ing to kill Lucas, Rackham interferes with Bern- 
stein's experiment when it reaches a critical junc- 
ture, and the resulting chemical accident leaves 
Lucas with superhuman muscle and bone mass, 
incredible strength, and steel-hard skin. Lucas' prin- 
cipal weakness is his hot temper. 

Unaccustomed to his new abilities, Lucas lash- 
es out at Rackham, leaving him apparently dead 
(thus enabling Rackham to return later as a vengeful 
badguy). Now believing himself to be a murderer, 
Lucas escapes from Seagate, smashing through its 
walls with his fists. Although the authorities think 
Lucas has died during his breakout attempt, he 
makes it to New York City, where he intends to con- 
front Stryker. Unfortunately, Lucas also has no 
means of support and lives in fear of being recog- 
nized and recaptured. But after a restaurateur gives 
him a cash reward for thwarting a robbery, Lucas 
finds his niche: engaging in heroics in exchange for 
money. He also adopts the name "Luke Cage" (an 
amalgam of his real first name and his recent state 
of confinement) and a costume that prominently fea- 
tures an open-chested, yellow polyester shirt and a 
belt made of heavy chain (also a symbol of incarcer- 
ation). Cage goes on to get revenge on Stryker, who 
was also responsible for the death of his girlfriend, 
Reva, and begins confiding in Dr. Bernstein, who now 
runs a New York City free clinic (Luke Cage: Hero for 
Hire #2, 1972). Soon, Cage is actually scraping out 
a marginal living via commercial superheroics (Luke 
Cage: Hero for Hire #3, 1972), though he is general- 
ly as likely as not to right wrongs in the world purely 
out of unremunerated conscience. 



During the first four issues of Luke Cage: Hero 
for Hire, Goodwin did the lion's share of the writing, 
with assists from Roy Thomas. Tuska and a young 
African-American artist named Billy Graham provid- 
ed most of the art (Graham was one of the few 
blacks then working in the comics industry), and 
writer Steve Englehart penned most of the next 
dozen issues. Len Wein (co-creator of the 1970s X- 
Men revival) took over the writing chores with issue 
#17 (1974), by which time the series was retitled 
Power Man, reflecting Cage's attempt to make his 
enterprise more marketable by emphasizing his pro- 
fessional moniker. In fact, Cage is forced to fight 
the aforementioned villainous Power Man (Erik Jol- 
sten) over the right to use the name (Power Man 
#21, 1974). After a brief stint as a member of the 
Defenders in 1975 Cage temporarily replaces the 
Thing as a member of the Fantastic Four the next 
year. During the 1970s, the hero's exploits caught 
the attention of an enthusiastic young comics read- 
er named Nicolas Coppola, who years later 
achieved movie stardom using a Power 
Man-inspired stage name: Nicolas Cage. 

As "blaxploitation" films receded over the cul- 
tural horizon along with the kung fu craze, in Power 
Man #48 (1977) Marvel sought to salvage its 
investment in both genres by introducing Power 
Man to Iron Fist (Daniel Rand), a martial arts hero 
whose own series had recently been canceled. 
Under the creative guidance of the future X-Men 
team of Chris Claremont (writer) and John Byrne 
(artist), Power Man's two-fisted directness and Iron 
Fist's disciplined rationality proved to be a good 
mix. The pair go into business together under the 
name of "Heroes for Hire, Inc." and the book's title 
was changed yet again (Power Man and Iron Fist 
#49, 1978). Writer James C. Owsley has called 
Power Man and Iron Fist the best "buddy book" 
Marvel Comics ever produced, describing it as "a 
dysfunctional version of DC Comics' venerable 
World's Finest series [which teamed Superman and 
Batman]. It was [a] fairly standard opposites-attract 
dynamic: the hardened cynic and the philosopher 



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Power Man 



from [mystical city] K'un-L'un. The humor was large- 
ly based on Luke's reaction to Danny, and the inex- 
plicable bond that grew between the two men." 

The reconstituted series prospered under writ- 
ers such Bob Layton, Mary Jo Duffy, Steven Grant, 
Chris Claremont, Mike W. Barr, Dennis O'Neil, Kurt 
Busiek, Archie Goodwin, Alan Rowlands, James C. 
Owsley, and Tony Isabella, and such artists as Kerry 
Gammill, Greg LaRocque, Denys Cowan, Keith Pol- 
lard, Ernie Chan, Geoff Isherwood, Richard Howell, 
Steve Geiger, and Mark D. Bright. As the stories 
unfolded, various writers allowed Cage to evolve, 
letting his slangy, stereotypical ethnic speech 
become more realistic. "Issue #123 had a fabulous 
panel," said writer Owsley (an African American), 
"something I can't believe I got away with, where 
Luke reveals [that] his 'Loud Angry Negro' routine 
was just a put-on. It is difficult, by and large, for 
white America to understand [that] the tribal slang 
that is stereotypical of black America is an affecta- 
tion and not a handicap. We can turn it on and off. 
One minute, we're Don Blake, the next, we're Thor. 
Luke can, absolutely, turn his slang on and off." 

Power Man and Iron Fist ended in 1986 
(though still selling well, it was canceled to make 
room for Marvel's New Universe titles), along with 
the life of Iron Fist, who dies at the hands of a char- 
acter named (absurdly) Captain Hero; Cage is 
blamed for Iron Fist's death (Power Man and Iron 
Fist #125) and lives as a fugitive until his name is 
formally cleared several years later. A true example 
of comics publishing synergy, Power Man and Iron 
Fist lasted longer together than either of them had 
as solo heroes anchoring series of their own. 

After more than half a decade as an occasional 
guest star in other titles, Power Man earned anoth- 
er series, simply titled Cage (1992). Despite Mar- 
vel's efforts to make the book relevant in the age of 
Rodney King (writer Marcus McLaurin is African 
American), the series lasted only until issue #20 
(1993). Though weary of superheroics-for-profit, 
Power Man reluctantly allows himself to be talked 
into rejoining the mercenary-hero business he had 



started in the early 1970s; the new monthly Heroes 
for Hire series (1997) not only brings Cage together 
with such fellow superentrepreneurs as the Hulk, 
Hercules (who is now no longer an immortal), Ant- 
Man (Scott Lang), the Black Knight (Dane Whitman), 
and the White Tiger (another martial arts hero), it 
also resurrects the late Iron Fist, bringing him into 
the group. Because Power Man has spent years on 
the run, falsely blamed for Iron Fist's death, he har- 
bors some resentment toward his old partner, and 
the two have to work at patching up their relation- 
ship. Unfortunately the new supersquad failed to 
click with readers, getting the ax in 1999 after nine- 
teen issues. 

A more successful latter-day update of Luke 
Cage came in 2002 from writer Brian Azzarello, 
legendary artist Richard Corben (best known for 
his colorful and expressive work in Heavy Metal 
during the 1970s), and painter Jose Villarrubia. 
Part of Marvel's adult-oriented MAX line, this 
series (also titled Cage) dispenses with the char- 
acter's 1970s canary-yellow "superpimp" shirt in 
favor of gray vests, black stocking caps, and sun- 
glasses — a look that is far more consonant with 
modern inner-city, hip-hop, and gangsta rap sensi- 
bilities. The series' R-rated language, though far 
rougher than anything the industry's self-censoring 
Comics Code Authority would approve even today, 
is likewise far more realistic and authentic in com- 
parison with earlier Power Man tales. This had not 
been Cage's first appearance in the MAX line; a 
similarly believable (if somewhat less gruff) ver- 
sion had guest-starred as the iffy love interest of 
Alias' super-private-eye star. After both Cage's own 
MAX miniseries and Alias ended their runs, Cage 
and Alias' headliner Jessica Jones moved over to 
The Pulse! (2004-present), in which they are 
revealed to be expectant parents! Though much 
"grittier" than any of his predecessors, today's 
Power Man makes it clear that this character is 
more than capable of transcending the times that 
spawned him and the unique circumstances of his 
creation. — MAM 



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Power Pack 



Power Pack 

During the early 1980s, mainstream superhero 
comics such as Frank Miller's Daredevil were 
becoming increasingly "gritty" and "hardboiled," a 
trend of escalating violence that would reach its 
apotheosis with such series as Batman: The Dark 
Knight Returns (also by Miller, 1986) and The Pun- 
isher (1986). But Power Pack, created in 1984 by 
Marvel Comics writer-editor Louise Simonson (an 
alumnus of such Warren horror magazines as 
Creepy and Vampirella) and artist June Brigman 
(also known for her work on Supergirl for DC 
Comics and the syndicated Brenda Starr newspaper 
strip), followed a decidedly different trajectory. 

Power Pack is the tale of a quartet of siblings, 
four young children who receive superhuman abili- 
ties from a benevolent, horselike alien named 
Aelfyre Whitemane, who with his sentient spaceship 
seeks to thwart the invading reptilian Snarks. Alex, 
Jack, Julie, and Katie Power are the children of Mar- 
garet Power and Dr. James Power, who had invented 
a technological device that the Snarks sought to 
possess. To prevent this, Whitemane gives twelve- 
year-old Alex the power to make objects lighter or 
heavier (hence his superhero name "Gee," as in 
gravity), bestows superspeed upon ten-year-old Julie 
("Lightspeed"), confers upon eight-year-old Jack the 
ability to expand and contract his body's molecules, 
thus enabling him to alter his body's density at will 
(and justifying his nickname "Mass Master"), and 
empowers five-year-old Katie with the ability to 
unleash powerful energy blasts from her hands (she 
calls herself "Energizer," thanks to the inspiration of 
a well-known television commercial). As the oldest 
of the siblings, Alex becomes the group's natural 
leader, carefully looking out for the younger kids 
(especially the emotionally volatile Katie, to whom 
Julie often refers affectionately as "Katie-bear"). 

Although many enthusiasts of the era's tradi- 
tional superhero fare (primarily adolescent males) 
disdained Power Pack, younger readers and those 



who were themselves the parents of small children 
found the series enchanting. Simonson's scripts 
blended fairy tales with science fiction and chil- 
dren's books (the evil alien Snarks, for example, 
were straight out of Louis Carroll), juxtaposing the 
backdrop of outer space with the real-world setting 
of New York City, and presented relatively realistic 
characterizations of children and their sibling rela- 
tionships. Brigman's art had a gentle, expressive, 
and whimsical quality that brought Simonson's 
words and imagery to vivid life. The reason for the 
distinctiveness of Brigman's illustrations may have 
been her relative unfamiliarity with the comics medi- 
um prior to working on Power Pack; being largely 
unacquainted with the conventions and cliches of 
the superhero genre, she wasn't enslaved by them. 
While Power Pack's unusual content may have put 
the series at a competitive disadvantage in terms 
of sales, it provided seven years of highly original 
comic-book storytelling. Power Pack evidently found 
its unorthodox audience right away; though original- 
ly conceived as a miniseries, Marvel quickly decid- 
ed that the concept was strong enough to sustain 
an open-ended monthly series. 

During the first half of Power Pack's run, the 
kids' adventures don't involve their parents, who 
are at first entirely ignorant of their children's super- 
heroic double lives. The group eventually expands 
to encompass a nonfamily member, four-year-old 
Franklin Richards, the son of the Fantastic Four's 
Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman. Franklin, who 
becomes an honorary team member, adopts the 
supermoniker "Tattletale" because of his ability to 
see events from five minutes in the future, thus 
"telling on" bad guys before the fact (he also fre- 
quently quarrels with the headstrong Katie). The 
Powers also have a number of adventures with Kofi, 
the son of Whitemane, the source of the group's 
powers. During these adventures, the team is fre- 
quently at odds with their father's former boss, who 
becomes a supervillain whose name is calculated 
to strike fear into the hearts of children: Bogeyman. 
In addition, they frequently face big-league villains, 



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The Powerpuff Girls 



such as the fearsome mutant known as Saber- 
tooth, their series taking part in such world-threat- 
ening multiseries crossovers as Secret Wars II 
(1986), The Fall of the Mutants (1988), Inferno 
(1988), and Acts of Vengeance (1990). 

Over the years the series also played host to 
numerous high-profile Marvel guest stars, such as 
Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger, the X-Men, Wolver- 
ine, the New Mutants, the Fantastic Four, the 
Avengers, the Punisher, and even the all-but-omnipo- 
tent eater of entire planets, Galactus. On one occa- 
sion, Marvel used the Power Pack characters in a 
special public service-oriented giveaway comic deal- 
ing with child sexual abuse (Spider-Man/Power 
Pack, 1984). 

After Simonson's departure from the series 
with Power Pack #40 in 1988, numerous other writ- 
ers took custody of the Power kids, including Steve 
Heyer, Jon Bogdanove, Judith Kurzer Bogdanove, 
Julianna Jones, Terry Austin, Dwayne McDuffie, and 
Michael Higgins, and the art chores passed from 
Brigman to Mary Wilshire, Brent Anderson, Scott 
Williams, Bob McLeod, Terry Shoemaker, Sal Vellu- 
to, Whilce Portacio, Ernie Colon, Jon Bogdanove, 
Tom Morgan, and Steve Buccellato. While Power 
Pack was being published, a TV pilot based on the 
property was produced, intended to launch a Satur- 
day-morning cartoon series on NBC during the 
1991-1992 season. Unfortunately, the show died 
on the drawing board, just as the comics series — 
its audience weary of so many creative-team 
changes — was gasping its last. 

During the run of the series, the superabilities 
of the Power children were swapped around among 
the four siblings on more than one occasion. The 
first time this occurs (Power Pack #25, 1986), Alex 
receives Katie's "zap" power, prompting him to 
change his name to "Destroyer"; after getting 
Jack's density-powers, Julie changes her nickname 
to "Molecula"; Alex's original gravity-control powers 
go to Jack, who becomes "Counterweight"; and 
Julie's superspeed jumps to Katie, who is subse- 
quently known as "Starstreak." The Powers' powers 



received yet another random reshuffle three years 
later {Power Pack #52, 1989) only to be restored to 
their original owners in Power Pack Holiday Special 
#1 (1992), the oversized magazine-format comic in 
which the series concluded (the regular monthly 
title had ended in 1991 after a sixty-two-issue run). 

But permanent obscurity wasn't in the cards 
for the Power family, lest Marvel risked losing its 
trademarks on the characters. Under the name 
"Powerhouse," a slightly older Alex Power joined the 
1990s motley misfit superteam known as the New 
Warriors (The New Warriors vol. 1 #64, 1995). In 
this incarnation, Alex bears the powers of all four 
Power Pack members. The rest of the Power sib- 
lings recovered their abilities a few years later, how- 
ever, when the original Power Pack team reassem- 
bled in a four-issue miniseries (Power Pack vol. 2, 
2000), written by Shon C. Bury and penciled by 
Colleen Doran (whose beautifully rendered science- 
fiction comic, A Distant Soil, makes her an ideal 
Power Pack illustrator). Today Power Pack remains 
alive, well, and charged with fond memories. 
Though underemployed now, the Power kids stand 
ready to return whenever the superhero readership 
seems ready for kinder, gentler storytelling. — MAM 

the Powerpuff Girts 

Imagine a fairytale gone awry: When Professor Uto- 
nium accidentally knocks over a vial of Chemical X, 
his superheroine trio, the Powerpuff Girls, is born. 
Originally designed to be a family of perfect sisters 
concocted, literally, from the ingredients "sugar, 
spice, and everything nice," instead these super- 
powered kindergartners kick butt as they combat 
evil and advance the forces of good — all while mas- 
tering their ABCs. The team consists of Blossom 
(the leader of the group and brains of the opera- 
tion), Bubbles (the overly sensitive and bubbly one 
who avoids sibling rivalry at all costs), and Butter- 
cup (the tomboy of the group, always willing to fight 
first). Blossom's element is everything nice, Bub- 



yfi 



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Project A-ko 



bles' element is sugar, and Buttercup's is spice. 
Since their core elements vary, so do their super- 
powers: Blossom has ice breath, Bubbles can 
speak to animals and has a Super Sonic Scream, 
and Buttercup can create a tornado and shoot laser 
beams from her hands. All three can fly. 

As the girls' creator, father figure, and cfe facto 
mentor, Professor Utonium raises and trains the 
super-trio. Based in the city of Townsville, where the 
mayor is able to call the girls on his hotline whenev- 
er trouble arises, the girls attend kindergarten by 
morning and combat villains such as Mojo Jojo, 
Him, the Amoeba Boys, the Gang Green Gang, 
Roach Coach, Elmer Sglue, Seduca, and the Row- 
dyruff Boys by afternoon. They are also guided by 
their teacher, Ms. Keane, who educates them in 
kiddy curriculum and the benefits of peaceful reso- 
lution at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. 

One of Cartoon Network's original animated 
series, The Powerpuff Girls is the inspiration of ani- 
mator Craig McCracken, who first conceived of the 
superheroine trio as a project for a college class at 
the California Arts Institution in 1992. Three years 
later Cartoon Network executives saw McCracken's 
concept and gave the girls their first pilot in 1995; 
a second pilot soon followed. By 1998, The Power- 
puff Girls was a television series, raved about for its 
rich blend of action, engaging storytelling, and 
smart humor. Behind-the-scenes talent includes 
McCracken (who also serves as the show's execu- 
tive producer), Dexter's Laboratory creator Genndy 
Tartakovsky (who often directs), and the voice tal- 
ents of Catherine Cavadini (Blossom), Tara Strong 
(Bubbles), and Elizabeth Daily (Buttercup). Since 
landing their own gig, the Powerpuff Girls have fared 
well for themselves, drawing strong ratings, winning 
awards, and branding themselves on a wide array of 
girl merchandise, including clothing, lunchboxes, 
jewelry, dolls, and toys. 

Catering to a grade-school-age girl demograph- 
ic, The Powerpuff Girls is successful because it pro- 
vides young girls with an example of dynamic 
female superheroines — girls just like them — who 



are empowered and empowering. With unique abili- 
ties, minds of their own, and strong character 
traits — the antithesis of their names — these girls 
are forces to be reckoned with. In 2002, the super- 
trio segued from television to the silver screen with 
their own self-titled animated feature film. With their 
popularity at its peak, the perky threesome shows 
no signs of slowing down. — GM 

Powers: See Everyday Heroes 

PrqjectA-ko 

For a period of about ten years, starting in the late 
1970s, anime went through what can only be called 
a "Golden Age" in Japan. Television and movies 
were joined by the OVA (Original Video Animation) 
format, which offered advantages over television or 
film animation. Titles such as Mobile Suit Gundam, 
Dr. Slump, Macross, and Urusei Yatsura became 
multimedia hits, from comics to animation to mer- 
chandising. Studios were breaking away from tradi- 
tional stories or taking them in different directions. 

Of course, such a Golden Age was ripe for parody. 

Perhaps the best-known parody of that time 
was released in Japanese theaters in 1986. The 
makers of the film would never have guessed, how- 
ever, that the film would become popular not just in 
Japan, but in many other countries as well, includ- 
ing the United States. The film was Project A-ko, 
released by APPP There is a strong, coherent story 
to Project A-ko, despite the fact that nearly every 
element of anime is satirized in it. First, the title is 
a spoof of the 1983 Jackie Chan film Project-A. 
Among other things satirized are: Giant robot 
(mecha) shows such as Macross; alien invasions; 
Captain Harlock, the classic space pirate created by 
Leiji Matsumoto; the red, white, and blue "sailor 
suit" Japanese schoolgirl uniform; post-apocalyptic 
anime and manga such as Hokuto no Ken (Fist of 
the North Star); and even American superheroes. 



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Project A-ko 



This last one is not evident until the end of the film. 
In short, the film is an action-packed comedy/paro- 
dy, in some ways reminiscent of the 1980 film Air- 
plane! This made it a runaway success in Japan and 
a favorite among American anime fans (otaku), 
despite the language barrier. 

Project A-ko opens with a mysterious meteor 
(possibly an alien craft) hitting Graviton City, 
destroying it completely. Sixteen years later, as the 
Earth probe Constellation is launched from Space 
Station L-lll, the focus is back on the rebuilt Gravi- 
ton City, constructed from advanced technology 
reverse-engineered from the alien spacecraft. None 
of this matters to A-ko Megami, who is late for her 
new school and rushes there — at rather incredible 
speed — with her friend C-ko Kotobuki in tow. Com- 
pared to the red-haired, serious, and superstrong A- 
ko, C-ko is a bubble-headed blond crybaby, and 
worst of all, cannot cook. At the school, the Gravi- 
ton Institute for Girls, both of them (who happen to 
be wearing the wrong uniforms) are introduced by 
the teacher, Miss Ayumi ... but also watching is B- 
ko Daitokuji, a violet-haired, spoiled rich girl who 
has it in for A-ko and wants C-ko for herself. With 
her minions, B-ko uses her fortune and her aptitude 
for mecha design to send a variety of machines to 
defeat A-ko. A-ko, with her super-strength, defeats 
all of B-ko's creations. 

Finally, B-ko, in frustration, unleashes her ulti- 
mate weapon, the "Akagiyama 23" armed with 
"Super High Grade Missiles." This weapon only gets 
laughs from the girls at the school, for it resembles 
a dark-purple bathing suit with a helmet. That only 
makes B-ko angrier, and she unleashes a furious 
assault on A-ko. The two end up battling through the 
school and the surrounding city, causing massive 
damage (of course, remember that this is a come- 
dy). However, there is an even greater threat ... an 
approaching alien ship, crewed by women, is search- 
ing for a lost princess who disappeared sixteen 
years earlier. Their spy, "D" (who looks masculine 
but is a female, a fact on display near the end of the 
film when [s]he fights A-ko with a sword and shield, 



dressed in a bikini), has been observing A-ko and C- 
ko, but is always run over by A-ko. The alien captain 
Napolipolita (resembling a transvestite version of 
Captain Harlock) is also an alcoholic, and takes her 
vessel further into Earth's atmosphere, following 
"D"'s confirmation that the lost princess is on the 
planet and is C-ko. Earth's military forces launch a 
desperate counterattack, but are nearly decimated. 

(It should be noted at this time that the front of 
the alien ship resembles Captain Harlock's famous 
vessel, the Arcadia. Remember, this is a parody.) 

A-ko and B-ko, still fighting, run right into the 
invasion, and C-ko is kidnapped and taken aboard 
the alien ship. The antagonists call a temporary 
truce and head off to the ship. A-ko nearly doesn't 
make it, but gets aboard using a swarm of alien 
missiles as stepping-stones. On board, A-ko, B-ko, 
and C-ko end up in a no-holds-barred battle against 
each other, the alien crew, "D", and the Captain 
(who is going through withdrawal and just needs 
one more drink), resulting in the destruction of 
most of the vessel, with the remains coming to rest 
on top of Graviton City's military base. The next day, 
wearing the right school uniform, A-ko leaves as her 
parents Clark Kent and Diana Prince watch. Togeth- 
er, her and C-ko head to school as the two most 
popular girls.... 

The fact that A-ko's strength is owed to her 
famous parents — who happen to be American 
superheroes — is a major plot twist in the film. It cer- 
tainly took many American otaku by surprise. Super- 
man and Wonder Woman are not unknown charac- 
ters in Japan (the former being a large influence on 
the manga Dragonball Z, and its animated adapta- 
tion), but one must wonder if DC Comics is even 
aware of the use of two of their major characters in 
such a manner as depicted in Project A-ko and its 
sequels. Despite being the child of two great cos- 
tumed superheroes, A-ko herself does not change 
into a typical "superhero" costume. 

An argument can also be made that the con- 
flict between A-ko and B-ko satirizes the relation- 



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Project A-ko 



ship between the United States and Japan, with one 
side being the strongest member of the club, and 
the other trying to knock them down using knowl- 
edge and application of technology. 

The staff for the film included director Katahiko 
Nishijima, producer Kazufumi Nomura, and Yuji 
Moriyama, who did triple duty as screenwriter, ani- 
mation director, and character designer. Moriyama 
had previously worked on such titles as the Urusei 
Yatsura TV series and the movie Only You, as well 
as the Crusher Joe anime property; after A-ko he 
would work on the classic anime film Wings ofHon- 
neamise, Royal Space Force for the iconoclastic 
anime studio Gainax. In a rare move, all the songs 
for the film are performed in English, with Ameri- 
cans Richie Zito (Flashdance) and Joey Carbone 
(Star Search) creating the soundtrack. Moriyama 
himself would become a popular animation director 
in both Japan and the United States; in the late 
1990s, he would also become a favorite speaker at 
American anime conventions. Strangely enough, he 
would direct another comedy involving a super- 
strong teenager (albeit an android one) — the anime 
adaptation of Yuzo Takada's manga All-Purpose Cul- 
tural Catgirl Nuku-nuku. 

With the success of Project A-ko, it was only a 
matter of time before sequels arrived. Three 
sequels were made, but all eschewed the movie 
theater for the OVA format. Moriyama worked on 
these sequels, including the last one, entitled Pro- 
ject A-ko: Final. The title was not entirely accurate; 
a fourth sequel of sorts, the two-part OVA Project A- 
ko Versus was released in 1990 with the parts 
labeled "Grey Side" and "Blue Side." The OVA itself 
was a major retelling, or more accurately, a major 
revision: A-ko and B-ko are older "gun for hire" part- 
ners, and C-ko is the rich daughter of a wealthy 
magnate. There are also more elements of space 
opera present. What was not present was Moriya- 
ma; for him, Final was the truly the last. None of the 
sequels attained the success of the original film, 
for fans found that, while funny and action-packed 



in their own right, the sequels lacked the unique 
charm of the first film. 

With the rise of anime fandom and apprecia- 
tion, the Project A-ko film and sequels would soon 
see official release in the United States and else- 
where. The New York-based distributor Central Park 
Media (CPM) gained the rights to the A-ko franchise 
in the early 1990s and from 1992 to 1995 
released them in both subtitled and dubbed for- 
mats (which were broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel 
as well). When it came to merchandising, CPM did 
not disappoint. The domestic version of the sound- 
track for the original movie was released by CPM, 
which was no doubt a relief to many fans; they no 
longer had to pay a high price for the original Japan- 
ese release. CPM went even further, releasing 
comic book adaptations of the film and OVAs. The 
first film was adapted by Tim Eldred, with Ben Dunn 
providing the art. This adaptation was released as a 
four-issue series by Malibu Comics, then released 
as a graphic novel "Director's Cut" by CPM. Eldred 
would return to do adaptations of the sequels for 
CPM as part of Studio Go!; he provided both script 
and art with assists from John Ott. The Montreal- 
based publisher lanus Publications released Project 
A-ko: The RPG, a role-playing game that also func- 
tioned as a major source of background information 
regarding the world that A-ko and friends inhabited. 
Since nothing of the sort had ever appeared in 
Japan, the comic adaptations and the RPG were 
unique to North America. The popularity of Project 
A-ko among American otaku is such that the film is 
listed as an essential title to see, or is ranked very 
high on the list of "most popular." This fact amazed 
Yuji Moriyama, who admitted that he was surprised 
to hear of the series being so popular among Eng- 
lish-speaking fans. 

Such was Project A-ko's popularity in both 
Japan and America that it is easy to miss out on 
one curious fact: one of the studios that did anima- 
tion for the film was Gainax, which would also 
release its own wildly popular satire of anime and 
anime fandom, Otaku no Video. A descendant, in a 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



<H>s 



Promethea 



sense, of Project A-ko would be the 1999 anime 
series Excel Saga; one could also count Gainax's 
own FLCL as well. Both shows, like the first A-ko 
film, do have a firm storyline, but are filled with 
madcap comedy and plenty of anime references 
that are satirized. And again, both shows are very 
popular among English-speaking otaku. — MM 

PvometJhea 

Even by the innovative standards of writer Alan 
Moore's ABC comics line, Promethea is one of the 
most unusual superhero series ever published, a 
fantasia of compelling quests and mystical transfor- 
mations that rivets the reader with scarcely a punch 
being thrown. 

Debuting in 1999, the book's storylines con- 
cern the fabric of the supernatural and the nature 
of creativity itself, exploring the world of the imagi- 
nary and drawing together many spiritual beliefs in 
a surprisingly unified mythos. Promethea is the 
name of a little girl in fifth-century Roman Egypt who 
is saved by her sorcerer father as Christian zealots 
close in on him. While the father and his way of life 
fall, the girl is spirited to the Immateria, a heaven- 
like dimension that all creatures of the imagination 
spring from and return to. Since legends don't die 
like humans, the girl's spirit survives, manifesting in 
the real world to creative people who channel her 
essence or project it onto others. 

In the modern day, young college student 
Sophie Bangs is researching a character called 
Promethea who has oddly recurred through history 
in seemingly unconnected popular fiction, from 
florid romantic poetry to pulps and comics. Visiting 
Barbara Shelley, the widow of the last man to write 
a Promethea comic, she is rebuffed before learning 
the woman's secret: Used as the model for her hus- 
band's stories, she took on the Promethea identity, 
as did her forebears through other means (including 
painters inhabiting their own imagery). Bangs gets 




Promethea #1 © 1999 America's Best Comics. 

COVER ART BY J. H. WILLIAMS III AND MICK GRAY. 



caught up in Shelley's losing battle with a group of 
demons (the middle-aged, unglamorously-built hero- 
ine being one of many uncommonly realistic portray- 
als of women in the series), and, at a crucial 
moment, Bangs realizes that she is to be the next 
Promethea, whom she first turns into by scrawling a 
poem about the legendary heroine. 

Shelley dies as Bangs takes over, defeating the 
demons and embarking on an apprenticeship with 
Promethea's previous incarnations (who still reside 
part-time in the Immateria). This leads to an amusing 
sequence of issues in which these varied popular 
reflections of womanhood, from Orphan Annie-esque 
airhead to protofeminist 1920s tough-gal and 



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The Punisher 



beyond, take Sophie through their worlds. The newly 
trained Promethea returns for a rematch with the 
demons, who have possessed New York's mayor en 
masse and control him in turn, leading to even more 
inconsistencies than the average politician. 

Dispatching the demons again, Bangs decides 
she must travel to the afterworld for a proper farewell 
to Shelley (who has chosen not to rest in the Immate- 
ria but to try and join her late husband). Leaving her 
brash best friend Stacia Vanderveer in charge of the 
earthly plane as a substitute Promethea (with both 
humorous and hair-raising results), Bangs begins a 
lengthy quest through multiple levels of reality, finding 
Shelley's spirit and traveling onward to the essence 
of God itself. The worlds they visit along the way offer 
some of the most intriguing and moving reflections 
on mortality and eternity in any medium, a philosophi- 
cal odyssey that most comics writers would be 
thought mad to attempt. 

Having successfully explained the universe and 
depicted God with neither bombast nor cliche, 
Moore turned to the small task of envisioning the 
end of the world, selecting Promethea as the set- 
ting for the apocalyptic conclusion to the whole ABC 
line in 2003-2004. 

In every issue, artist J. H. Williams III matched 
Moore's intricate writing with ornate page designs 
based on mystical charts and M. C. Escher-esque 
visual paradoxes, which dazzled without ever confus- 
ing the reader. The series could veer from uproarious 
satire to touching pathos; entire issues would be 
written in verse or illustrated in paint; all-in-all, it was 
that rare comics series with both beautiful art and 
experimental formats that never sacrificed clear and 
captivating storytelling. Even if the book ends forever, 
it will, like its heroine, undoubtedly live on. — AMC 



1he Pwi fsher 

Anticipating such "grim and gritty" 1980s super- 
hero fare as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and 



MARVEL *3 IN A FOURJSSUE LIMITED SERIES 




The Punisher #3 © 1985 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY MIKE ZECK AND PHIL ZIMELMAN. 



Watchmen by more than a decade, Marvel Comics' 
Punisher is one of the medium's quintessential anti- 
heroes. Created by regular Spider-Man writer Gerry 
Conway and Marvel art director John Romita, Sr. 
(and unveiled in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #129, 
1974), the Punisher captures a 1970s vengeance- 
against-crime Zeitgeist best exemplified in the larg- 
er culture by the gunplay-laden Dirty Harry films of 
Clint Eastwood, the Death Wish cinematic blood- 
baths of Charles Branson, and Don Pendleton's 
men's adventure paperback hero, The Executioner. 
Indeed, the original Punisher concept was for an 
Execut /'oner-like hero, whom Conway dubbed the 
Assassin. Both editor-in-chief Stan Lee and the 



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The Punisher 



Comics Code Authority, however, vetoed that name 
as too amoral and violent. The newly renamed Pun- 
isher sported a distinctive, skull-emblazoned black 
costume (designed by Romita) that recalled the 
garb of the Black Terror, a Golden Age (1938-1954) 
hero from Standard Comics. 

Though originally conceived as an adversary for 
Spider-Man, the Punisher is no mere garden-variety 
criminal; rather, he views himself as a crusader 
against all criminals, many of whom don't survive 
their encounters with him. Long before Frank Cas- 
tiglione first takes up the formidable weaponry and 
body armor of the Punisher, he plans on entering 
the Catholic priesthood, only to abandon his clerical 
aspirations after learning that forgiveness is not his 
strong suit. Leaving his seminary studies behind, 
he falls in love with Maria Falconio, and the two are 
soon married and begin raising a family. Castiglione 
also enters the U.S. Marines, where (as Frank Cas- 
tle) he receives training in land, sea, and airborne 
combat and becomes proficient in underwater 
demolitions. Rising to the rank of captain while 
serving on various combat fronts, Castle earns the 
nickname "Punisher" because of his tenacious pur- 
suit of the enemy (The 'Nam #52-#53, 1991), 
eventually becoming a military training instructor. 

While on leave, Castle takes his family on a 
picnic outing in New York's Central Park, where they 
inadvertently witness a gangland execution. The 
mobsters next gun down Maria and the Castle chil- 
dren, Frank Junior and Christie. But Castle himself 
survives, deserts the Marine Corps, and brings all 
of his considerable military expertise to bear in a 
one-man war against the underworld (the Punisher's 
oft-retold origin, which is very like that of the Execu- 
tioner who served as his template, first appears in 
Marvel Preview #2, 1975). Unlike the typical comic- 
book crime fighter, the Punisher utilizes a varied 
arsenal of both lethal and nonlethal weapons, 
including an automatic M-16 rifle, pistols, concus- 
sion bombs, tear-gas grenades, and a fully armed 
and armored battle-van. Although Castle never hesi- 
tates to use lethal force against the criminals he 



stalks, he maintains a strict military code of honor 
that eschews the use of violence against innocent 
parties, including civilian police forces, which he 
allows to arrest and incarcerate him (briefly) without 
resistance. Despite his extralegal, overly violent 
methods, the Punisher regards himself as a protec- 
tor of the helpless and the innocent. 

Nevertheless, the Punisher's extreme world- 
view puts him on an ethical collision course with 
Spider-Man in their first encounter back in the 
1970s, during which the two stake out highly polar- 
ized positions in American society's eternal law-and- 
order debate. The wall-crawler sees the Punisher as 
a dangerous loose cannon who should not be 
allowed to roam the streets; Castle regards Spider- 
Man as a foolish idealist who lacks the strength 
and resolve to give criminals the harsh treatment 
they deserve. Spider-Man survives this initial clash 
largely because the Punisher does not entirely 
believe the bad press the Daily Bugle newspaper 
routinely gives the wall-crawler (editor J. Jonah 
Jameson sees Spider-Man in much the same way 
that Spidey does the Punisher). Probably because 
1970s comics audiences (to say nothing of comic- 
book editors) were not yet ready for the Punisher's 
moral ambiguity, the character spent the next sever- 
al years as a mere guest star, primarily in the Amaz- 
ing Spider-Man comic. 

But the Punisher was not destined to languish 
for long on Marvel's back bench, and arguably owes 
much of his far greater success in the 1980s to 
two influential men: Ronald Reagan, the embodi- 
ment of the nation's tough, rightward swing during 
this period; and Frank Miller, the innovative young 
writer-artist who began using the take-no-prisoners 
Castle as a foil for his gritty, film noir version of 
Daredevil (which he introduced in Daredevil vol. 1 
#182-#184, in 1982). Miller's Punisher is still 
clearly a criminal, though treated sympathetically; 
his code of honor and his calculating nature receive 
more emphasis than do his violent, vengeance- 
inspired lawbreaking. But Miller makes no bones 
about the Punisher's goals. "The Punisher is an 



30b 



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The Punisher 



avenger," said the cartoonist. "He's Batman without 
the lies built in. They come from the same root. 
They're created by the same fears. The same kind 
of fear that I feel every time I ride the subway." Por- 
trayals of the character by writers other than Miller 
varied widely during this period; for example, Spec- 
tacular Spider-Man #82 (1983) portrays a Punisher 
who is so maniacally obsessed with small legal 
infractions that he shoots at litterbugs and red-light 
runners (happily without hitting them). 

As a (largely unfounded) fear of increasing 
street crime gripped the nation throughout the con- 
servative Reagan era, comics audiences were 
increasingly receptive to the lethal vendetta of the 
Punisher, who finally landed his own five-issue 
miniseries in 1986 (cover-dated January-May). Mar- 
vel followed this successful effort with The Punish- 
er, an ongoing monthly title debuting in July 1987. 
Such was the character's expanding success that 
November of the following year saw the introduction 
of The Punisher War Journal (a new monthly title); a 
third series, The Punisher: War Zone, began its run 
in March 1992. The Punisher also headlined a 
plethora of miniseries and graphic novels, some of 
which featured as guest stars such popular Marvel 
characters as the Black Widow and Wolverine. Dur- 
ing the late 1980s and early 1990s, a Punisher 
guest appearance in any sluggish-selling Marvel 
title all but guaranteed significant additional sales. 
The Punisher even graced the pages of two inter- 
company crossovers with DC Comics' Batman (Pun- 
isher/ 'Batman: Deadly Knights, and Batman/Pun- 
isher: Lake of Fire, both in 1994) — and even turned 
up in a crossover with Archie of Riverdale High (The 
Punisher Meets Archie #1, August 1994)! The Pun- 
isher's vengeful legacy even survives into the far 
future with the monthly Punisher 2099 series (its 
thirty-four-issue run began in February 1993), in 
which Public Eye Special Operations agent Jake Gal- 
lows wages war against criminals as an armored, 
high-tech vigilante. 



During this period of intensive Punisher publish- 
ing, the character achieved increasing complexity, 
revealing more of his inner motivations. Not only 
does Frank Castle harbor a hatred for criminals of 
the sort that slew his family, he also hates being the 
Punisher— just as he despises himself for having 
failed to protect his family when it mattered most. 
But Marvel's overexposure of the character clearly 
took its toll as readers seemed to tire of Castle and 
his grim mission. July 1995 saw the end of all three 
of the main ongoing Punisher series. Still, the Pun- 
isher subsequently made a comeback as part of the 
highly successful Marvel Knights superteam series 
(vol. 1), which began in July 2000, and can also be 
seen in numerous miniseries, one-shots, and guest 
appearances since the turn of the millennium. 

The Punisher made it to the silver screen in 
1989 (courtesy of New World Pictures) with Dolph 
Lundgren starring, fresh from the role of He-Man in 
Masters of the Universe (1987). The movie's quality 
and fidelity to the original were lax — the hero's 
skull-emblem was removed because the filmmakers 
deemed it "too comic-booky" — though it spawned a 
Marvel comic-book adaptation (The Punisher Movie 
Special, June 1990) and the premiere (in Septem- 
ber 1989) of The Punisher Magazine, a large maga- 
zine-format monthly series that lasted only sixteen 
issues. The Punisher's cinematic future includes a 
second feature film released in 2004, with Thomas 
Jane (of Face/Off, Boogie Nights, and Dreamcatcher 
fame) starring as the eponymous artilleried avenger, 
proudly displaying the skull emblem across his 
chest. Produced jointly by Artisan Entertainment 
and Marvel, the film's teaser campaigns describe 
the Punisher as a former U.S. Marine and special 
agent turned vigilante, emphasizing his real-world 
superheroic skills, such as his finesse with explo- 
sives, large caliber guns, tactical weapons, and 
hand-to-hand combat. Overexposed or not, the grim 
crusade of the Punisher will doubtless continue for 
many years to come. — MAM 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*9r 




Radioactive Man: See Bartman 

Relevance: See African-American Heroes; Anti- 
drug Series; Bronze Age of Superheroes 
(1970-1979); Green Arrow; Green Lantern 



Rising Stars 

The night skies above the small town of Pederson, 
Illinois, are illuminated by a bright flash of extrater- 
restrial light in 1969, and the lives of 113 soon-to- 
be-born individuals are changed forever. The chil- 
dren born after "the flash" (as the event came to be 
known) are genetically enhanced, each bearing 
superpowers. The government monitors the "Spe- 
cials," quarantining them at Camp Sunshine for 
observation, treatment, and training. After a coun- 
selor is killed by one of the children, the govern- 
ment tries to keep the lot of them in custody, but 
the parents sue. When the case reaches the 
Supreme Court, a compromise is set: Dr. William 
Welles will both aid and supervise the children, and 
if any are determined to be dangers, they will be 
taken into custody. 

Years later, most of the Specials are adults. 
Some have become celebrities, while others are vir- 
tual unknowns. Some are superpowered protectors 



of the law, while others are criminals. Those who 
leave Pederson are tracked by the government. But 
when low-powered Specials begin showing up dead, 
it appears a serial killer is stalking the Specials. 
John Simon, the hero known as the Poet, is dis- 
patched to find the murderer, but stopping the 
crimes may not be so easy — especially when it is 
revealed that every time a Special dies, the others 
gain something. And by 2032, only one Special 
remains, and he has a story to tell ... 

Rising Stars is one of a number of critically 
acclaimed series — including Watchmen, Powers, 
Astro City, Marvels, and a handful of others — which 
examine how superheroes might affect the real 
world, and how real people would react to super- 
powered beings living among them. Although there 
are 113 Specials, the series mainly focuses on 
about two dozen of them. These include Matthew 
Bright, a tough police officer with strength and flight 
powers; Elizabeth Chandra, a superstrong model 
who appears to everyone as the ideal woman; Lau- 
rel Darkhaven, a telekinetic assassin with a special- 
ty of killing terrorists; Randy Fisk, a.k.a. Darkshad- 
ow, a street vigilante with flight, strength, tracking 
powers, and a computer-equipped Shadowcave; Lee 
Jackson, a pyrokinetic with a deadly secret in his 
past; Joshua Kane, a.k.a. Sanctuary, a hermaphro- 
ditic televangelist who hides his true, female form 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



399 



Robin 




r^* ; "-■; 



Rising Stars #1 © 1999 J. Michael Straczynski and Top 
Cow Productions. 

COVER ART BY KEU CHA, JASON GORDER, AND LIQUID! 

from everyone; Stephanie Maas, a.k.a. Critical 
Maas, a woman with multiple personalities and the 
ability to mind-control other Specials; Jason Miller, 
a.k.a. Patriot (and Flagg), a strong masked super- 
hero working as a corporate spokesperson; and 
John Simon, a.k.a. the Poet, the withdrawn narrator 
of the Rising Stars story and the most powerful of 
all the Specials. 

A twenty-four-issue maxi-series, Rising Stars is 
the creation of writer J. Michael Straczynski (also 
creator of the popular TV series Babylon 5). Wanting 
total creative freedom and ownership of his proper- 
ties, Straczynski brought Rising Stars to Top Cow, 
an imprint of Image Comics. The first issue 



appeared in August 1999. Additionally, a Bright 
miniseries saw print in 2003, and a pair of Rising 
Stars novels were published in 2002, written by 
Arthur Byron Cover. A series of action figures was 
released by Palisades in 2001. Straczynski also 
wrote the feature film script for Rising Stars: Born 
in Fire in late 2000, adapting the first story arc for 
an MGM and Atlas Entertainment movie. After the 
script was drastically revised by Anthony Russo and 
Joe Russo, tensions flared between Straczynski and 
Top Cow, and the future of the film deal is now in 
question. Still, the comic-book series stands as a 
critical and fan favorite, and a landmark in the syn- 
ergy between comics and other media (with 
Straczynski's crossover from the world of TV mirror- 
ing that of screenwriter/director Kevin Smith from 
the world of film to comics) like Marvel's Daredevil 
and DCs Green Arrow. Clearly, Straczynski caught 
the comics bug — literally — going on to write Mar- 
vel's prestigious Spider-Man among other comics, 
including the somewhat Rising Stars-like hit 
Supreme Power, also for Marvel. — AM 



Robin 



*oo 



Imagine swooping from the rooftops and rushing 
into peril alongside a dark-cloaked crusader, crush- 
ing criminals while having the time of your life. Such 
is the appeal of Robin the Boy Wonder, Batman's 
death-defying junior partner, who epitomizes the 
designation "sidekick" more so than any other 
comic-book superhero. Touted as "the sensational 
character find of 1940" in his inaugural appearance 
in Detective Comics #38, Robin, premiering a scant 
eleven months after the debut of his cowled men- 
tor, was envisioned by Batman creator Bob Kane as 
a hero with whom juvenile readers could identify. 
Kane's hunch was correct: the Boy Wonder's intro- 
duction not only instantly elevated the already-popu- 
lar Batman's sales, it also spawned a legion of imi- 
tators, including the Shield's Dusty, Captain Ameri- 
ca's Bucky, and Green Arrow's Speedy. 



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Robin 




Val Kilmer (Batman) and Chris O'Donnell (Robin) team up as crime-fighting partners in Batman Forever. 



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Robin 



Robin the Boy Wonder was actually Dick 
Grayson, the youngest of a family of circus aerial- 
ists, who witnessed his mother and father plunge to 
their deaths from a sabotaged trapeze. This murder 
was also observed by millionaire Bruce (Batman) 
Wayne, who as a child had similarly watched his 
own parents die. Batman took this vengeful young- 
ster under his wing, training him as his partner. And 
thus the most famous of superhero teams — Bat- 
man and Robin, the Dynamic Duo — was born. But 
while both Wayne and Grayson's childhoods were 
shattered after seeing the executions of their par- 
ents, the heroes' parallels ended there. Batman 
was brooding and grim, demonically clad in shadowy 
hues. But Robin was buoyant and robust, ostenta- 
tiously outfitted in a red tunic; green shorts, boots, 
and gloves; and a yellow cape. With gymnastic flash 
and the crime-fighting arsenal in his utility belt, the 
Boy Wonder laughed in the faces of his foes, pun- 
ning while pummeling. Before long, the line dividing 
the Dynamic Duo's styles began to blur, with Bat- 
man's attitude becoming more jovial and Robin 
learning detective skills from his teacher. 

Robin accompanied Batman on a host of 
1940s and 1950s escapades in Detective, Bat- 
man, and World's Finest Comics, protecting their 
home of Gotham City against routine thugs and a 
growing contingent of colorful psychotics including 
the Joker, Catwoman, and the Penguin. The charac- 
ters' acclaim became so immense that their comic- 
book adventures soon spawned a short-lived news- 
paper strip, a guest sequence on the Superman 
radio program, and two movie serials, Batman in 
1943 and Batman and Robin in 1949. Robin the 
Boy Wonder was even awarded his own series in 
Star-Spangled Comics, beginning in 1947 and con- 
tinuing for several years thereafter. 

During those innocent times, no one pondered 
the threat of child endangerment facing young Dick 
Grayson each time he leapt into action as Robin 
(although the theme would be addressed in 2000 in 
the flashback miniseries Robin: Year One). Real-life 
psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, however, perceived a 



„fit 



different menace to the Boy Wonder and to the boys 
reading Batman and other comic books. In his 
1954 indictment of the comics industry, Seduction 
of the Innocent, Dr. Wertham labeled the relation- 
ship between Batman and Robin as "homosexual," 
and the resulting backlash sparked U.S. Senate 
hearings that nearly put comics out of business. 
Batman and Robin limped along through the late 
1950s and early 1960s, plagued by mundane, 
often ridiculous stories and by the inclusion of the 
"Batman Family" (Batwoman, Ace the Bat-Hound, 
Bat-Mite, and the original Bat-Girl, the latter of 
whom was Robin's sometime-girlfriend, devised to 
erase the notion of a gay partnership between the 
Boy Wonder and his adult companion). Sales 
dropped precipitously and the Batman titles 
teetered on the brink of cancellation. 

In 1964, editor Julius Schwartz revitalized the 
Batman franchise with a movement called the "New 
Look." Robin was now clearly a teenager, and while 
still an enthusiastic juggernaut of justice, he began 
to come into his own, joining other powerful adoles- 
cents as the Teen Titans. In 1966, ABC-TV's wildly 
successful, campy Batman series made the Dynam- 
ic Duo pop icons and catapulted actor Burt Wart 
into instant stardom in his role of Robin. Ward's 
earnest portrayal of the Boy Wonder birthed a 
national catchphrase: "Holy [insert your favorite 
noun here], Batman!" Millions of boys wanted to be 
Robin, masquerading as the young hero for Hal- 
loween and playing with the plethora of Robin (and 
Batman) merchandising that permeated the mid- 
1960s retail market. And millions of girls went ga- 
ga over the groovy Boy Wonder — Ward was a teen 
idol, his masked visage gracing the covers of 16 
and Tiger Beat fan magazines. 

By late 1968, the television series sputtered 
out of steam and the comic books were returning 
Batman to his darker roots as a "creature of the 
night." Robin emerged from Batman's shadow: He 
became the "Teen Wonder" and Dick Grayson vacat- 
ed the Wayne mansion and the Teen Titans for Hud- 
son University. In the early 1970s, Robin appeared 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Robotman 



in a series of relevant (for the times) backup stories 
in Batman and Detective, fighting corporate fatcats 
and student unrest instead of supervillains. After a 
decade of sporadic appearances, Robin the Teen 
Wonder fronted a new incarnation of the Teen Titans 
that launched in 1980, and fell in love with team- 
mate Starfire. In February 1984, Dick Grayson per- 
manently shed his red tunic, ultimately adopting a 
new superhero guise as Nightwing. Despite these 
changes in the comics, television and movies pre- 
served Grayson in the role of Robin: Via a variety of 
Batman animated programs from the late 1960s 
through the early 1990s; in the long-running Super 
Friends TV series; and twice on the big screen, with 
actor Chris O'Donnell playing Grayson/Robin in 
director Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever (1995) 
and Batman & Robin (1997). 

Even though Dick Grayson sported a new hero- 
ic name, the legend of Robin the Boy Wonder lived 
on, fueled by tradition and copyright protection. Suc- 
ceeding Grayson as Robin in 1983 was Jason Todd, 
a troubled teen who, after a largely unpopular stint 
as Batman's aide, was slaughtered by the Joker in a 
1988 event stemming from a DC Comics-spon- 
sored phone-in contest where readers decided the 
new Robin's fate. A new, female Robin appeared in 
writer/artist Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight 
Returns in 1986, although this four-issue series 
occurred outside of the regular DC Comics continu- 
ity. In 1989, a tech-savvy teen named Tim Drake 
entered the life of Bruce Wayne — having cleverly 
inferred Batman's true identity — lobbying to become 
the new Boy Wonder. Reluctant to mentor another 
partner for fear of repeating Jason Todd's ghastly 
demise, Batman resisted, but eventually Drake 
adopted the Robin identity, albeit in a new, modern- 
ized uniform. The Drake version of Robin has, as of 
2004, twice made the leap into animation: first in 
The New Batman/Superman Adventures (1997), 
then in the Teen Titans series airing on the Cartoon 
Network in 2003. In his subsequent comic-book 
adventures with and without Batman, the new Robin 
has begun to question his commitment to crime 



fighting, and realizes that it's probably not his life's 
work. If Tim Drake ever hangs up his mask and 
cape, it is inevitable that another Robin will take his 
place. — ME 

Robotman 

Robotman was one of the little jewels in the DC 
Comics superhero lineup of the 1940s and, while he 
never graduated beyond backup status, he is still 
fondly remembered by comics historians to this day. 
Dreamed up by Superman creator Jerry Siegel, 
Robotman premiered in Star Spangled Comics #7 
(1942) with an unusually dark and gritty origin story 
that gave little indication of the type of yarn that 
would come to typify the feature. While working late 
one night, scientists Bob Crane and Chuck Grayson 
are disturbed by hoods, and in the ensuing melee 
Crane is fatally shot. By luck, the pair had been 
working on a prototype robot, and Grayson toils 
through the night to transplant his stricken col- 
league's brain into the body of their experiment. With 
the operation seemingly a failure, Grayson is hauled 
away by the police, but the next day Crane wakes up 
as the apparently invincible Robotman. Donning a 
synthetic facemask and hands, Robotman adopts 
the pseudonym of Paul Dennis and tracks down his 
"killers" before freeing his hapless colleague. 

In a slightly macabre twist, our hero kept the 
Dennis identity, attended his own funeral and struck 
up a romance with his grieving girlfriend, Joan 
Carter. It would be a year later before she found out 
that her old and current boyfriends were one and 
the same, when his true identity was revealed dur- 
ing a trial (in issue #15) to determine whether he 
was really a human being. That issue was a turning 
point in the series, as the tone gradually lightened 
from then on, the creative team was changed, and 
editors introduced a new companion. From its 
inception, the strip had been written by Siegel and 
drawn by members of his Superman co-creator Joe 
Schuster's Art Shop, including Paul Cassidy. With 



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Rock Superheroes 



issue #25, veteran newspaper artist and Western 
devotee Jimmy Thompson was the unlikely choice 
as new artist, but he rose to the task magnificently. 
Thompson had an elegant, sophisticated style with 
a well-developed design sense and the lightest of 
touches — he even did his own lettering. Much of 
the feature's enduring appeal is due to Thompson's 
graphic mastery, although a lot of its success at the 
time was due to Robotman's new assistant, Robbie 
the Robodog. 

Editors introduced Robbie (in issue #29) to give 
Robotman someone to talk to, but he soon devel- 
oped a feisty personality of his own. Much like his 
creator (Robotman himself), Robbie could venture 
into the outside world disguised in a convincing 
outer skin, albeit covered in fur. He also fancied him- 
self as something of a detective and was a keen fan 
of Sherlock Holmes, often depicted with his nose 
stuck in one of Doyle's novels. These were the 
strip's glory years, but everything changed when the 
feature was moved to Detective Comics in 1948. 
Gone were supporting cast Joan Carter, Chuck 
Grayson, Robbie, and even Jimmy Thompson, and in 
their place were a succession of colorless hoodlums 
and the rather less exciting art of Joe Certa. Robot- 
man's 1950s strips were characterized by robotic 
enemies (Robot Robber, Robot Crook); an ever- 
changing robotic body, complete with outlandish gim- 
micks; and a less humorous tone to the stories. 
However, while it may have lacked the exuberance of 
its early years, the series enjoyed a creditable run 
up to 1954 (finishing in Detective Comics #202) for 
an impressive total of 139 episodes — far more than 
many of its more lauded competitors. 

The next time readers came across a Robot- 
man (in the early 1960s) it was Cliff Steele of the 
Doom Patrol, who shared a similar origin to the 
Crane/Dennis character but was a far more edgy, 
embittered individual. In the 1980s, longtime 
Robotman fan Roy Thomas reintroduced his child- 
hood favorite into comics when he included him in 
the lineup of the All-Star Squadron in a series of 
wartime stories, which occasionally retold some of 



his original adventures (such as his trial). In the All- 
Star Squadron, Robotman was very much a bit-part 
player, with little of his original humor. Nonetheless, 
his six-year run with the team was a welcome coda 
to his early triumphs. Prior to his success, robots 
had often been portrayed as cold, sinister, and vil- 
lainous (with the exception of Otto Binder's pulp 
hero Adam Link, a clear inspiration), but Robotman 
opened the way for other synthetic heroes to come, 
including Marvel Comics' Vision. — DAR 

Hock Superheroes 

The first KISS comic book hit the newsstands on 
June 28, 1977. The comic won accolades for its 
publisher Marvel Comics, which sold hundreds of 
thousands of copies to the supergroup's fans. How- 
ever, it was not the first appearance of the band in 
comic-book form (that came with a guest shot in 
Marvel's Howard the Duck #12 earlier that year), 
nor was it to be the band's last. And though KISS's 
success in comics is perhaps the most well known 
(and oft-cited), it is not a unique phenomenon for 
rock musicians, who have often guest-starred in 
both real-life and superheroic form. 

Pre-KISS rock phenomena to appear in comics 
include Elvis Presley in / Love You, Featuring Elvis 
(Charlton Comics, 1966) and the Beatles, who 
appeared in several one-shots over the years, 
including The Beatles: Complete Life Stories (Dell, 
1964) and Girls' Romances (DC Comics, 1965). 
Riding on the Fab Four's guitar strings were the 
Monkees, whose 1967-1969 Dell series lasted 
seventeen issues. The Monkees series was the 
first to feature a band in superhero form — as the 
Monkeemen — though not in every issue. The super- 
group premise came from the successful Monkees 
TV show, where in several episodes the Monkees 
leaped into a phone booth to become the Mon- 
keemen, four superheroes in identical costumes 
who possessed superstrength and the ability to 
defy the laws of nature. DC must have been watch- 



t*0«* 



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Rock Superheroes 



ing the show — and the comic's sales figures — 
before it brought out Maniaks, a short-lived series 
about a fictional mod-rock quartet that dabbles in 
superhuman stunts and campy adventures (Show- 
case #68, #69, and #71, 1967). 

During the 1970s, publishers like Marvel tried 
their hand at adapting the rock-and-roll genre to 
comics, with mixed success. In addition to its best- 
selling KISS comic, Marvel published an unautho- 
rized "Beatles Story" biography in Marvel Comics 
Super Special #4 (1978), a second KISS appearance 
in Marvel Super Special #5 (1978), and Alice Coop- 
er's debut in Marvel Premiere #50 (1979). Shortly 
thereafter, Marvel introduced original rock-music- 
based superheroes with its Dazzler series (March 
1981), about a roller-skating rock-disco singer whose 
mutant ability to turn sound into brilliant light comes 
from her singing voice; and then with its Nightcat 
series in early 1991, based on an album released 
through RCA Records featuring singer Jacqueline 
Tavarez, about a rock singer who gains catlike powers 
after being injected by a secret cat serum at the 
hands of an evil scientist. (In the almost-super cate- 
gory, for years Marvel's longtime supporting-cast 
member Rick Jones picked up a guitar and toured 
folk clubs in between stints as the company's num- 
ber one superhero sidekick, while late 1970s follow- 
ers of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu could often 
count on the hero puzzling over Fleetwood Mac lyrics 
or meditating to blasting Rolling Stones albums in 
between bouts of martial-arts mayhem.) 

Other publishers to emerge with their own rock 
and roll heroes include the short-lived Skywald Pub- 
lishing, whose superhero Butterfly was a soul singer 
in her alter ego of Marian Michaels (Hell-Rider #1, 
1971). In 1987 Eclipse Comics published a one-shot 
Captain EO comic, the official 3-D comic-book adapta- 
tion of the George Lucas 3-D movie/rock video direct- 
ed by Francis Ford Coppola. Only available for viewing 
at Disney theme parks, the seventeen-minute-long 
short and the comic starred Michael Jackson as a 
futuristic space hero. Practically every rock star from 
the 1950s onward cameoed in Mike Allred's Red 



Rocket 7 (Dark Horse Comics, 1997-1998), the 
saga of a prophetic extraterrestrial rocker. 

Amongst these blips on the screen emerged 
and endured KISS, whose larger-than-life stage per- 
sonae make for perfect comic-book characters. With 
the 1977 KISS comic, Marvel mixed band members' 
blood with the red ink that was used to print the first 
run. Never ones to pass up a marketing opportunity, 
band members complied with the promotional ploy 
invented to ignite sales of the first edition, even 
showing up at the printing plant to donate blood. In 
1997 Todd McFarlane Productions published KISS: 
Psycho Circus. Influenced by the vision of Spawn cre- 
ator and Image Comics co-owner Todd McFarlane, 
this series "was born with a decidedly darker edge to 
it," according to KISS frontman Gene Simmons. Dark 
Horse Comics launched its own KISS comic (KISS 
#1) in July 2002, written by X-Men's Joe Casey, with 
art by Mel Rubi (of Joss Whedon's Angel), and covers 
by J. Scott Campbell (Danger Girl) and Leinil Francis 
Yu (X-Men, High Roads). A superteam aesthetic dri- 
ves this new series, with "lots of fun, over-the-top vil- 
lains," according to Simmons, who also calls the 
series "the Fantastic Four of the twenty-first century" 
in a Dark Horse press release. 

Overseen by Simmons, Dark Horse's KISS series 
turns these rock-and-roll icons into the ultimate super- 
hero team. Years after the split-up of these four 
superpowered warriors, each member has followed 
his own path. The Demon (Gene Simmons) is a boun- 
ty hunter; the Starchild (Paul Stanley) is an artist who 
lives with a race of women warriors in South America; 
the Spaceman (Ace Frehley) is an intergalactic loner 
adrift in the solar system; and the Catman (Peter 
Criss) is almost all beast, with very little humanity left 
in him. The heroes band together in an effort to save 
their bestial brother from his destructive rampages, 
and a new comic book is born.... 

Besides KISS, a long list of rock groups — from 
Led Zeppelin to Aerosmith — have appeared in Revolu- 
tionary Comics' Rock 'n' Roll line. Even Billy Ray Cyrus 
appeared in a Wild West comic-book adventure in 
1995 from Marvel's short-lived Marvel Music line, 



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The Rocketeer 



launched in 1994 with licensed titles that featured 
musicians such as KISS (again), Alice Cooper, AC/DC, 
KRS-One, and Bob Marley. Many of the comics tied in 
with album releases and videos or were packaged 
with CDs, cassettes, and other merchandise. Malibu 
Comics graphic-novelized the careers of bands like 
Black Sabbath in the company's early 1990s Rock-It 
line, and in the 2000s shock-rocker Rob Zombie mas- 
terminded the hit Rob Zombie's Spookshow Interna- 
tional comic from MVCreations. In the world of 
manga, rock and movie star Courtney Love is the 
inspiration for TOKYOPOP's Princess Ai, a 2004 series 
featuring an outspoken young heroine who disguises 
herself as a nightclub performer modeled after Love. 

And to discuss another outlet for superheroic 
antics, several well-known rock music videos feature 
superhero takes: Prince's 1989 "Batman" features 
Prince as a half-Batman/half-Joker, with Batmen and 
Jokers performing as background dancers; Eminem's 
2002 video "Without Me," presented in classic Bat- 
man comic-book style, showcases the hip-hop artist 
impersonating Batman's sidekick Robin; and Shania 
Twain displays superheroic action in her semi-animat- 
ed "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" video from 2003. 

These aren't the only examples of the rock-to- 
comics crossover reversing from comics into rock — 
the nucleus of David Bowie's legendary Spiders 
from Mars band was an early 1970s outfit called 
Hype in which Bowie and his bandmates dressed as 
superheroes onstage; Todd McFarlane has illustrat- 
ed album covers for KORN and others; myriad alter- 
native-rock favorites convened in 1999 for a 
"soundtrack album" to the Witchblade comic; and a 
number of bands of all genres have taken their 
names from superhero secret identities, from Peter 
Parker to David Banner. — GM 



The Rocketeer 

In 1991 few moviegoers would have been aware 
that The Rocketeer had been a comic book before it 



was a film, but in fact the character had been a cult 
favorite in print for years before he appeared on the 
silver screen. The character's genesis was inauspi- 
cious, to say the least: Artist Dave Stevens was 
approached at a comic-book convention by upstart 
publishing house Pacific Comics to fill a couple of 
six-page gaps at the back of their new Starslayer 
comic. Pacific was desperate and simply did not 
care what Stevens came up with, but to their 
undoubted surprise the resulting strip provoked a 
torrent of rapturous acclaim. With a blank canvas to 
work on, Stevens decided to indulge his love of 
1930s movie serials, especially the ones featuring 
Commando Cody a.k.a. Rocketman (King of the 
Rocketmen, Radar Men from the Moon, and Zom- 
bies of the Stratosphere), and created a beautifully 
rendered homage to a more innocent age. 

The story, set in 1938, begins with a couple of 
hoods on the run from the law, who stash a stolen 
rocket pack in the cockpit of stunt pilot Cliff Sec- 
ord's plane. Discovering the strange contraption 
(effectively a small rocket with a harness to attach 
it to the pilot's back), Secord seizes on it as the 
chance for him to become a star at his local air- 
field, earning him lots of money and impressing his 
girlfriend Betty. With the help of his curmudgeonly 
pal Peevy (based on Jonny Quest creator Doug 
Wildey), he fashions himself a costume of brown 
breeches, flying jacket, and metal-plumed steel hel- 
met and flies into action. As a normal human being 
with no superpowers or superweaknesses to speak 
of, Secord as the Rocketeer relies on his super- 
fast rocket pack to help him save the day. 
Inevitably, the hoods who had stolen the jet pack in 
the first place (Nazis, of course) want it back, as 
does the FBI and its mysterious inventor (a thinly 
veiled Doc Savage, complete with cohorts Monk 
and Ham). This initial story appeared in Starslayer 
#2 and #3 (1982) and the strip was promoted to 
the lead feature in the first two issues of Pacific 
Presents, before being wrapped up two years later 
in a Rocketeer special edition from Eclipse Comics 
after Pacific went under. 



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The Rocketeer 



Stevens had two trump cards: First, he was a 
fantastic artist, whose mastery of brushwork was 
second only to his mastery of the female form — 
which brings us to the comic's second selling point, 
Secord's girlfriend Betty. Stevens based Betty's 
appearance on a largely forgotten 1950s pinup 
model, Bettie Page and, as fans devoured the comic 
and bought up posters of the fictional Betty in 
droves, interest was revived in the character's origi- 
nal inspiration. From forgotten model to major twen- 
tieth-century icon, Bettie Page's re-emergence as a 
sex symbol, with a merchandising machine to 
match, stemmed almost entirely from the pages of 
The Rocketeer. If Betty was a remarkable comic- 
book character, so too was the artist's depiction of 
the 1930s milieu surrounding her adventures with 
Secord. Stevens delighted in delineating the eccen- 
tric architecture of prewar Hollywood, its stylish cars 
and airplanes, and its sense of fun. 

However, Stevens' burgeoning career as a 
comic-book artist was matched by his successful 
life in Hollywood's movie world as a storyboard 
artist and designer, which meant that it was four 
more years before a second Rocketeer adventure 
was serialized. This new tale appeared in 1988, 
from new publisher Comico. Then Comico went bust 
after only two issues of the comic, and it was an 
astonishing six years before the final installment 
crept out, published by Dark Horse Comics. The 
new yarn was, if anything, even more majestically 
drawn than the earlier episodes, and featured hard- 
boiled gangsters and old-time carnivals and freak 
shows, not to mention the Shadow (in all but 
name), complete with autogyro. 

Both stories did well in comic-book form but, 
long before the first tale had even been completed, 
The Rocketeerwas optioned by Hollywood and eight 
years later (in 1991) the live-action feature film 
finally appeared, from the unlikely stable of Disney. 
The Rocketeerwas directed by Joe Johnston, a long- 
time friend of Stevens, and starred Billy Campbell 
and Jennifer Connelly. Connelly's role, significantly, 
was as a new damsel-in-distress, and not Betty (Dis- 




Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1 1 

COVER ART BY DAVE STEVENS. 



' 1988 Dave Stevens. 



ney was wary of the character's connection with the 
real-life Page and her pinup background). The film 
was reviewed as a breezy family entertainment film 
with great special effects. Careful viewers noted the 
multiple Hollywood references, such as an effective 
villain (played by Timothy Dalton) that was clearly 
based on early film actor Errol Flynn. Disney saw 
the project as a merchandising bonanza, but its lov- 
ing re-creation of a bygone era failed to connect 
with a young audience, and so the merchandise 
was abandoned and the option for two sequels was 
not executed. 

Since the Rocketeer, Stevens has largely left 
comics behind, preferring to concentrate on covers, 



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Ronin Warriors 



paintings, and film work. However, his character will 
doubtless live on in its old comics, with their charm- 
ing storyline and luxurious artwork continuing to 
entertain and inspire. — DAR 

Ronin Wavrfors 

Five teenagers are granted superhuman powers to 
battle an evil leader and his minions. The heroes 
often interact with mythical figures, and while the 
five are powerful as individuals, they are an unstop- 
pable force when united. This is a typical scenario 
for popular anime in Japan. In the 1990s, an exam- 
ple of it first appeared on American television in the 
form of the series Ronin Warriors. 

The English-language version of Yoroiden 
Samurai Troopers, Ronin Warriors was first broad- 
cast on syndicated television in the United States 
from 1995 through 1996. The name Ronin Warriors 
was chosen to avoid confusion with two live-action 
shows running on American television at that 
time — VR Troopers and Samurai Cyber Squad. In its 
original Japanese version it first aired on Japanese 
television in 1988 and ran for thirty-nine episodes. 
The show's popularity in Japan led to three sequel 
OVA (Original Video Animation) series, merchandise, 
and a 1992 manga Shin Yoroiden Samurai Troopers 
(New Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers). There 
was also a special laser disc collection released in 
Japan in the early 1990s. The series was produced 
by Sunrise, a studio better known for its giant robot 
shows such as Mo5/7e Suit Gundam and Heavy 
Metal L-Gaim. In fact, the series supervisor for 
Samurai Troopers was Sunrise veteran Ryosuke 
Takahashi, more famous for creating and directing 
mecha (giant robot) series such as Armored Trooper 
Votoms and Gasaraki. 

Many Americans were aware of the show's 
Japanese look, but not its origins; nor did they real- 
ize that the show was part of a unique subgenre of 
anime, the "Magical Armor Team." Two other shows 



were part of this category — Saint Seiya (1986) and 
Legend of the Heavenly Sphere Shurato (1989). All 
three shows had common elements: a core group 
of five good-looking male teenagers with powerful 
armor that possesses magical properties; each suit 
being essentially the same in design while each 
has its own individual color; and a single, powerful 
evil overlord that the team has to defeat or else all 
is lost. The overlord also has his own lieutenants 
that do his dirty work for him, and these enemies 
have their own special abilities. The five heroes can 
transform from their civilian identities into their 
armor; this is accomplished in an often-repeated 
animated sequence. There is also a strong female 
character that helps the heroes, as well as an older 
character that acts as both a guide and a sage. 
There are many violent battles between the main 
characters and the forces of evil. A final ingredient 
is mythology — each series is based on a particular 
one, with a great deal of liberties taken. Saint Seiya 
was based on Greek mythology; Shurato took Bud- 
dhist and Hindu lore. Samurai Troopers — and thus 
Ronin Warriors — used Shinto symbolism. 

The use of five team members as major 
heroes had been a staple of anime and sentai (live- 
action science fiction shows featuring special 
effects and actors in costumes portraying both 
heroes and evil monsters) since 1972; that was the 
year that Tatsunoko Studio's Science Ninja Team 
Gatchaman premiered on Japanese television and 
changed anime forever with the introduction of its 
five main characters. They would set a standard 
that would be duplicated, expanded upon, and 
reimagined over the following years. One prominent 
example is the popular 1990s shojo ("girls' comic") 
manga and anime versions of Lovely Soldier Sailor 
Moon, which employs five teenage girls instead of 
boys as the main heroes. 

Graz Entertainment and the Ocean Group han- 
dled the English-language adaptation; with only a 
few changes — mostly regarding the names of char- 
acters and the music — Samurai Troopers' storyline 
was left relatively untouched when it became Ronin 



*0* 



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Ronin Warriors 



Warriors. Talpa, a powerful and possibly immortal 
sorcerer, seeks to conquer the human world. He 
has tried before, but one thousand years ago, the 
Ancient One thwarted him. Ever on guard for the 
Dark Lord's return, the Ancient One created nine 
suits of mystical armor — resembling stylized samu- 
rai garb — from Talpa's own armor. When Talpa 
returns in modern-day Japan, four of the mystical 
"Armor Gears" are used by his lieutenants Cale, 
Anubis, Sekhmet, and Dais. These "Dark Warlords" 
are opposed by five teens using the remaining 
Armor Gears — Ryo, Kento, Sage, Cye, and Rowen. 
Their allies are the Ancient One, the white tiger 
White Blaze, a teenage girl named Mia Koji, and 
Ully, a courageous nine-year-old boy. The five teens, 
as the Ronin Warriors, go into combat against Talpa 
and his army, with nothing less than the fate of the 
world at stake. 

Each Ronin's armor represented a particular 
element from nature, and each hero had a ten/7 
symbol on his forehead that represented a specific 
Shinto virtue. Power came not just from the armor, 
but from the courage and will of the five teens 
themselves; in later episodes, Ryo would use the 
White Armor of Hariel which drew its power from his 
four friends. 

Ronin Warriors' popularity was high among 
males (the series, after all, had a great deal of 
action), but the show was also very popular among 



female viewers, especially teenage girls — no doubt 
a result of five good-looking male leads! Yet the 
series was also very strong on characterization; 
each character was given more than a paper-thin 
personality. Villains that might have been cardboard 
cutouts were complex beings, and in the cases of 
Anubis and Lady Kayura, honorable to the point of 
changing sides and joining the heroes in their 
quest. By the final episode, all the heroes and vil- 
lains joined forces to defeat Talpa once and for 
all — at least, one hoped so. Only by joining forces 
could the heroes hope to stop the enemy (in fact, a 
tactic used by Talpa was to separate the five heroes 
and send his Dark Warlords to take each Ronin out 
one at a time). Personal egos had to be put aside 
for the greater good. 

After the syndicated run, the thirty-nine 
episodes were rerun on the Sci Fi Channel. Bandai 
Entertainment released the series on DVD starting 
in 2002, but with episodes from both Ronin War- 
riors and Samurai Troopers on each DVD. Merchan- 
dising was far below the level of Samurai Troopers, 
but action figures of the main heroes and villains 
were released in America during the series' run. 
The English-language voice actors became popular 
guests at American anime conventions in the late 
1990s, and Sakura Con 2002 featured Norio 
Shioyama, the series' character designer, as a 
guest. As of early 2004, the sequel OVAs have not 
been released in the United States. — MM 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*Og 




Sartor 
Moon 



In 1972, Tatsunoko Productions' Science Ninja Team 
Gatchaman ushered in a new concept in anime — the 
five-member superhero team. Since then, that con- 
cept has been featured in anime such as Yoroiden 
Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors in the United 
States), Saint Seiya, Shurato, and Golion (the Voltron 
Lion Team). Yet the main characters were almost 
exclusively male; there was only one female member. 
Twenty years after Gatchaman, however, the team 
concept was changed again, and the result brought 
an entirely new energy to manga and anime. The 
series responsible for this change was Sailor Moon. 

Lovely Soldier Sailor Moon began as a short- 
lived manga created by Naoko Takeuchi called Code- 
name Sailor V in 1991. The main character was a 
mask-wearing heroine whose costume was modeled 
after the "sailor suit" uniform worn by Japanese 
schoolgirls. Yoshio Irie, the new editor of the monthly 
shop ("girls' comic") magazine Nakayoshi, latched 
onto the possibility of using the manga as the first 
step in a multimedia franchise — one that could be 
launched simultaneously in comics, television, and 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



merchandising. Takeuchi reworked Codename Sailor 
V, creating new characters and adding new elements 
to the story. She also drew from her love of super- 
heroes and sentai (live-action sci-fi/fantasy) series. 
What emerged was a shojo title that was a superhero 
adventure, with the main characters being five 
teenage girls — something unheard of at the time. In 
January 1992, Bishop Senshi Sailor Moon began 
running in Nakayoshi, but in February the animated 
series began airing on Japanese television. Normally, 
there would be a period of several months, or even 
years, between the manga 's initial run and its anime 
adaptation. In the case of Sailor Moon, the manga 
and anime were running concurrently, another first in 
the Japanese pop-culture world. 

The staff involved in the production of the 
Sailor Moon animated series included directors 
Kunihiko Ikuhara and Kazuhisa Takenouchi and 
character designers Kazuko Tadano and Ikuko Ito, 
among others. Toei Animation produced the anima- 
tion for the series in Japan, which would eventually 
run for more than two hundred episodes over five 
years. Each season also had a different title; after 
season one's Sailor Moon, there was Sailor Moon 
R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon Super S, and Sailor 
Moon Sailor Stars, the final season, which ended in 
1997. The manga's run also ended that year. The 
popularity of the series led to the production of 



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Sailor Moon 




Sailor Moon #1 © 1998 Naoko Takeuchi. 

COVER ART BY NAOKO TAKEUCHI. 

three animated theatrical films that were released 
in Japan— Sailor Moon R(1993), Sailor Moon S 
(1994), and Sailor Moon Super S (1995). 

The manga and anime followed the adventures 
of Usagi Tsukino, who by all appearances is a cheer- 
ful teenage girl. She is also lazy and a whining cryba- 
by, ignoring her schoolwork and daydreaming. Every- 
thing changes when she meets a talking black cat 
named Luna, who is searching for the reincarnation 
of the Moon Princess Serenity. Usagi is told that she 
is Princess Serenity, reborn. Using magical items 
that include a wand and a tiara — plus powers given 
to her by Luna — Usagi transforms into superheroine 
Sailor Moon, who becomes the leader of the Sailor 
Warriors; the remaining four are named after plan- 



ets: Sailor Mercury (Ami Mizuno), Sailor Mars (Rei 
Hino), Sailor Jupiter (Makoto Kino), and Sailor Venus 
(Minako Aino). Each heroine wears a "sailor suit" of 
a particular color, and each has powers based on 
the "elements" of fire, water, wood, and love. The 
team must face a growing threat to the universe in 
the form of Queen Beryl and her master Queen Met- 
allia. The Sailor Warriors' main allies are Luna, 
Artemis (a magical white cat), and the mysterious 
Tuxedo Mask, who is actually the girls' classmate 
Mamoru Chiba. Mamoru is also the reincarnation of 
Endymion, Princess Serenity's beloved. 

While the manga and anime did have humor 
and action, both also had strong storylines, well- 
developed characters, and a strong element of 
romance. In addition, the five heroines were always 
victorious when working together — an important 
component of the "five-member team" anime con- 
cept, and one that appealed to a girl audience. To 
fans, the characters were "real" — they had typical 
teenager issues; one can easily see parallels with 
Spider-Man's alter ego, Peter Parker. "The attraction 
of Sailor Moon is that it enables young girls to fan- 
tasize themselves as powerful as their brothers' 
macho superheroes, without losing any of their fem- 
ininity," notes Maurice Horn's The World Encyclope- 
dia of Cartoons (1999). 

True to form, the series did not shy away from 
killing off major characters — in fact, the first season 
of the anime series ended with the main cast being 
killed off during the final assault on Queen Beryl's 
lair (but they were revived at the episode's end). 
Even the courageous Tuxedo Mask had to be saved 
by the Sailor Warriors on several occasions. Usagi 
accepts her role as the leader of the Sailor Warriors 
and grows in experience and maturity. Over the next 
four seasons, more villains would be introduced, 
but also new Sailor Warriors — Saturn, Uranus, Nep- 
tune, and Pluto. One major new character was Chibi 
Usa, young girl from the future ... who happens to 
be the future daughter of Usagi and Mamoru. In the 
course of the series, it is revealed that Usagi and 
Mamoru become the future rulers of the Silver Mil- 



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Sandman 



lennium; as Queen Serenity and King Endymion, 
both rule peacefully over thirtieth-century Earth, 
where all have eternal life and beauty. 

The success of the manga, anime, and mer- 
chandising for Sailor Moon made it one of the most 
popular anime franchises of the 1990s. The series 
had high ratings and drew an audience that was 
predominately female, but also attracted males. It 
was inevitable that an American release would soon 
follow. DiC produced an English-language version of 
Sailor Moon for release on American syndicated 
television in 1995. Names were changed — Usagi 
became "Serena," and the Sailor Warriors became 
the "Sailor Scouts"; a new English-language theme 
song was created. Unfortunately, the attempt nearly 
ended as a major failure. Many stations broadcast 
the series at time slots that were too early in the 
morning for viewers; others simply did not know the 
target audience. The triad of manga-series-market- 
ing push that had been successful in Japan was not 
repeated in the United States. Also, the series was 
heavily edited to remove elements that were regard- 
ed as too mature or sophisticated for children; 
whole episodes essentially had their stories radical- 
ly altered. The series was canceled after its first 
season in 1996 — yet all was not lost. 

In Canada, the first two seasons were aired 
successfully on the YTV network. In the United 
States, an Internet-based movement called S.O.S. 
— Save Our Sailors — was organized to create peti- 
tions and appeal to network executives to bring the 
series back to television. The campaign was a 
resounding success; Sailor Moon was aired briefly 
on the USA cable network in 1997, and was picked 
up by the Cartoon Network in 1998. With a better 
timeslot and full-fledged promotion, the series 
became the network's highest-rated show. To the 
delight of fans, the first four seasons of Sa/7or 
Moon were aired on television. TOKYOPOP/Mixx 
Entertainment produced the English translation of 
the manga; first for the comic magazine Smile and 
then as an ongoing series. The company also 
released original novels based on the series written 



by Lianne Sentar. Guardians of Order produced a 
role-playing game and a collectible card game (CCG) 
and Irwin Toys of Canada produced toys and dolls. 
Sailor Moon and her team appeared in books, on 
apparel, on mugs, and in calendars, just about 
everywhere that the pop-culture eye roamed. The 
series was also parodied, most notably by American 
writer-artist Adam Warren in his 1998 three-issue 
miniseries Gen 13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy. 

In 1999, Pioneer began releasing subtitled and 
dubbed versions of the three Sailor Moon movies. The 
movies were uncut and unedited (although the initial 
English-language release on VHS was edited for con- 
tent). ADV Films began releasing the edited English- 
language version produced by DiC on DVD in 2002, 
but in 2003 the company released an uncut, subtitled 
version of Sailor Moon's first season on DVD, with 
plans to release the entire five seasons in the future. 

Sailor Moon triggered a new wave of manga 
and anime that combined shojo and action; among 
the titles were Fushigi Yuugi, Magic Knight 
Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura, Escaflowne, and 
Revolutionary Girl Utena (created by Kunihiko 
Ikuhara, one of Sailor Moon's directors). Naoko 
Takeuchi was a guest at the 1998 San Diego 
Comic-Con International. Even though it ended in 
1997, the show is still popular in Japan and around 
the world. In the United States, the Sailor Scouts 
are popular "cosplay" characters, in a branch of 
fandom in which both males and females dress up 
as members of the team at conventions and other 
events. — MM 

Samurai Troopers: See Ronin Warriors 



Sandman 

When he first appeared in the summer of 1939 (in 
Adventure Comics #40) the Sandman was only the 
fourth superhero in comics history, and the third 
published by DC Comics (then National Publica- 



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Sandman 



tions) after Superman and Batman. However, he did 
not possess any superpowers. Like Batman's alter 
ego, Bruce Wayne, Wesley Dodd was a millionaire 
playboy who put on a costume to confront hood- 
lums and ne'er-do-wells, armed only with his fists 
and wits — and a rather handy gas-gun. Dodd's cos- 
tume, such as it was, consisted of a purple cape, a 
slouch hat, a smart suit, and a gold gas mask (nec- 
essary because his modus operandi was to gas his 
foes into slumber with the pull of his trigger). 
Unusually for superheroes of the period, the Sand- 
man's elegant society girlfriend, Dian (also Diane) 
Belmont, knew his secret identity and had a habit of 
helping him out on assignments, invariably dressed 
in a diaphanous ball gown. 

The men responsible for these early episodes 
were prolific writer Gardner Fox and the young but 
talented artist Bert Christman. Sadly, Christman left 
the strip to seek adventure of his own as one of 
General Claire Chenault's legendary Flying Tigers, 
and was later killed while flying over China in the 
early days of World War II. His replacement was the 
equally talented Craig Flessel but, despite the strip 
being one of the best-crafted features of the era, 
DC decided to spice it up by giving the Sandman a 
yellow and purple superhero costume and a young 
sidekick named Sandy Hawkins. A few issues later, 
the transformation was complete when Joe Simon 
and Jack Kirby, recently defected from Marvel 
Comics, took over the creative reins (with issue 
#72) and turned it into an all-action slugfest. 

The Simon and Kirby Sandman punched first 
and thought later, and the strip became a frenetic 
display of all-out battles and daredevil heroics. 
Unlike other wartime features, the Sandman and 
Sandy generally fought organized crime and the 
occasional Norse god rather than the Third Reich. 
The strip was the cover feature of Adventure Comics 
throughout the war, but its quality suffered when its 
creative team was drafted (as creative teams often 
were at the time) and, in February 1946, it became 
one of the first casualties of the peacetime comics 
slump and lost its place to Superboy. At the peak of 



%v* 



his popularity in both his guises, the Sandman was 
featured in comics such as World's Finest, World's 
Fair, and, as a member of the Justice Society of 
America, in All Star Comics; it was the latter group 
that would prove to be his savior. 

While the Silver Age (1956-1969) superhero 
boom of the 1960s saw a whole range of new char- 
acters, it also revived some of the old favorites and, 
for many years, the Justice Society appeared in an 
annual crossover with the Justice League of America. 
Between 1966 and 1974, the Sandman was a fre- 
quent member of the Justice Society in those team- 
ups, though it was always in his earlier, gas-mask 
costume. The last of those stories revealed, some- 
what implausibly, that for many years Sandy had 
been lurking around, transformed into a giant sand 
creature. Things got even stranger for our hero when 
Simon and Kirby created another Sandman (pub- 
lished in January 1974 as the one-shot titled Sand- 
man #1 and later picked up as a brief mid-1970s 
series), a yellow-suited hero who lived "somewhere 
between heaven and earth" in a secret hideout 
where he monitored people's dreams. Complete with 
monstrous assistants, Brute and Glob, this Sandman 
battled the likes of Dr. Spider, the Sealmen, General 
Electric, and various frog people. Perhaps inevitably, 
it was just a short-lived experiment but it served, 
some years later, as the inspiration for yet another 
Sandman, who premiered in 1989. 

This radical reinvention, written by Neil Gaiman, 
was a fantasy series starring Morpheus (the Sand- 
man of the title, also known as Dream, the Prince of 
Stones), an angelic-looking girl named Death, and 
numerous other characters from the realm of 
dreams. While Morpheus had little to do with previ- 
ous incarnations of the Sandman character, the 
comic's enormous critical and commercial suc- 
cess — Sandman #19 won the World Fantasy Award 
for Best Short Story in 1991 — rekindled interest in 
the character. The Sandman comic sold more than 1 
million copies per year, and Gaiman was heralded as 
the creator who reignited a medium, with Norman 
Mailer proclaiming, "Along with all else, Sandman is 



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The Savage Dragon 



a comic strip for intellectuals, and I say it's about 
time." This excellence of writing, in fact, attracted 
acclaimed guest-talent, including Clive Barker, Sam 
Keith, and Todd McFarlane. Ten Sandman short-story 
collections have appeared as of 2004; and Warner 
Bros, has optioned Sandman for a movie. Though 
the series ended in 1996, Gaiman has returned to it 
for such special events as the hardback collection 
Endless Nights (2003), and a number of spinoffs by 
other creators have appeared. 

In 1993 the original Sandman returned in the 
Sandman Mystery Theatre comic. This Sandman spin- 
off series effectively retold the story of Wesley Dodd 
and Dian Belmont from their very first adventures, and 
featured guest stars such as Blackhawk and Hour- 
man. It ran for seventy issues — much longer, ironical- 
ly, than its 1940s forerunner — and ended in 1999 
with Dodd and Belmont heading off for wartorn 
Europe. As if that wasn't enough, yet another Justice 
Society revival starred an elderly Dodd, still wearing 
the gas mask, in modern-day adventures, one of 
which told of how he died. In the 2000s he has been 
replaced by "Sand" (actually an incarnation of side- 
kick Sandy!), a gas-masked hero who can transform 
into his namesake substance (like the Marvel Comics 
Spider-Man villain also named Sandman); a sure sign 
of a concept and character durable enough to with- 
stand the sands of time. — DAR 




The Savage Dragon #4 © 1993 Erik Larsen. 

COVER ART BY ERIK LARSEN. 



the tasrsge Qvagon 

Discovered naked in a burning empty lot in Chica- 
go, an amnesiac green man with fangs and a fin on 
his head is taken to the hospital. Named "Dragon" 
by a nurse, the man bonds with Lieutenant Frank 
Darling of the Chicago Police Department. Later, 
when Dragon helps stop some super-criminals at 
the harbor, Darling tries to get Dragon to join the 
police force to help fight the rising tide of super 
"freaks." After surviving a tragedy partially engi- 
neered by the criminal gang known as the Vicious 
Circle, Dragon becomes a Chicago PD officer with a 



penchant for fighting crime, getting his shirt torn 
off, and romancing the ladies. 

Comic creator Erik Larsen had started in the 
independent comics trenches, which is where his 
childhood creation, the Dragon, first saw print (in 
Megaton #3, February 1986). Larsen worked his 
way up through the comics ranks, eventually becom- 
ing a fan favorite on Marvel Comics such as Amaz- 
ing Spider-Man and Nova. Larsen left Marvel with 
six other popular creators to form Image Comics in 
1992. The Savage Dragon #1 debuted a three-issue 
miniseries in July 1992, and the regular series has 
appeared monthly (mostly) ever since its first issue 
in June 1993. Larsen has written and drawn every 



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The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver 



issue to date, though other creators came onboard 
to create special issues, spin-off miniseries, and 
crossovers with books as diverse as Destroyer 
Duck, Marshal Law, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 
Superman, and Megaton Man. 

The Savage Dragon has incredible strength, 
and can jump huge distances. He is nearly invulner- 
able to flame, plasma, explosions, and gunfire, 
though he has been hurt, cut, and even maimed by 
maces, knives, and other weapons. His healing 
power is also advanced; he has regrown entire 
limbs in the past, after battles with supervillains. 
The most dangerous villains he faced in the past 
worked for the OverLord in the Vicious Circle. Vil- 
lains included SkullFace, Hardware, Abner Cadaver, 
Arachnid, Clawedd van Damage, Phathead, Stigma, 
and the waste-spewing Dung. After the death of 
OverLord, a more charismatic leader named Cyber- 
Face took over the Circle, and bedeviled Dragon 
anew, even succeeding in getting him fired from the 
police department. 

For a time, Dragon worked with a government- 
sponsored Special Operative Strikeforce, but after 
facing a personal tragedy on his wedding day, Drag- 
on semi-retired. Some time later, after Dragon killed 
an infant who would have grown up to be the villain 
Damien DarkLord, he caused a disruption in the 
timestream, and discovered he was now living in a 
new "Savage World," similar to the old Earth, but 
different enough to be dangerous. He was forced to 
figure out friend from foe, and deal with the many 
surprises that this new life threw at him. 

During his run, Dragon has teamed up with a 
variety of heroes — many of whom have had their 
own spin-off series or miniseries — including star- 
spangled cyborg SuperPatriot, the funky weirdos 
known as Freak Force, the squabbling Deadly Duo, 
gender-switching Mighty Man (whose secret identity 
is a female), and more. Unmatched in this capacity 
by most of the other Image creators, Larsen has 
singularly created a vast universe of characters that 
have an internal consistency. He has also managed 
to crossover with other series; besides those in 



H(\6 



specific titles previously mentioned, and other 
Image heroes, Savage Dragon has interacted with 
Hellboy, FemForce, E-Man, Zot, Vampirella, the DNA- 
gents, and others. 

Whether fighting crime in Chicago on the Image 
Earth, or fighting supervillains in the Savage World 
universe, the Savage Dragon remains popular with 
fans. In October 1995, USA Network debuted a Sav- 
age Dragon animated series. The series lasted two 
seasons, ending in the fall of 1996 after twenty-six 
episodes. Multiple action figures of Dragon and his 
friends and enemies have been produced, as well as 
statues, posters, trading cards, and more. Larsen 
also has an aggressive trade paperback program, so 
that fans can read all of the Dragon's adventures 
even if they can't find the back issues. — AM 

The Scarlet Witch 
and Quicksilver 

Longstanding Avengers members the Scarlet Witch 
and her twin brother Quicksilver have gone through 
as convoluted and protracted an origin as any char- 
acters in comics, and have endured many indigni- 
ties in the process. Despite or perhaps because of 
this, the Scarlet Witch is one of the longest-lived 
female supporting characters in the Marvel uni- 
verse. The twins first appeared as members of 
Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in X-Men #4 
(in 1964) but were almost from the start reluctant 
villains. After a year of regular battles with the X- 
Men, their creators, writer Stan Lee and artist Jack 
Kirby, evidently felt that the pair deserved a chance 
at the big time and, after a speedy renunciation of 
their criminal past, they were duly inducted into the 
Avengers {Avengers #16, 1965). 

As Avengers, the twins were a cornerstone of 
the group's glory years through the 1960s and 
1970s, while never quite building up enough of a 
following to encourage Marvel to launch them into 

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The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver 



solo careers. Initially, all that was known about 
them was that they were mutants. Wanda Maximoff, 
a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch, possessed a form of magic 
("hex power"), while her brother Pietro, known as 
Quicksilver, was (as his name suggests) a super- 
speedster with a short-fused temper to match. 
Their first origin involved them fleeing persecution 
in their native Transia (one of Marvel's all-purpose 
Balkan backwaters) into the arms of Magneto, but 
there was much, much more to come. 

In 1975 editors suggested (in Giant-Size 
Avengers #1) that Wanda and Pietro's parents were 
1940s heroes the Whizzer and Miss America, who 
had given birth after a nuclear accident. Miss Amer- 
ica died and the Whizzer fled in grief, leaving the 
twins to be brought up by a highly evolved cow (one 
of the Island of Dr. Moreau-like characters from 
Marvel's mythical complex called Wundagore). 
Some years later, however, this explanation was 
superseded by an even more startling revelation. 
This newer version (in Avengers #185) suggested 
that Miss America's twins had died and that Wanda 
and Pietro were actually born to a gypsy named 
Magda, who had subsequently killed herself rather 
than reveal their whereabouts to their father Mag- 
nus, later known as ... Magneto. The cow-lady mid- 
wife later gave the children to a gypsy family, the 
Maximoffs, who brought Wanda and Pietro up until 
they were killed by a mob, whereupon the twins 
were rescued by Magneto — which is where readers 
came into the storyline with X-Men #4. 

The 1970s were a romantic decade for the 
twins, as the Scarlet Witch fell in love with her 
android teammate, the Vision, and Quicksilver fell for 
Crystal of the Inhumans. Both couples married, and 
Quicksilver went off to live in the Inhumans' 
Himalayan refuge (and later on the moon), while his 
sister settled down to cozy domesticity in Leonia, 
New Jersey. (The Vision and the Witch starred in a 
couple of mid-1980s miniseries, Vision and Scarlet 
Witch, by writer Steve Englehart and artist Richard 
Howell.) But whereas Quicksilver gained a child, 
Luna, and was largely written out of the Avengers, 



Marvel writers had a different fate in store for the 
Scarlet Witch. During the company's Secret Wars 
series, the Vision was controlled by aliens, and a 
while later the couple left the Avengers for their West 
Coast branch. There Wanda became pregnant and 
gave birth to twins, William and Thomas; it later tran- 
spired that these were demon offshoots of the evil 
Mephisto. Then an increasingly unbalanced Vision 
was dismantled before being reconstructed without 
any emotion, and the couple tragically divorced, 
although the Vision's "half-brother" Wonder Man (on 
whose brain patterns the android's mind was based) 
unhelpfully declared his undying love for Wanda. 

Things got even worse for Wanda in the 1980s, 
as she was reclaimed by Magneto after becoming a 
bride of Set, and went over to the "dark side." 
Quicksilver returned to rescue her, but she was 
soon claimed by another Marvel baddie, Immortus, 
who had been influencing her actions for years. 
Confusingly, it seems that she was in fact not a gar- 
den-variety mutant but a nexus being — "someone 
who belongs to all realities." In later issues of West 
Coast Avengers she became the group's leader, a 
position she continued to hold in Force Works, a 
team of former West Coast Avengers (1994), but 
there was more upheaval to come. In the 
"Onslaught" storyline, she died along with the other 
Avengers but was resurrected soon after. Wonder 
Man died, came back, died, came back as an ener- 
gy being and died again, still proffering his undying 
love, even though it was his robotic half-brother who 
was Wanda's most enduring paramour. 

Perhaps feeling that they have wrung every last 
plot twist from the unfortunate girl, Marvel's writers 
have been somewhat kinder to the Scarlet Witch in 
the new millennium. Back in the Avengers after a 
decade away, with the Vision restored to his full 
range of emotions, and with romance possibly back 
in the air, the future looks promising. Although she 
has made only one solo outing (in a four-issue 1994 
miniseries), as one of the Avengers' longest-serving 
members, the Scarlet Witch will almost certainly fea- 
ture in Marvel's plans for years to come. — DAR 



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The Secret Identity 



The Secret 
Identity 

You can't have wishes without drab realities, and 
that's where superheroes' secret identities come 
in. These characters were, after all, created by 
artists and writers who felt vulnerable in every situ- 
ation but the fantasies they fashioned. In his 
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the origins of the 
American comic book, The Amazing Adventures of 
Kavalier& Clay (2000), Michael Chabon is not the 
first to note the alchemy of promise and despera- 
tion that led two Depression-era Jewish youths to 
create Superman, characterizing the superhero 
genre's purpose as being "to express the lust for 
power and the gaudy sartorial taste of a race of 
powerless people with no leave to dress them- 
selves." The Supermen of the new medium were 
what its creators and readers aspired to; the Clark 
Kents were what they identified with, and thus the 
secret identity was born. 

This concept was actually one of comics' deft 
carryovers from earlier adventure literature; everyone 
from Zorro to the Shadow had fought injustice under 
cover of idle rich daytime identities. One of the Super- 
man character's many innovations was to make the 
hero's cover identity a common man, or at least one 
with common flaws. This was a populist development 
that fit the New Deal era, even though wealthy 
paragons like President Roosevelt himself would per- 
sist in the person of heroes like Batman, a masked 
avenger by night and a suave millionaire by day. 

In contrast, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent 
was shy and awkward, a supposed coward and 
weakling. The legendary cartoonist and commenta- 
tor Jules Feiffer, in his classic work The Great Comic 
Book Heroes (1965), explained the Clark Kent per- 
sona as a satire of human foibles, a kind of noncos- 
tumed drag with which Superman has a private 
laugh at the ordinary humans he serves. In more 



recent treatments of the Superman mythos like 
Marvel Comics' Supreme Power series (2003-pre- 
sent), the omnipotent character Hyperion, a govern- 
ment-raised alien superbeing recognized by all, 
longs to establish a secret identity just so he can 
know what it's like to be ordinary. One thing that is 
certain is that superheroes' secret identities have 
always provided a buffer between the everyday read- 
er and the superpowered exploits that reader is 
asked to believe. 

Of course, most superheroes don't have to pre- 
tend they're ordinary Joes and Janes; it's typical for 
a superhero to be born after some strange magical 
phenomenon or scientific accident thrusts great 
power onto some unsuspecting everyman or -woman 
(the lightning bolt that hits scientist Barry Allen's 
chemicals, turning him into the Flash, or the nuclear 
explosion that transforms Bruce Banner into the 
Hulk being two familiar examples). Some of the grim- 
mer heroes transform themselves into crime fighters 
after the intervention not of a miracle but a tragedy, 
like the murder of his parents that makes Bruce 
Wayne become Batman. And as comics have gotten 
more realistic, their heroes' feet-of-clay alter egos 
have become progressively flawed; Clark Kent's 
occupation as a Daily Planet reporter put him in a 
position to learn of crimes and disasters as they 
happen and then save the day, while Spider-Man's 
true identity, Peter Parker, takes a job as a crime 
photographer so he can make ends meet by selling 
photos of himself to the Daily Bugle. 

Notwithstanding these touches of realism, 
almost from the start comics have prominently fea- 
tured characters of such an alien nature or mythic 
stature that they dispense with secret identities 
altogether. Back when it was called Timely Comics, 
Marvel's very first heroes (and hits) were Namor, 
the Sub-Mariner, a prince from the sunken kingdom 
of Atlantis who went by his own unusual name, and 
the Human Torch, a combustible android created 
only as a sideshow curiosity. 

Timely's characters were renowned for running 
much more to the weirder end of the superhero 



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The Sentry 



spectrum than those of Superman's home, DC (orig- 
inally known as National), and in the early 1960s 
resurgence of superheroes, Marvel would lead the 
way in introducing characters who are former regu- 
lar guys and gals, but make their identities known 
to the world. As Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee 
remarked in his 1974 book Origins of Marvel 
Comics, "I was utterly determined to have a super- 
hero series without any secret identities. I knew for 
a fact that if I myself possessed a super power I'd 
never keep it a secret. I'm too much of a show-off. 
Why should our fictional friends be any different?" 

This concept for Marvel's flagship series would 
be extended to other heroes, some of whom even 
go by their civilian names like Luke Cage, Hero for 
Hire (only later changed to "Power Man," but 
switched back to the hero's given name in current 
comics). However, Lee's other idea for modernizing 
the superhero — that the Fantastic Four would not 
wear costumes — lasted all of one issue, and the 
secret identity itself has remained alive and well for 
many heroes. 

It is often a kind of currency carefully guarded by 
the superbeings. Everyone is familiar with Lois 
Lane's repeated attempts to "out" Clark as Super- 
man (though in modern comics he has confided in 
and married Lane), and anyone who saw the feature 
film of Marvel's Daredevil (2003) knows the story 
(adapted from comics written by Frank Miller in the 
early 1980s) of muckraking reporter Ben Urich dis- 
covering the hero's secret and then self-sacrificingly 
keeping it for the good of those Daredevil protects. In 
2000s Daredevil comics there has been an extended 
storyline revisiting this concept, as a tabloid reveals 
the hero's identity and his lawyer alter ego fights to 
repudiate it in court. Marvel's Captain America has 
also unmasked himself on international television, so 
that a terrorist opponent could focus his fight on 
Steve Rogers rather than all Americans. 

It may be far-fetched when compared to every- 
day life, but as both historical and modern exam- 
ples show, the secret identity is a device that 
exposes dramatic shades of psychology in the 



superhero genre, and is unlikely to be removed any- 
time soon. — AMC and GM 



The Senfry 

The Sentry is a character central to the Marvel 
Comics universe, though almost nobody's ever 
heard of him — and that's the point. In 2000, comics 
fans were used to the scarcity of new characters 
being added to the bankable Marvel mythos, so it 
came as no surprise that the "newest" character to 
be introduced that year might actually be the old- 
est. Starring in a self-titled miniseries from 
2000-2001, the Sentry was said to be a rejected 
character found in some old Marvel files, historic 
for being a concept by Marvel founder Stan Lee and 
artist Artie Rosen that predated Lee and artist Jack 
Kirby's creation of Fantastic Four'm 1961. The latter 
event went on to be considered the landmark that 
inaugurated an era of more hip and literary super- 
hero comics, while the Sentry languished on the 
discard pile as Marvel's Pete Best. 

Reimagined for the "Marvel Knights" line of 
edgy books about the company's more offbeat char- 
acters, the Sentry, originally a kind of Marvel coun- 
terpart to Superman, was portrayed as a demigod 
too powerful for his own good. The character first 
appears as what seems to be an alcoholic delusion 
suffered by suburbanite Bob Reynolds, but little by 
little Reynolds realizes that he was the omnipotent 
Sentry before being consigned to amnesia for mys- 
terious reasons. Readers gradually learn that the 
Sentry's addiction to the very serum that gave him 
his superpowers released a malign, apocalyptic 
opposite, the Void, from his own subconscious, con- 
sidered a standard archenemy by an unknowing 
public — and the denial-ridden hero. 

The only solution is for the Sentry himself to 
cease to be, which is impossible physically but 
achieved by wiping his and all the world's memory 
of his career. In the present day, the Void has 



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The Shadow 



returned with Reynolds' memories, and the Sentry 
"defeats" him once more — by finally becoming at 
peace with his existence as an ordinary, imperfect 
human. With a subtle, sensitive script by Paul Jenk- 
ins and moody, atmospheric art by Jae Lee, the 
series was a poignant comment on the loss of hero- 
ic illusions and the poisoning tendencies of power. 
And, for longtime Marvel fans, it was a fascinating 
trip down the road not taken. 

The only trouble was, what might have been 
never could have to begin with — the Sentry's 1960s 
creation was a hoax planted in the fan press, "Artie 
Rosen" a fictional character himself. Lee fully par- 
ticipated in the gag, which satirized his own 
famously faulty memory about what was created 
when. Marvel's "lost" character was really one of its 
few (and best) new ones after all, and the company 
had managed the kind of performance-art put-on 
unheard of in the pulpy realm of comics. It added 
an extra dimension to the series' own theme of 
mass amnesia, replacing the usual side-merchan- 
dising of characters with a kind of "conceptual tie- 
in." This was only fitting for a series that marked 
one of the few cases of a comics company tinkering 
with its history to make an artistic statement rather 
than just rewarm a brand. As one of only two 
"superhero novels" (along with Marvel's Earth X) to 
come close to the standards of Alan Moore's Watch- 
men, The Sentry was guarded well. — AMC 

The Shadow 

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? 
The Shadow knows!" A generation of pulp readers 
and radio fans grew up knowing by heart that chill- 
ing oath, recited by the mysterious scourge of the 
underworld, the Shadow. 

The Shadow's origins lie in radio, where in 
1930 pulp publishers Street & Smith were sponsor- 
ing a show to promote their Detective Story maga- 
zine. The weekly program, Detective Story Magazine 
Hour, was a mystery show narrated by a menacing- 




The Shadow #12 © 1975 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY MICHAEL KALUTA. 

sounding announcer known only as the Shadow. 
When Street & Smith realized that this "Shadow" 
character was creating a lot of interest, they rushed 
to bring out a pulp magazine by that name before 
anyone else thought of the idea. To that end, they 
grabbed a painting that was lying around — the only 
one they could find showing someone's shadow — to 
use as a cover, and recruited a young journalist and 
magician called Walter Gibson. Gibson's brief was 
to write 60,000 words a month (soon to rise to 
twice a month) about this Shadow character and to 
make it a success. Gibson duly obliged. 

The first issue of The Shadow hit the news- 
stands in 1931 and introduced an eerie figure 
swathed in a large, black cloak and hat, with a scarf 



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The Shadow 



covering most of his face — a genuine man of mys- 
tery who was sworn to punish evildoers of each and 
every persuasion. It also introduced the first of his 
many assistants, Harry Vincent, who was about to 
commit suicide by jumping off a bridge until the 
Shadow prevented him from doing so. In time, the 
Shadow collected a band of assistants, including 
cabbie/chauffeur Moe Shrevnitz, reporter Clyde, 
switchboard operator Burbank, and African strong- 
man Jericho, among others. The Shadow himself 
had many identities, including police station janitor 
Fritz, the aged Phineas Twabley, Henry Arnaud, and 
George Clarendon, but it was millionaire playboy 
Lamont Cranston to whom he most often returned. 
In fact, these were all fictitious identities (except for 
Cranston, who was a real millionaire whom the 
Shadow persuaded to leave the country in the mag- 
azine's second issue, so that he could assume 
Cranston's identity), as the Shadow was in story 
reality Kent Allard, a noted explorer and aviator. 

The Shadow stories gradually became faster and 
harsher as the decade progressed, with Gibson adding 
layers of colorful background to the feature. (The 
Detective Story Magazine Hour radio show was can- 
celed in 1935.) While it is true that the Shadow is 
mostly identified as a masked mystery man of the 
pulps, his stories — especially toward the end of the 
1930s and into the 1940s — contained many super- 
hero elements and conventions. In print, the Shadow 
operated out of Cranston's fantastic mansion, which 
came complete with radio tower and a hangar for his 
autogyro (a super-helicopter) and limousine. Typically, 
Burbank would discover some wrongdoing and wire the 
Shadow and his gang, who would then race into 
action. The Shadow became increasingly cavalier 
toward his foes, effectively acting as judge, jury, and 
executioner, meting out justice with his two blazing 
.45s while laughing maniacally the whole time. Out- 
side of his various automobiles and aircraft, his only 
gadgets were suction cups that slipped onto his hands 
and feet, allowing him to scale walls and tall buildings. 

Motivated by a desire to see evil of all manner 
dismantled, the Shadow quickly amassed a colorful 



rogues' gallery of foes, including Grayfist, the Robot 
Master, the Wasp, Murder Master, the Creeper, 
Voodoo Master, and the Green Terror, as well as 
such sinister organizations as the Green Hoods and 
the Silent Seven. While these bizarre antagonists 
rarely lasted beyond a single story's end, one vil- 
lain — the self-styled Ruler of Tibet, Shiwan Khan — 
kept coming back enough times to be considered 
the Shadow's major nemesis. 

The pulp's success sparked a mini merchandis- 
ing industry that produced pins, costumes, books, 
games, disguise kits, and much more. Just as the 
Shadow was inspired by radio, he fittingly returned 
there for his own show, which thrived until 1954 
and starred, among others, Bill Johnstone, Bret 
Morrison and — most memorably — Orson Welles. On 
the radio, the Shadow's alter ego was Lamont 
Cranston, who had acquired all manner of powers, 
including mind-reading, hypnotism, and even invisi- 
bility, through years of study in Tibet. He rarely used 
the pulp's band of comrades but did acquire a pret- 
ty young assistant (and potential love interest), 
Margo Lane. On the radio, she was voiced by veter- 
an actress Agnes Moorehead. 

Lane made it into the pulps by the early 
1940s, but the title was in decline by that point, 
young fans having switched to the more whole- 
some, patriotic heroes of the comic books. Comics 
readers were introduced to the Shadow in early 
1940, when the first issue of Shadow Comics (also 
published by Street & Smith) hit the newsstands. 
Later that year, a moody Shadow newspaper strip, 
put out by the Ledger Syndicate, began a two-year 
run (from June 1940 to June 1942). It was written 
by Gibson and well drawn by Vernon Greene. Gibson 
also wrote the comic book for six years (with art by 
the Jack Binder studio, among others), adapting a 
lot of his pulp stories, interspersed with reprints of 
the newspaper strip. These comic strips were very 
true to the spirit of the pulps, featuring the support- 
ing cast and even Shiwan Khan. Ironically, the 
comic's artistic high point came after Gibson had 
left, with a long run by artist Bob Powell from 1946 



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The Shadow 



to its cancellation in 1949. The Powell years fea- 
tured fanciful fare such as flying saucers and the 
Shadow Junior, but they were nevertheless master- 
pieces of dramatic, atmospheric storytelling. 

Street & Smith were hit hard by the postwar 
move away from the superhero genre — that was pre- 
cisely what their pulp and comics empires were 
built on. In 1949, both the comic and the pulp were 
canceled, the pulp appropriately ending with three 
issues written by a returning Walter Gibson, with 
covers by longtime pulp artist George Rozen. The 
radio show lived on past the death of the pulps until 
1954; since then its syndicated reruns have period- 
ically resurfaced in radio shows across the country 
(as well as various lines of nostalgic audiocas- 
settes). At its height, the Shadow phenomenon 
inspired a number of films and serials, launched by 
a pair of Grand National movies starring Rod La 
Rocque: The Shadow Strikes in 1937 and Interna- 
tional Crime a year later. In 1940, Columbia Pic- 
tures released a fifteen-chapter serial simply called 
The Shadow, starring Victor Jory, while Monogram 
Pictures released three Shadow movies in 1946, all 
starring Kane Richmond. The 1950s were a poor 
decade for the character but, out of nowhere, in 
1958 Republic produced a Shadow movie called 
The Invisible Avenger, starring Richard Der. 

In 1963, in the wake of the James Bond phe- 
nomenon, publisher Louis Silberkleit picked up the 
Shadow license and commissioned Walter Gibson 
to write a spy-themed Shadow novel for his Belmont 
Books line. The paperback was not a success, but 
Silberkleit decided to make the most of his invest- 
ment by moving the franchise over to his rather 
more successful comics division, Archie Comics. 
The first couple of Archie Shadow comics in 1964 
were fairly pedestrian retreads of the pulp stories, 
but with his third issue the character was inexplica- 
bly transformed into a superhero. This Shadow 
wore a green-and-blue costume with a mask and 
cape, complete with boot-jets and sonic whistle. In 
his alter ego of Lamont Cranston, he was a bespec- 
tacled businessman, while Lane became his unsus- 



pecting secretary. The strips, written by Superman 
co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by Paul Reinman, 
have become famed for their poor craftsmanship; 
there was little attempt at character development, 
plot, or narrative. The superhero Shadow amassed 
a rogues' gallery of Grade Z no-hopers, such as Dr. 
Demon, Elasto, Attila the Hunter, Brute, and 
Radioactive Rogue, as well as the now inevitable 
Shiwan Khan. The comic was canceled after only 
eight issues. 

While Silberkleit's 1960s reworkings were 
unsuccessful, a renewed interest in pulps during 
the 1970s brought forth a whole slew of high-quali- 
ty revivals. A number of paperback houses success- 
fully reissued old Gibson Shadow stories, including 
Pyramid, which commissioned comics star Jim Ster- 
anko to paint a series of striking new covers. DC 
Comics contacted Steranko to helm a new Shadow 
title for them, but the honors eventually went to 
writer Denny O'Neil and talented young artist Mike 
Kaluta. DCs series went through three artists (with 
Frank Robbins and E. R. Cruz also contributing) in 
only twelve issues, and it was not the commercial 
success that the company had hoped for. Nonethe- 
less, the comics were an outstanding example of 
the medium at its finest. Whereas that 1970s 
series was faithful to its pulp origins, a 1986 rein- 
vention by Howard Chaykin was anything but. 
Chaykin's miniseries was set in contemporary New 
York and, in addition to the old cast, starred Harry 
Vincent's daughter Mavis as a critical sparring part- 
ner for the increasingly bloodthirsty Shadow — and 
his two Tibetan sons! Longtime fans were outraged 
at the strip's mix of sex and violence, yet it was suc- 
cessful enough to inspire a regular series in 1987 
(running for nineteen issues) which, if anything, was 
even more bizarre. 

A third DC series of the 1980s, The Shadow 
Strikes, was once more set in the 1930s, as were 
five mid-1990s outings from Dark Horse Comics, 
which arrived in the wake of 1994's Universal Shad- 
ow movie — the most lavish to date. The film, direct- 
ed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Alec Baldwin, 



*** 



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ShadowHawk 



looked fabulous and had all the elements of the 
pulp's glory years. However, it had none of the origi- 
nal's heart or intelligence, and suffered from a poor 
script. Nevertheless, the Dark Horse titles once 
more teamed the Shadow with his definitive comic 
artist, Mike Kaluta. If little has been seen of the 
character since the last of these strips in 1995, his 
influence remains immense. The notion of the crea- 
ture of the night, operating from his millionaire's 
mansion, striking terror in the hearts of wrongdo- 
ers, has held enormous sway over generations of 
comics heroes, from Batman and the Black Terror to 
Moon Knight and beyond. Fittingly, Batman and the 
Shadow have teamed up twice (in Batman #253 
and #259) during DCs first, mid-1970s run with the 
pulp hero, and they made a fine pairing. — DAR 

ShadowHawk 

At first, he appeared to be a particularly brutal vigi- 
lante, moving through the shadows of the New York 
City night. Wearing a silver helmet, clawed gloves, 
and a dark armored costume, and with a propensity 
to break the backs of those who had murdered oth- 
ers, everyone wondered, "Who is ShadowHawk?" 
Not even the readers of the ShadowHawk comic 
knew the answer to that question at first, as 
writer/artist Jim Valentino had created the series 
with a mystery at its core. Coming off successful 
runs on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, What If?, 
and other series — and with the legendary superhero 
spoof normalman (1984-1985) behind him — 
Valentino joined six other popular creators to form 
Image Comics in 1992. 

The debut book to appear from Valentino at 
Image was ShadowHawk #1 (August 1992), the first 
of a four-issue miniseries. The initial storyline set 
up the mystery of who the character was, providing 
lots of supporting-cast suspects for readers to 
choose from. In ShadowHawk vol. 2 #l-#3 
(May-July 1993), the secret was revealed. Shad- 
owHawk was really Paul Johnstone, an African- 



American man who had been infected with the HIV 
virus. Johnstone used the suit to avenge those who 
had been killed unjustly. Villains that ShadowHawk 
fought included a racist named Hawkshadow, the 
hedonist group Regulators, an acidic alien named 
the Liquifier, and a female kingpin of crime known 
as Vendetta. 

Although AIDS had been seen in comics 
before— Megaton #4 (April 1986) contains the 
comics world's first reference to the disease — 
ShadowHawk was the first superhero to suffer from 
the disease. Valentino chose not to sensationalize 
the subject, and actively tried to dispel stereotypes 
and misconceptions about AIDS while telling his 
stories. Johnstone succumbed to the illness in 
ShadowHawkVol 3 #18 (May 1995), the final issue 
of that series. 

The New ShadowHawk #1 debuted in June 
1995, written by Kurt Busiek. In it, the "Shad- 
owHawk energy" was dispersed between three peo- 
ple and a robot. Combined with a tale told by super- 
star writer Alan Moore in ShadowHawks of Legend 
(November 1995), Busiek's stories noted that there 
had always been ShadowHawks throughout time, in 
different lands and eras. The energy was actually 
the essence of an ancient Egyptian shaman who 
worshipped Horus (an extraterrestrial from Sirius). 
When the shaman was murdered, his spirit became 
ShadowHawk and sought revenge for those mur- 
dered unjustly. The ShadowHawk essence lived 
within the silver helmet that Johnstone had worn. 

In a series of stories that ran through various 
titles from Extreme Studios (an Image sub-imprint 
run by Rob Liefeld), seventeen-year-old Eddie Collins 
became the latest ShadowHawk. Able to channel 
power from the gods, and sharing the memories of 
all the previous ShadowHawks, Collins is also aided 
by the morphing suit; it enhances his strength and 
agility, gives him infrared vision, and allows him to 
shoot grappling hooks from his gauntlets. 

Although ShadowHawk was never a top seller 
for Image, the character continues to appear semi- 



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The She-Hulk 



regularly, often as a guest star. ShadowHawk has 
appeared on numerous licensed products, including 
two action figures, card sets, posters, T-shirts, stat- 
ues, hats, and even a full-cast audio drama. — AM 

The She-Hulk 

Conceived during the run of the highly successful 
Incredible Hulk CBS television series (1978-1982), 
the She-Hulk sprang from the brow of Stan Lee (the 
co-creator of the original Hulk, the Fantastic Four, 
Spider-Man, the X-Men, and most of Marvel's semi- 
nal early 1960s heroes) and artist John Buscema 
(who was associated closely with the first Silver 
Surfer series and Conan the Barbarian). Created in 
1979 principally to prevent competitors from trade- 
marking their own female version of the Hulk — and 
in the hopes of spawning a television series that 
never came to fruition — the She-Hulk was Lee's last 
major creation for Marvel before he relinquished his 
editorial duties in favor of developing the company's 
many properties in Hollywood. 

The Savage She-Hulk, a monthly series that 
began its twenty-five-issue run in early 1980, intro- 
duced female lawyer Jennifer Walters, a cousin of 
Robert Bruce Banner (the Hulk's alter-ego). As chil- 
dren, Walters and Banner (who is five years her 
senior) are very close, though they choose very dif- 
ferent life paths later on; while the bookish Banner 
pursues a career in high-energy physics that culmi- 
nates in his invention of the gamma bomb that 
transforms him into the Hulk, the mousy Walters 
enters UCLA's law school and ultimately becomes a 
criminal defense attorney. Years later, Banner visits 
his cousin, to whom he confides the torments he 
suffers as a consequence of being the Hulk. During 
this period, Walters is defending a client named Lou 
Monkton, who has been framed for murder by a 
mobster named Nicholas Trask. After one of Trask's 
hit men shoots and wounds Walters, Banner saves 
her life by giving her an emergency transfusion of 
his own (gamma-irradiated) blood. Walters soon 



uflft 



finds herself transformed into a 650-pound, 6' 7" 
tower of exquisitely-muscled emerald outrage. 

Although the She-Hulk initially possesses a 
real streak of savagery (hence the title of her 
comic), she quickly becomes quite different from 
the character that inspired her. Unlike Banner, who 
becomes a ravening beast when his suppressed 
anger transforms him into the Hulk, Walters retains 
her intellect as She-Hulk and can change back to 
her ordinary human guise at will. She also con- 
trasts sharply with Banner in that she has little 
desire to return to her human form; the same 
gamma rays that release Banner's repressed rage 
also allow Walters to free herself of the prim "lady 
lawyer" personality that had shackled her through- 
out her professional life. While Banner is perpetual- 
ly tortured by his transformations into the Hulk, Wal- 
ters exults in her newfound power, enjoying her 
crime-fighting adventures and imbuing them with 
verve and passion. If the Hulk is a study in emotion- 
al repression and mania, his distaff counterpart 
embodies instead the liberated, upwardly-mobile 
professional woman of the early 1980s, attractive, 
quick of wit, and unintimidated by anyone's glass 
ceiling. When exposure to radiation traps her per- 
manently in her She-Hulk form (during the 
1984-1985 twelve-issue Marvel Superheroes 
Secret Wars miniseries), Walters hardly gives her 
buttoned-down human persona a second thought. 

Like many a refugee from a canceled Marvel 
series (her first one ran twenty-five issues), the She- 
Hulk becomes a member of a supergroup, joining 
the Avengers (Avengers vol. 1 #221, July 1982) 
before temporarily replacing the Fantastic Four's 
Thing during his extended off-planet leave of 
absence {Fantastic four vol. 1 #265, April 1984). 
Even after the Thing's return more than two years 
later, the She-Hulk (or "Shulkie" as her friends often 
call her) remains a close friend of (and sometime 
babysitter for) the FF family. 

In 1989, the She-Hulk once again became a 
monthly series headliner with the debut of The Sen- 
sational She-Hulk. Written and illustrated by John 



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Shi 



Byrne (famed for his work on The Uncanny X-Men 
and The Man of Steel, the 1986 "reboot" of DC 
Comics' Superman), this series made much better 
use of the character's obvious comedic potential 
than did the previous one. Not only does Jennifer 
Walters still enjoy being a superpowered jade giant- 
ess, she is also keenly aware of the absurdities 
inherent in the superheroic life. Moreover, she is 
wryly cognizant of the fact that she is a comic-book 
character, often driving the point home by grabbing 
panel borders, chasing bad guys by tunneling 
through the pages of her comics, and speaking 
directly to the audience (and sometimes even to 
writer/artist Byrne) in a manner reminiscent of tele- 
vision's It's Garry Shandling's Show (1986-1990) or 
The Burns and Allen Show (1950-1958). She-Hulk 
isn't the only "self-aware" character in the series; 
Marvel's golden-age Blonde Phantom joins the sup- 
porting cast (issue #4) in a deliberate effort to take 
advantage of the slow aging process that all comic- 
book heroes seem to enjoy — but only as long as 
they are featured in a monthly comics magazine. 

Following a squabble with Marvel, Byrne left the 
series with issue #50 in April 1993 (having left and 
returned after another squabble from issue #10 to 
issue #31, an interim in which, among other writers 
and artists, Howard the Duck creator Steve Gerber 
stepped in for a well-regarded run), and the book 
limped to its finish exactly ten issues later. Since 
that time the She-Hulk has been ubiquitous on Mar- 
vel's "guest-star circuit," racking up appearances 
from the mid-1990s forward in such titles as Nova 
(vol. 2), Fantastic Force, Thunderstrike, The Avengers 
(vols. 1 and 3), The Fantastic Four (vols. 1 and 3), 
Iron Man (vol. 2), Heroes for Hire, and Captain Ameri- 
ca (vols. 1-3). She finally regained a fixed address 
with a new ongoing series in 2004, and remains one 
of Marvel's most consistently merchandised charac- 
ters, her image appearing on everything from drinking 
cups to apparel. Created as an exercise in trademark 
building, the She-Hulk even now continues to fulfill 
her primary function — generating green — while seem- 
ing to laugh all the way to the bank. — MAM 



Shr 



Despite the venerable tradition of depictions of 
overendowed women in superhero comics, powerful 
female characters have steadily risen to prominence 
over the past two decades or more. Though some of 
these are arguably icons of funnybook feminism, 
crime-fighting women are still the objects of adoles- 
cent male fantasies. One of the more popular super- 
heroines to arise in recent years from this schizoid 
comics tradition is Shi. Taking her superhero name 
from the Japanese word for "death" rather than from 
her gender, Shi is a heroine who clearly owes as 
much to monomaniacal crusaders like Batman and 
to films such as The Seven Samurai as she does to 
the time-honored comic-book tradition of "Good Girl 
art" cheesecake (though her swords-and-scanty- 
clothing visuals place her firmly in the latter camp). 
Regardless of where one stands in this debate, it is 
beyond doubt that Shi has far outlasted the dire pre- 
dictions of detractors who pronounced her a fad 
when she first appeared in 1994. 

The creation of writer, artist, filmmaker, and for- 
mer paratrooper William Tucci, Shi premiered in Shi: 
The Way of the Warrior #1 (1994), a series from Cru- 
sade Comics that ran for twelve issues 
(1994-1997) and generated a decade-long dynasty 
of sequels and merchandise. Shi was born Ana 
Ishikawa, the daughter of Shiro Ishikawa, a member 
of a clandestine, millennium-old Japanese samurai 
order engaged in a centuries-long shadow war 
against a rival order. Shiro had abandoned his 
secret society in order to marry Ana's mother, 
Catherine, a Catholic missionary; this prompted 
Shiro 's order to dispatch an assassin named 
Masahiro Arashi to kill him. Though Shiro nearly suc- 
ceeds in besting his attacker, he is distracted at a 
critical moment by his young daughter Ana; because 
of this unfortunate happenstance, Ana's father, 
mother, and brother Toro are slain before her eyes. 

Despite her mother's pacifist teachings, the 
teenage Ana undertakes training in sohei (the 



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**s 



Shi 



Japanese martial disciplines of the samurai and the 
assassin, including the mastery of swords) under 
the tutelage of her grandfather, guardian, and first 
sensei, Yoshitora Ishikawa. Spending her nights in 
intensive martial training, Ana's days are filled with 
classes at the Inagaki School of Art and Design in 
Kyoto, which afford her a convenient "secret identi- 
ty" of sorts. Finally deeming herself ready to avenge 
her murdered family, Ana takes up her samurai 
sword, girds herself in a scarlet battle suit, and 
paints her face white to emulate a revered ances- 
tor, Yuri Ishikawa, who had adopted the name Tora 
No Shi (the Tiger of Death) during feudal Japan's 
1637 revolution. 

Ferocious and tenacious, Ana tracks down 
Masahiro Arashi, her family's killer, earning the 
sobriquet "Shi" ("Death") along the way. Though her 
original purpose had been to assassinate the 
assassin, her conscience restrains her, and she 
settles for having the Arashi imprisoned. Ana sub- 
sequently forswears indiscriminate violence and 
vengeance, devoting herself instead to running New 
York's Oike Gallery. Though opposed to wanton 
killing, Ana continues to adopt the Shi persona in 
her new home of New York City, donning the cos- 
tume and makeup and drawing her sword whenever 
innocent people are in need of rescue or protection. 

Following Shi's debut series — and with the 
assistance of various scripters — Tucci continued 
the saga of his sword-wielding super-samurai in a 
raft of Crusade miniseries and one-shots, including: 
Shi: Senryaku (1995); Shi: Kaidan, a one-shot vol- 
ume of Japanese ghost stories (1996); Shi vs. 
Tomoe (1996); Shi: The Blood of Saints (1996); 
Shi: Rekishi (1997); Shi: Nightstalkers (1997); Shi: 
The Series (1997-1998); Shi: Heaven and Earth 
(1997-1998); Shi: East Wind Rain (1997-1998); 
Shi: Black, White, and Red (1998); Shi: Masquer- 
ade (1998); Shi: Year of the Dragon (2000); Manga 
Shi 2000 (2000), which was rendered in an authen- 
tically Japanese "big-eyed character" style; and Shi: 
Through the Ashes (2001), a tribute to the valiant 
police and firefighters who died in the September 



11 terrorist attacks on New York City. Still more Shi 
titles followed as the new millennium continued. 

In addition to accumulating a superhero's 
usual rogues' gallery of villains (which has included 
the assassin known as Gemini Dawn and the now- 
deceased telekinetic-telepathic killer called Head- 
rush), Shi has also forged friendships with many 
superheroes published by other comics companies, 
such as Grifter from Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S (originally 
an Image title, currently published by WildStorm). In 
a pair of one-shot comics, Cyblade/Shi: The Battle 
for Independents #1 (1995) and Shi/Cyblade: The 
Battle for Independents #1 (1995), she formed an 
alliance with Cyberforce's prickly psionic heroine 
Cyblade. Shi later fought alongside Marvel Comics' 
Daredevil in Shi/Daredevil: Honor Thy Mother 
(1997). Tucci's heroine even shared the stage with 
Harris Comics' Vampirella in Shi/Vampirella (1997) 
and gained the respect of Marvel's Wolverine in 
Wolverine/Shi: Dark Night of Judgment (2000). 

Tucci produced a new black-and-white, eight- 
issue miniseries titled Shi: Poisoned Paradise (2002) 
for Avatar Press, a small-press publisher. Disappoint- 
ed by the series' lackluster sales, Tucci decided to 
avail himself of the marketing and publicity resources 
of a larger publisher and took Shi to Dark Horse 
Comics. "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" Tucci 
has quipped on an Internet bulletin board, referring 
to the move to the more high-profile company. Tucci's 
newest publisher has already successfully released a 
collectible Shi statuette for the direct-sales market, 
and in the spring of 2004 released a new miniseries: 
Shi: Ju-Nen, the latest tale of the female samurai 
who stands astride both East and West and embod- 
ies both vengeance and conscience. 

Since Shi's inception, Tucci's Crusade Fine Arts 
Ltd. has published Shi stories in four languages, 
with more than 4 million copies now in print. Shi's 
publishing and merchandising ventures have gener- 
ated more than $25 million in sales over the past 
decade. In 2002, Shi entered the world of prose in 
Shi: The Illustrated Warrior, writer Craig Shaw Gard- 
ner's novelization of the superheroine's origin story, 



<t*b 



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Sidekicks and Proteges 



a volume adorned with Tucci's elegant and kinetic 
illustrations. Hollywood may loom in Shi's future as 
well; in the summer of 2003, Mandolin Entertain- 
ment purchased a film option on the character. Far 
from being a mere fad, Shi's prospects seem as 
bright as her flashing blades. — MAM 

Sidekicks and 
Proteges 

After Superman's debut in DC Comics' Action 
Comics #1 (June 1938) set off an explosion of 
comic-book allies and imitators, cartoonist Bob 
Kane realized that these colorful caped crusaders 
were all adult men — including his own creation, the 
Batman — while young boys were comics' target 
audience. Just one month shy of Batman's first 
anniversary, Kane introduced "the sensational char- 
acter find of 1940" in Detective Comics #38, April 
1940: Robin, the Boy Wonder! Robin was circus 
aerialist Dick Grayson, who witnessed the murder of 
his parents. Sympathetic Batman took the youth 
under his wing and trained him to be his crime-fight- 
ing partner. "I visualized that every kid would like to 
be a Robin ... a laughing daredevil," Kane said. "It 
appealed to the imagination of every kid in the 
world." Not the entire world, perhaps, but certainly 
American boys during the Great Depression. Detec- 
tive doubled its circulation, thanks to Robin — and 
the superhero sidekick, comics' ultimate vehicle for 
wish fulfillment, was born. 

Robin's uniqueness was short-lived. Other cre- 
ators and publishers took notice of the sales punch 
packed by comics' first sidekick, and before long 
boy wonders abounded. Six months after the pre- 
miere of Robin, Marvel Comics unveiled Toro, the 
partner of the Human Torch. Toro was, like Grayson, 
a circus performer — a fire-eater— -who could, with- 
out explanation, combust into living flame. In its fer- 
vor to copy Robin, Marvel sacrificed originality for 

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timeliness — not surprising, as the company's origi- 
nal name was Timely Comics. 

Appearing in the same month as Toro was Roy, 
the Super-Boy, the protege of Archie Comics' the 
Wizard. The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price 
Guide 32nd edition speculates that Roy, not Toro, 
may be comics' second sidekick — Roy's first 
appearance was Top-Notch Comics #8, September 
1940, while Toro debuted in The Human Torch #2, 
cover dated Fall 1940 — but falls short of making 
this a definitive statement since both comics 
appeared at roughly the same time. Ace Magazines' 
Magno, the Magnetic Man was joined by the mag- 
netic boy named Davey in November 1940, and 
Archie Comics' the Shield teamed with Dusty, the 
Boy Detective in January 1941. 

When Marvel's Captain America was first seen 
in March 1941, he was not alone. In Captain Ameri- 
ca #1, writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby unite 
"Cap" with Bucky Barnes, the mascot of the regi- 
ment with which Steve Rogers, Captain America's 
alter ego, is stationed. The lad stumbles across 
Rogers changing into his patriotic garb, muttering, 
"Gosh ... gee whiz ... golly!! I ... I never thought!" 
After threatening to "tan his hide," Cap gives Bucky 
Barnes a mask and ushers him onto the front lines 
as ... Bucky! 

Curiously, this first wave of post-Robin super- 
hero sidekicks — Roy, Davey, Dusty, Bucky, even 
Toro — used their first names while in action. One 
might speculate that the creators of these charac- 
ters wanted to strengthen the appeal of their side- 
kicks by assigning them names familiar to their 
readers. While it's unlikely there were many boys 
named "Toro" reading comics during the early 
1940s, Captain America co-creator Simon claimed 
that Bucky was named after an old school chum. 
These earliest sidekicks share another characteris- 
tic: They were orphans, and needed the guiding 
hand of a caring mentor. In each of these relation- 
ships, the senior member was always in charge, 
with the junior member learning the ropes of super- 
heroics from the seasoned pro. 



*r 



Sidekicks and Proteges 




Boy Comics #35 © 1947 Lev Gleason. 

COVER ART BY CHARLES BIRO. 



No publisher was more enamored of junior 
heroes than DC, the company that started the trend: 
Green Arrow, like Captain America, debuted with a 
junior partner, the young archer Speedy (whose real 
name was not Speedy, incidentally, but Roy Harper). 
DC overhauled its once-mysterious Sandman, hat- 
boxing his Shadow-inspired fedora and cloak and 
dressing him in extravagant yellow-and-purple tights, 
with his protege Sandy by his side; similarly, the 
Crimson Avenger — a Green Hornet-like midnight 
man who preceded Batman's Detective Comics #27 
debut by five issues — was redesigned in 1941 and 
appointed a protege named Wing. 

Fawcett Comics followed suit with Mr. Scarlet 
and Pinky, and the publisher's Captain Marvel was 
accompanied by two sidekicks: Captain Marvel Jr. 



and Mary Marvel. Captain Marvel wasn't the only 
Golden Age (1938-1954) hero who socialized with 
girls: Holyoke's Cat-Man gained the homeless pre- 
teen Kitten as his companion. Observes historian 
Mike Benton in his book Superhero Comics of the 
Golden Age (1992), "By the end of the series, the 
coquettish and fully developed Kitten and her Uncle 
David (her pet name for Cat-Man's alter ego) could 
certainly provide rich fodder for small-minded gos- 
sips." Society was more innocent during those sim- 
pler times, however, and improprieties between adult 
and junior superheroes, regardless of their genders, 
were never implied by their creators or considered by 
their readers. Parents of readers also never seemed 
bothered by the threat of child endangerment faced 
by these junior heroes when they blazed into danger 
with their costumed big brothers. 

Nor were they concerned when superkids went 
solo. Young heroes headlined their own titles or 
strips, like Golden Lad, Kid Eternity, and Merry, Girl of 
a Thousand Gimmicks. Some formed teams, like the 
Young Allies (sidekicks Bucky and Toro with a group 
of nonpowered boys known as the Sentinels of Liber- 
ty), the Boy Commandos, and the Newsboy Legion 
(the Commandos lacked superpowers, but compen- 
sated with an abundance of patriotism and attitude; 
that goes for the Newsboys too, though their strip 
tuned the tables by having a grown-up superhero, the 
Guardian, as both mascot and mentor). And Lev Glea- 
son Publications made no secret of its target audi- 
ence by releasing Boy Comics, starring a teen titan 
named Crimebuster. Robin the Boy Wonder continued 
to work with Batman but moonlighted in his own 
series in Star-Spangled Comics, the comic book that 
also featured the Star-Spangled Kid, the only teenage 
superhero with an adult sidekick working under him: 
Stripesy. And while DC didn't give its flagship charac- 
ter, Superman, a junior partner during the Golden Age 
(1938-1954), it did the next best thing by publishing 
stories starring Supenboy, "The Adventures of Super- 
man When He Was a Boy." 

An interesting variation on the sidekick theme 
also occurred during the Golden Age: the partnering 



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Sidekicks and Proteges 



of adult male superheroes with adult female super- 
heroines. In April 1941 Susan Kent learned that her 
boyfriend, Jim Barr, was actually Bulletman, and 
demanded that he make her a superhero, too. Thus 
Bulletgirl was born. Her confidence and verve made 
her a valuable ally to Bulletman, despite the fact 
that her superheroic title did not suggest her matu- 
rity. "Even their names told the reader who was the 
stronger and who was the weaker of the pair," 
observed historian Trina Robbins in her book, The 
Great Women Superheroes (1996). With Hawk- 
man's Hawkgirl, the Flame's Flame Girl, Lash Light- 
ning's Lightning Girl, and Doll Man's Doll Girl, the 
woman was banished to a secondary role, often 
being rebuked by the male for her impetuousness, 
or for just putting on the costume in the first place. 
Most of these sidekick superheroines also doubled 
as damsels in distress, but Hawkgirl enjoyed the 
ultimate revenge: In the 2000s she has flown the 
coop, serving as a popular member — without Hawk- 
man! — of DC Comics' Justice Society in the JSA 
comic book and of that group's counterpart on the 
Cartoon Network's Justice League animated series. 

After World War II, however, when superheroes 
were no longer required to help bolster the nation's 
patriotism, kid sidekicks started to disappear, along 
with their adult cohorts. By the mid-1950s only a 
handful of superhero comics remained in print. Robin 
stuck around with Batman, Speedy and Green Arrow 
remained in backup series in various DC anthologies, 
and newcomer the Fighting American was joined by 
Speedboy for a very brief stint on the stands. Jimmy 
Olsen was elevated from supporting cast status to a 
pseudo-sidekick role with Superman, getting his own 
long-running title, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. 
Olsen became Superman's actual sidekick in a num- 
ber of adventures inside the Bottle City of Kandor 
when the pair fought Kryptonian crime as the Bat- 
man-and-Robin-inspired Nightwingand Flamebird. 

In his contemptuous book Seduction of the 
Innocent (1954), real-life psychiatrist Dr. Fredric 
Wertham charged that the comic-book industry was 
morally corrupting impressionable young readers 



with graphic depictions of violence, gore, and sexual 
impropriety. The original superhero sidekick was 
also besieged, as the author impeached Batman 
and Robin's relationship as "a wish dream of two 
homosexuals living together." Wertham helped fuel 
the U.S. Senate's attack on the comic-book indus- 
try, which as a result homogenized its content 
under the auspices of the watchdog guild called the 
Comics Code Authority. Wertham, however, proved 
an unintentional ally for the kid sidekick in comics: 
In the mid- to late 1950s more superpowered pro- 
teges were introduced, to strengthen the lead 
heroes' paternal (or maternal) roles. Superman got 
Supergirl, Aquaman got Aqualad, Batman's new ally 
Batwoman got Bat-Girl (DC made sure it side- 
stepped the gay allegations by adding not one but 
two females to Batman's cast), and Wonder Woman 
got Wonder Girl (and Wonder Tot, to boot!). 

The role of the superhero sidekick underwent a 
transformation throughout the Silver Age of comics 
(1956-1969). The traditional sidekick was still in 
action at DC Comics, with Kid Flash joining the Flash 
as the publisher's newest protege, but Marvel 
Comics pushed young heroes into autonomous roles. 
Marvel's Fantastic Four#l (1961) introduced a new 
Human Torch, an adolescent named Johnny Storm, 
clearly characterized as an equal member of the 
team, not merely an exuberant add-on — the Torch 
even solo-starred in Strange Tales. A free-spirited 
teen named Rick Jones became the voice of reason 
to Marvel's rampaging Incredible Hulk, and the pub- 
lisher's Amazing Spider-Man — its runaway sensation 
who premiered in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962) — was 
an introverted high-schooler overburdened with per- 
sonal problems ...just like his readers. 

Marvel audaciously charted new territory with 
its young characters: X-Men #1 (1963) introduced a 
band of mutant teens, genetic flukes that represent- 
ed the next step in human evolution. Of course, 
most of Marvel's heroes were adults, but its new 
breed of independent superteens stood their own 
alongside the grown-ups instead of following in their 
footsteps. DCs bravest and boldest move with its 



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Silver Age of Superheroes (1956-1969) 



sidekicks during the 1960s was to ally them as a 
team: Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were first unit- 
ed in The Brave and the Bold #54 (1964), then 
picked up Wonder Girl in two more tryout appear- 
ances before being awarded their own title with 
Teen Titans #1 (1966). As the 1960s drew to a 
close, DC had continued to follow Marvel's lead by 
creating new teen heroes — like argumentative 
brothers the Hawk and the Dove and the prehistoric 
hero Anthro — who were stars of their own series, 
not toiling under the shadow of a big brother. 

Changing social and political climes throughout 
the 1960s and 1970s changed the American teen, 
and as kids matured, so did superhero sidekicks. By 
the early 1970s the members of the Teen Titans 
had graduated out of their mentors' titles, now fully 
on their own, and Robin had become the Teen Won- 
der, having left Batman's tutelage for college. Spider- 
Man's alter ego of Peter Parker was also a college 
student. More "relevant" themes crept into comics, 
affecting some teen characters: Both Parker's friend 
Harry Osborn and Green Arrow's ex-sidekick Speedy 
wrestled with (but overcame) drug addictions, and in 
the early 1980s, it was disclosed that Speedy had 
also fathered a child out of wedlock. Grayson hung 
up his red Robin tunic in 1984, adopting the new 
guise of Nightwing. Before long, his fellow Titans 
also discarded their sidekick identities: Wonder Girl 
became Troia, Aqualad became Tempest, Speedy 
became Arsenal, and Kid Flash became the Flash. 
The superhero sidekick had grown up. 

Only one sidekick has remained in that tradi- 
tional role: Robin the Boy Wonder — a new Robin, 
that is. Jason Todd became the Boy Wonder in 
1983, in a move largely inspired by DC Comics' 
desire to merchandize its famous character. This 
second Robin fared poorly with readers, and in 
1989 was killed in the comics as the result of a 1- 
900 phone-in vote with readers choosing between 
the character's life or death. DC promptly replaced 
him that year with Tim Drake, who has endured into 
the 2000s as Batman's new protege, also starring 



i£0 



in his own successful comic book (running uninter- 
rupted since its 1993 premiere). 

While teen heroes have been and continue to 
be popular in comics since the 1970s — Nova, 
Firestorm, Cyborg, Speedball, Impulse, and Spyboy 
are just a few of the adolescent characters appear- 
ing in print — they have been presented either as 
solo players or members of a larger (usually teen) 
team. As a changing and demanding world contin- 
ues to expect youngsters to grow up faster, it is 
unlikely that the traditional superhero sidekick will 
ever return to prominence. — ME 

Silver 4ge 
of Superheroes 
0956-1969) 

It was 1955, and the comic-book industry was 
imperiled. Postwar circulation figures had plunged, 
psychologist Fredric Wertham had impeached 
comics' content in his book Seduction of the Inno- 
cent (1954), and the U.S. Senate had imposed 
upon the industry a censorship board called the 
Comics Code Authority. Superheroes were passe, 
save the Man of Steel, a media star thanks to The 
Adventures of Superman (1953-1957), a syndicat- 
ed program appearing on the medium that had 
robbed comics of much of its audience: television. 

To survive, comics diversified away from super- 
heroes into the Western, romance, mystery, teen 
humor, funny animal, and TV tie-in genres. Science 
fiction also proved a popular theme. Technological 
advancements spawned during the atomic age 
piqued Americans' imaginations, while the red scare 
fomented rampant paranoia. Science and cold war 
mistrust melded in November 1955 when DC 
Comics introduced — with absolutely no fanfare — the 
first new superhero in roughly ten years: the Man- 

THB SUPBBHeZO BOOK 



Silver Age of Superheroes (1956-1969) 




Amazing Spider-Man #68 © 1969 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN ROMITA. 



hunter from Mars. First seen as the backup feature 
to Batman and Robin in Detective Comics #115, 
J'onn J'onzz (pronounced "John Jones"), a green- 
skinned superman, is teleported to Earth by an 
American scientist. Unable to return home, J'onzz 
employs his shape-shifting ability to conceal his true 
looks from an unwelcoming population and masquer- 
ades as a Caucasian human detective named ... 
John Jones. The Manhunter from Mars would even- 
tually be better known as the Martian Manhunter. 

We FASTZST MAN ALIVB 

In 1956 DC Comics, struggling to find new con- 
cepts that might attract readers, introduced a "try- 



out" title, Showcase. "The first three Showcases 
flopped," editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz recalled in 
his autobiography, Man of Two Worlds: My Life in 
Science Fiction and Comics (2000), "and we were 
at an editorial meeting trying to decide what to do 
in number four when I suggested that we try to 
revive the Flash." This renewal was given the green 
light despite the trepidation of other editors still 
battle-weary from the demise of superheroes sever- 
al years earlier. 

Schwartz steered the project into a fresh direc- 
tion. Jay Garrick, the Flash of comics' Golden Age 
(1938-1954), was ignored — for a time, at least — 
and a new character, police scientist Barry Allen, 
obtained superspeed in his initial excursion in 
Showcase #4 (September-October 1956). Given a 
sporty costume by artist Carmine Infantino, the 
Flash mixed action, style, and imagination, an 
attractive alternative to DCs other series and to 
then-current television fare, where special-effects 
limitations made such superactivity impossible (or 
laughable when attempted). Brisk sales warranted 
three more Showcase appearances before the 
"Fastest Man Alive" sped into his own magazine. 

At the time, DC, Schwartz, Infantino, and origi- 
nal Flash writer Robert Kanigher merely had in mind 
the creation of a new product that would generate 
readers and profit. Their efforts, and the Flash's 
runaway success, marked a vital moment in comic- 
book history: the beginning of its eminent Silver 
Age (1956-1969). Without the success of the 
Flash, publishers might have given up on super- 
heroes, leading the genre into extinction. 

POST-FLASH PC 
SUPZfZHBZOeS 

In 1958, Schwartz's colleague Mort Weisinger, 
editor of DCs Superman franchise, guest-starred 
the Legion of Super-Heroes — one of the first times 
the term "superheroes" was used on a comics 
cover — in the Superboy strip in Adventure Comics 
#247. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy 



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Silver Age of Superheroes (1956-1969) 



(later renamed Lightning Lad) were superpowered 
teenagers from a thousand years in the future who 
traveled to the past to recruit the Boy of Steel into 
their club of heroes. Weisinger added a new super- 
powered member to Superman's family in May 
1959, when Action Comics #252 introduced the 
Man of Steel's cousin Supergirl, a survivor of the 
planet Krypton. 

Schwartz's next volley was the reintroduction of 
Green Lantern, another DC Golden Age great. As he 
did with the Flash, Schwartz took the superhero's 
name and power — in this case, his power ring, the 
source of Green Lantern's almost limitless abili- 
ties — and premiered a new version of the character 
in Showcase #22 (September-October 1959). 
Robust reader response to the hero led to the 
release of Green Lantern #1 in 1960. 

With the acclaim for the Flash and Green 
Lantern, Schwartz took an ambitious step in The 
Brave and the Bold #28 (1960) by combining them, 
along with DCs other major superheroes — Super- 
man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the 
Martian Manhunter — into a team called the Justice 
League of America, another revamp, this time of the 
Golden Age's Justice Society of America. Continuing 
Schwartz's winning streak, the "JLA" was a smash, 
and the editor next overhauled both Hawkman and 
the Atom in 1961. Also that year, he published the 
momentous "Flash of Two Worlds" in The Flash 
#123, introducing the concept of a parallel world — 
"Earth-Two," where the Golden Age Flash still oper- 
ated, while the current version of the Flash existed 
on "Earth-One." Over the next few years, Schwartz 
offered exposure to more Earth-Two heroes, along- 
side their Earth-One counterparts: meetings 
between the Silver Age and Golden Age Flashes, 
Green Lanterns, and Atoms became common, and 
the Justice Society began annual crossovers in the 
pages of Justice League of America. Beyond those 
appearances, Starman and Black Canary teamed 
up in The Brave and the Bold #61 and #62 (1965), 
Dr. Fate and Hourman joined forces in Showcase 
#55 and #56 (1965), and the Spectre was revived 



in his own solo series beginning with Showcase 
#60 (1966). 

BATMAN'S *N£WlOOK" 

Batman and Detective Comics teetered on the 
brink of cancellation in 1964, stagnant from years of 
mediocre stories and art. DCs editorial director Irwin 
Donenfeld assigned the books to Schwartz with the 
mandate of "saving" them. Schwartz realized that Bat- 
man had, in his own words, "strayed away from the 
original roots of the character." The editor returned the 
element of mystery to Batman's tales, incorporating 
clues into the stories that invited the reader to solve 
the whodunit along with the superhero. Schwartz's 
most commercial alteration was in Batman's appear- 
ance: The Caped Crusader's costume was stream- 
lined, and a yellow oval was added around his chest 
insignia, simulating the look of the sky-illuminating Bat- 
signal. The Batmobile was souped up into a stylish hot 
rod, and Robin the Boy Wonder became hipper in the 
process. This facelift, called "The New Look" Batman 
by fans and historians, sold solidly and rescued the 
"Dynamic Duo" from the chopping block. 

Although these new Silver Age superheroes 
generated stronger sales than DC had been earning 
on many of its titles, circulations were still consider- 
ably lower than during the medium's heyday. "By 
1962 less than a dozen publishers accounted for a 
total annual industry output of 350 million comic 
books, a drop of over 50 percent from the previous 
decade," reported author Bradford W. Wright in his 
book, Comic Book Nation (2001). 

TH£ MABVZL AG£ 

Julius Schwartz indirectly contributed to a yet 
another substantial event: the advent of the Marvel 
Age of comics. Justice League was commanding 
such strong sales in 1961 that it afforded bragging 
rights to DC publisher Jack Liebowitz during a golf 
game with his contemporary, Martin Goodman. 
Goodman, the publisher of Marvel Comics — then 



ijfr 



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Silver Age of Superheroes (1956-1969) 



limping along in the marketplace with a handful of 
monster and thriller series — ordered his staff edi- 
tor/writer Stan Lee to create a group of super- 
heroes. Lee had considered resigning from Marvel 
at the time of Goodman's directive, but was encour- 
aged by his wife to challenge himself to try some- 
thing new with this assignment. "For once I wanted 
to write stories that wouldn't insult the intelligence 
of an older reader, stories with interesting characteri- 
zation, more realistic dialogue, and plots that hadn't 
been recycled a thousand times before," explained 
Lee in his biography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of 
Stan Lee (2002). Lee, along with artist Jack Kirby, 
created Marvel's premier superteam, and its flag- 
ship title, in Fantastic Four#l (November 1961). 

The Fantastic Four's complex characters — 
smug scientist Reed Richards, a.k.a. the malleable 
Mr. Fantastic; his sheepish fiancee Sue Storm, the 
disappearing Invisible Girl; her fiery-tempered teen 
brother, Johnny, better known as the Human Torch; 
and Richards' brusque friend, ace pilot Ben Grimm, 
the grotesque man-monster called the Thing — each 
had personality quirks that frequently thrust the 
"FF" into verbal and physical conflict, yet they set 
their differences aside in times of crisis. They were 
a family, and the most realistically portrayed comic- 
book superheroes readers had ever seen. Fantastic 
Four instantly became Marvel's best-seller. 

The Fantastic Four may have been inspired by 
the Justice League of America (JLA), but they 
shared no other traits. The FF was the JLA through 
a refractive lens: The Justice Leaguers exemplified 
camaraderie and teamwork, its members (except 
for Aquaman) concealed their true identities behind 
their colorful superguises, and its heroes lived in 
fictional cities (Metropolis, Gotham City, Central 
City, and others); on the other hand, the FF bickered 
incessantly, they saw no reason to conceal their 
superpowers behind alter egos, and they resided in 
the "real" world city of New York. 

Over the next few years, Lee — with Kirby, Steve 
Ditko, and other artists — unleashed a plethora of 



problem-plagued powerhouses, including the 
gamma-irradiated Incredible Hulk; the mighty Thor, 
god of thunder; the occult-based Doctor Strange; 
the sightless superhero Daredevil; and the outcast 
society of mutants known as the X-Men. Golden Age 
stalwarts Sub-Mariner and Captain America were 
rejuvenated and fought against and/or alongside 
the newer Marvel characters. The breakaway super- 
hero in the burgeoning Marvel universe was the 
Amazing Spider-Man, who, behind his webbed 
mask, was actually a self-centered teenage nebbish 
named Peter Parker. Marvel's offbeat, flawed super- 
heroes were embraced by the 1960s countercul- 
ture, particularly on college campuses. 

With each new series, the differences between 
Marvel's and DCs titles became progressively appar- 
ent. "DCs comic books were the image of affluent 
America," noted Wright, while Marvel's plopped its 
heroes onto the dirty streets of Manhattan — and 
sometimes its boroughs — where average Joes were 
often frightened by or angered at these strange 
beings. DCs villains were usually stereotyped 
scofflaws with gimmicky weapons, where Marvel's 
bad guys were cold war spies, grandiloquent war- 
lords, and rotten rabble-rousers with superpowers of 
their own. There was little, if any, damage on the 
streets of DCs faux cities during its superhero- 
versus-supervillain battles, while Marvel's New York 
withstood the brunt of smashed autos and imploded 
pavement. DCs heroes usually met as allies when 
battling a common enemy, but Marvel's heroes gen- 
erally clashed within moments of an encounter. DCs 
stories were more traditionally based good-versus- 
evil yarns, where Marvel sometimes dealt with 
issues like campus unrest and corrupt politicians. 
Even the editorial tone between the two publishers 
varied: DCs letters columns featured articulate, 
sometimes chiding, and usually faceless responses 
to readers, while Marvel's — generally in Lee's 
voice — were amiable and teeming with hyperbole. 
DCs stories were largely uncredited, but Marvel's 
creative staff, from the writer down the chain to the 
colorist, got their due in print, with endearing nick- 



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Silver Age of Superheroes (1956-1969) 



names attached (Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "King" 
Kirby, and "Jazzy" Johnny Romita, to name a few). 

SUPZBHBPO'A-GO-GO 

Comic-book history repeated itself during the 
Silver Age. The success of a new DC superhero — in 
this case, the Flash — motivated other companies to 
publish their own costumed crusaders, just as 
Superman's 1938 introduction had produced super- 
successors. Similarly, World War II was a catalyst 
for an immeasurable amount of new superheroes, 
and the Vietnam War also inspired an outbreak of 
superheroes — not as patriotic icons, as in the 
1940s, but as engines of escapism. Protests 
against the Vietnam War made it a delicate and 
rarely seen topic in comics stories. 

Superheroes originating, or returning to action, 
during the Silver Age include Charlton Comics' Cap- 
tain Atom; Dell Comics' atomic ace Nukla, and its trio 
of superhero titles based on movie monsters: 
Frankenstein (Boris Karloff-meets-the Man of Steel), 
Dracula (who looked more like Batman than Bela 
Lugosi), and Werewolf; Gold Key Comics' Magnus 
Robot Fighter and Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom (revived 
in the 1990s by Valiant Comics); ACG (American 
Comics Group)'s Magicman and Nemesis, starring in 
the anthologies Forbidden Worlds and Adventures 
into the Unknown; fly-by-night M.F. Publications' Cap- 
tain Marvel, an appropriation of a classic appellation, 
featuring a superhero who split his body into sepa- 
rate parts by yelling, of all things, "Split!" (similarly, 
M.F. ripped off other Golden Age heroes' names for 
its villains: Plastic Man and Dr. Fate); Harvey Comics' 
Spyman (who fought bad guys with his "electro-robot 
hand"), Jigsaw (a "splitting" hero, like M.F.'s Captain 
Marvel), icy Jack Q. Frost, and aquatic Pirana, plus 
reprints of legendary superhero series The Spirit and 
The Fighting American; Archie Comics' Mighty Cru- 
saders, the Fly (later Fly-Man), and Jaguar, as well as 
superhero versions of its teenage characters, Archie 
as Pureheart the Powerful and Jughead as Captain 
Hero (Archie's girlfriend Betty even donned a guise to 



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become Superteen!); and MAD magazine's superhero 
parody, Don Martin's Captain Klutz. 

Two small comic-book publishers distinguished 
themselves with thought-provoking takes on the 
superhero genre. Tower Comics' lauded 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, which featured artwork by 
renowned comics artist Wally Wood and starred 
superheroes like Dynamo, No-Man, Menthor, Raven, 
and Lightning; and Charlton Comics' "Action 
Heroes" line, which included Blue Beetle, Captain 
Atom, Sarge Steel, Nightshade, the Question, Judo- 
master, and Peter Cannon-Thunderbolt. Dick Gior- 
dano, the editor of most of Charlton's Action Heroes 
series, revealed in his 2003 biography, Dick Gior- 
dano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time, "That 
name was not an accident. I chose that term. 
Superman never did anything for me. Batman did. I 
always preferred heroes who could do things that 
we supposedly would be able to do." The nuclear- 
powered Captain Atom aside — a hero already in 
print when Giordano came on board but whose pow- 
ers were weakened by the new editor's dictate — 
Charlton's heroes used acquired skills, mental dis- 
ciplines, or weapons in their war against injustice. 

"BATMANJA" INSPIRES 
TV SUPeBHZZOBS 

1966 was the year of the superhero. Batman 
(1966-1968), the kitschy sendup starring Adam 
West in the title role, premiered on ABC in January 
of that year to instant acclaim. The show satisfied a 
wide demographic spread — children, mesmerized by 
its action; teens, especially girls, for the fashions 
and heartthrob Burt Ward as Robin the Boy Wonder; 
and adults, in tune with the camp humor and dou- 
ble-entendres that eluded kids' understanding. Uni- 
versal exploitation of Batman made "Batmania" an 
inexorable phenomenon. 

Superheroes dominated the television airwaves 
during the mid-1960s: Captain Nice, Mr. Terrific, 
Space Ghost, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, The 
Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, The New Adven- 



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The Silver Surfer 



tures of Superman, and Aquaman were among the 
live-action and animated entries. Many of Marvel's 
characters starred in cartoon programs: Captain 
America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Sub-Mariner 
rotated days on the syndicated Marvel Super 
Heroes, and both Fantastic Four and Spider-Man 
appeared on Saturday-morning TV, and in a wealth 
of toy and product licensing. 

MABVU TAKSS TH£ LBAP 

The superhero craze fizzled by 1968, driving 
some smaller publishers out of business. Even the 
oldest comics company got a rude awakening, as DC 
was overtaken by Marvel as the industry leader. Pop- 
ular artist Carmine Infantino was instated as DCs art 
director, with the mission of making the line's covers 
more appealing to the potential consumer. Infantino 
was soon appointed to editorial director, and elected 
to take on Marvel to regain his company's former 
stature. He shook up the status quo in some of the 
superhero books — Wonder Woman was stripped of 
her superpowers; Amazing Spider-Man artist Steve 
Ditko defected to DC to launch the offbeat superhero 
comics Beware the Creeper and The Hawk and the 
Dove; and superstar artist Neal Adams began to 
transmute Batman from a masked detective to a 
creature of the night. At the same time, the company 
blindsided Marvel with its groundbreaking, commer- 
cially popular horror comics like House of Mystery. 

But Marvel's superheroes continued to outsell 
DCs by the end of 1969. DC ended the Silver Age 
with the same dilemma it faced at the beginning of 
the era: how to make its superhero comics popular 
again. —ME 

The Sff</er Surfer 

Though first introduced into an issue of Fantastic 
Four as an afterthought, the Silver Surfer has 
become one of the great icons of comics and is an 
enduring cult favorite. In early 1966, Fantastic Four 




The Silver Surfer #11 © 1969 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOHN BUSCEMA AND JOHN VERPOORTEN. 



#48 was originally intended to feature the super- 
hero team in pitched battle with a new enemy, the 
colossal, planet-eating alien Galactus. But when 
Jack Kirby presented his penciled page, writer/edi- 
tor Stan Lee had a real surprise: Kirby had dreamed 
up a new hero — a bald, silver man flying through the 
sky on a silver surfboard, possessed with cosmic 
power and apparently acting as Galactus' herald — 
and simply inserted him into the story. Whatever his 
genesis, the public (and Lee) took the "Sentinel of 
the Spaceways" to their hearts, and more appear- 
ances in Fantastic Four followed soon after. 

The initial Fantastic Four story ended with the 
Surfer, touched by the humanity he saw on Earth, 
turning on Galactus and persuading him to leave 



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The Silver Surfer 



the planet alone. Galactus agreed, but punished the 
Surfer by erecting a barrier around Earth that would 
keep him restricted to the planet, ensuring years of 
heartbreak, angst, and mourning for the tortured 
herald. In the psychedelic 1960s, both the fans and 
the growing counter-culture movement adored the 
Surfer, seeing in his James Dean-esque emoting a 
reflection of their own insecurities and confronta- 
tions with society. Indeed, the Surfer himself had 
much to say about the hot topics of the 1960s — 
namely, war and peace — Lee himself admitting that 
he wrote his "most obvious moralizing" through this 
character. By 1968, the clamor for the hero had 
grown to fever pitch and Lee bowed to the inevitable 
by giving the Surfer his own comic, complete with a 
long-delayed origin story and (much to the surprise 
of Kirby) a new artist, the elegant John Buscema. 

The Surfer's origin, detailed in Silver Surfer #1 
(1968), tells of how Norrin Radd from the planet 
Zenn-La offers to become Galactus' superpowered 
scout in order to save his people from the planet- 
guzzling titan's terrible appetite. Radd has become 
dissatisfied with his undemanding life on the par- 
adise-like Zenn-La and jumps at Galactus' offer of a 
life in the stars, reasoning that he could find unin- 
habited planets for his master to devour and save 
countless civilizations in the process. ("On and on 
he soars, dodging meteors — skirting around aster- 
oids — rocketing from planet to planet — with entire 
galaxies as his ports of call.") However, in accepting 
a future at Galactus' side, he has to leave the love 
of his life, the beautiful Shalla Bal, behind, inducing 
centuries of wistful pining, as the people of his 
home planet are conveniently immortal. 

Under the great classicist Buscema, Silver 
Surfer was one of the decade's high points. Excit- 
ing, dynamic, and expansive, each issue was a treat 
for the eyes. However, readers soon became aware 
that Lee was unsure where to take the title, and 
Marvel's decision to launch it in an expensive sixty- 
eight-page format put many potential buyers off. 

Issue #3 introduced the Surfer's nemesis, 
Mephisto — Marvel's answer to the devil himself, 



complete with pointed ears, sharp teeth, red skin, 
and flame-filled Stygian lair. Lee had Mephisto 
tempt the increasingly Christ-like Surfer with riches, 
power, and women, finally offering him a life with 
Shalla Bal if he would only join him in a career of 
evil. Inevitably, the Surfer rejected these tempta- 
tions only to see Shalla Bal whizzed off back to 
Zenn-La; Mephisto would regularly drag the poor girl 
into his plans over the next couple of years. As the 
Surfer's moanings and posturings continued to 
escalate, fans deserted the comic, and after eigh- 
teen issues Marvel threw in the towel. Lee had 
seen the title as an outlet for his musings on Ameri- 
can consciousness, and had reveled in the opportu- 
nity to indulge his taste for Shakespearean speech- 
es, but possibly at the expense of the fans' yearn- 
ing for action and characterization. 

Throughout the 1970s, the Silver Surfer was a 
regular guest star in numerous issues of the Fantas- 
tic Four's comic and was a popular member of the 
Defenders, as well as being a potent iconic symbol 
for the cognoscenti. In 1978, Lee and Kirby were 
reunited for a final time on an all-new Silver Surfer 
trade paperback, published by Simon & Schuster — 
one of the first graphic novels. The story was an 
alternate take on the Surfer's first journey to Earth, 
excising the Fantastic Four from the proceedings, and 
was possibly intended to be the blueprint for a Silver 
Surfer movie. Rumors persisted throughout the late 
1970s that a Silver Surfer film, starring pop singer 
Olivia Newton John as Shalla Bal, was imminent, but 
it never materialized and there was a sense that the 
character's popularity was on the wane. 

A long fallow period in the 1980s, punctuated 
by a 1982 one-shot, unexpectedly came to a close 
in 1987 with a new Silver Surfer series, which this 
time was a resounding success. Writer Steve Engle- 
hart immediately freed the Surfer from his reluctant 
exile on Earth, correctly seeing that fans would love 
to explore the wider universe out there. For its first 
few years, this second series featured all sorts of 
aliens, the warring Kree and Skrull empires, Galac- 
tus, and, inevitably, Shalla Bal. In an intriguing twist, 



%5b 



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Space Ghost 



the Surfer was finally able to propose to his beloved 
but she rejected him, feeling that the pair had 
grown apart over the centuries. The 1990s tied the 
Surfer into new writer Jim Starlin's menagerie of 
cosmic stars, including Captain Marvel, Warlock, Pip 
the Troll, and the villainous Thanos. 

While never the critics' favorite that he had 
been in his early days, the period starting with the 
Englehart series was the Surfer's commercial high 
point, resulting in a stream of specials, graphic nov- 
els, toys, and merchandise. Lee enjoyed occasional 
reunions with his old favorite, including a 1988 col- 
laboration with the legendary French artist Moebius 
on a short book called Parable. In the Surfer's own 
title his writers began to play around with his history, 
including a revelation (in issue #48) that, back in the 
distant past, Galactus had tampered with his soul 
so that he would agree to become his herald. Other 
plot twists included the death of Shalla Bal and the 
destruction of Zenn-La (both inevitably reborn later) 
and a showdown with Mephisto (again). 

The comic's last years were perhaps not its 
finest, and included Shalla Bal falling in love with 
the Surfer's (previously unmentioned) half-brother 
and the unconvincing revelation that Zenn-La had 
been destroyed thousands of years earlier and had 
been an illusion ever since. The sense that, after 
ten years in the limelight, the character had finally 
run out of steam was confirmed by the comic's can- 
cellation in 1998 with issue #146. 

However, the same decade saw him make it to 
America's TV screens if still not its multiplexes, as 
a well-regarded Silver Surfer animated series ran 
from 1998-1999. A co-starring role in Marvel's 
early 2000s Defenders revival was followed by an 
atmospheric new comic of his own, self-described 
as a more mysterious, M. Night Shyamalan treat- 
ment of the hero (2003-present). Time will tell if 
this new concept clicks with fans. But in any case, 
constant reprints of the Silver Surfer's first series 
(now fondly regarded as a classic) and of his early 
encounters with the Fantastic Four, as well as high- 



priced collectibles such as statues and action fig- 
ures, will doubtless ensure his status as one of 
America's most memorable heroes. — DAR 



Space Ghost 

Although he calls himself Space Ghost, there is no 
data to say whether or not the interstellar super- 
hero (and later talk show host) is an actual ghost. 
Wearing a white, red, black, and yellow costume and 
cape, the hooded Space Ghost's origin and real 
name have never been revealed (though his boom- 
ing voice was originally portrayed by radio announc- 
er and cartoon veteran Gary Owens). What is known 
is that his suit and his powers are incredible. An 
Inviso-Belt allows him to disappear, while his suit 
also gives him the power of flight at great speeds, 
the ability to breathe underwater or in the vacuum 
of space, and even to teleport! Also aiding Space 
Ghost in his missions against interstellar bad guys 
are his Power Bands (worn on his forearms), which 
have an astonishing variety of functions, including 
hypno force rays, destructo rays, heat intensifier 
rays, freeze rays, battering ram rays, electro shock 
rays, and even force fields! 

With this much power, it's surprising that 
Space Ghost needs any help, but he does traverse 
the spaceways in his Phantom Cruiser (sometimes 
known as the Ghost Ship), a spaceship equipped 
with a variety of weapons including an inviso ray, 
freeze mist, heat-seeking missiles, and the ability to 
reach hyperspeeds. The Phantom Cruiser is docked 
at the Ghost Planet Headquarters, hidden behind a 
defensive force shield on the Ghost Planet. 

Space Ghost mentors two twin teens who 
dress in blue, black, and yellow costumes — sister 
Jan (voiced by Ginny Tyler) and brother Jayce (voiced 
by Tim Matthieson) — and their monkey Blip (voiced 
by Don Messick). The kids and Blip use a jetpack to 
fly, have an Inviso-Belt, and use the Space Ghost 
emblem on their chest as a communication device. 



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Space Ghost 




Late-night superhero Space Ghost in Space Ghost Coast to Coast. 



The teens have their own vehicle, the interstellar 
Space Coupe, which can double as a submarine! 
They aid Space Ghost in policing the universe. 

Over the years, Space Ghost has amassed a 
number of interstellar enemies in his rogues' gallery. 
They include insectoid Zorak; catlike pirate Brak; the 
Spider Woman (also known as the Black Widow, and 
not to be confused with other popular superheroines 
of each name); heat-inducing Moltar; robot master 
Metallus; the Creature King and his nightmare 
beams, giant locust Lokar; and many others. 

CBS executive Fred Silverman wanted a morn- 
ingful of superhero shows for the 1966 season, 
and he asked Hanna-Barbera animation studios to 
develop a serious superhero series (unlike previous 
comedy shows). Legendary comic artist Alex Toth 



1*5* 



created and designed Space Ghost, and production 
began on the series. Space Ghost and Dino Boy 
launched on September 10, 1966. Space Ghost 
had two eight-minute adventures per episode, while 
Dino Boy only had one short story. Thirty-six 
episodes of Space Ghost were produced in the first 
year, and another six stories were added for the 
1967-1968 season. These six stories were signifi- 
cant because they crossed over with other Hanna- 
Barbera characters such as the Herculoids, Mightor, 
Shazzan, and Moby Dick. 

Eight years after its cancellation, the series 
was repackaged with another Hanna-Barbera 
series, and aired on NBC. The Space 
Ghost/ Frankenstein Jr. Show aired during the 
1976-1977 season. On September 12, 1981, 
Space Ghost returned to the air with twenty-two new 



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Space Heroes 



episodes as part of the hour-long anthology Space 
Stars (the series was hand-chosen by Fred Silver- 
man, now at NBC). There were also eleven "Space 
Stars Finale" stories that teamed Space Ghost and 
his crew with the Herculoids and Teen Force against 
various evil invaders and galaxy scoundrels. The 
Space Stars series ended in 1982. 

Often in syndicated and cable reruns, Space 
Ghost is a cult favorite among animation fans, 
largely due to its sleek look and its slightly off-kilter 
action. The Cartoon Network revived the character 
in April 1994 as the host of a late-night talk show 
called Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The show was 
surreal, featuring an animated Space Ghost con- 
stantly bedeviled by band-leader Zorak and show 
director Moltar, as well as other past foes, as he 
attempts to run a talk show from the Ghost Planet. 
Live celebrities including Dr. Joyce Brothers, Jim 
Carrey, Mark Hamill, Hulk Hogan, Elvira, and others 
would appear on a hanging television monitor to be 
interviewed by Space Ghost (now voiced by George 
Lowe), but the hero's non-sequiturs and strange 
questions made each interview bizarrely unique. 
The series finally ended on New Year's Eve 2003, 
though it led to spin-off series such as Cartoon 
Planet (1997-1999), Brak Present the Brak Show 
Starring Brak (2000), and The Brak Show 
(2001-2004). 

Space Ghost appeared on a variety of licensed 
products in the 1960s and 1970s, including a Big 
Little Book, costumes, puzzles, coloring books, 
patches, and even bubble bath! His comic book 
adventures have been few and far between: Space 
Ghost #1 from Gold Key in March 1967 (and four 
anthology appearances in 1968-1969); one 
appearance in The Funtastic World of Hanna-Bar- 
bera TV Stars #3 from Marvel in December 1978; 
one issue from Comico in December 1987; one 
issue from Archie Comics in March 1997; and irreg- 
ular issues of Cartoon Network Presents from DC 
Comics from 1997 to 2004. (However, in early 
2004 it was announced that a non-humorous 
comic-book miniseries giving a kind of prequel to 



the character's original cartoon adventures — and 
answering long-standing questions about who he is 
and where he comes from — was on the way from 
DC.) In the years since Space Ghost Coast to Coast 
premiered, the character's cult status has grown, 
resulting in action figures, statues, T-shirts, litho- 
graphs, books, soundtracks, and other material. 
Whether as superhero or talk show host, Space 
Ghost is definitely not dead. — AM 



Space Heroes 

Space may be the final frontier, but some super- 
heroes traverse the intergalactic skyways and 
explore perilous planets, boldly going where the Ter- 
ran hero has never gone before. 

Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, the headstrong 
Earthmen who rocketed into futuristic and/or other- 
worldly adventures, are the prototypical space 
heroes. Both originated in newspaper comic 
strips— Rogers in 1929, and Gordon in 1934— and 
were immortalized beyond the funnies in movie seri- 
als, Big Little Books, motion pictures, television 
series and cartoons, View-Master reels, action fig- 
ures, and comic books. (Brick Bradford, their con- 
temporary, starred in a comic strip from 1933 to 
1987, as well as in other media, but never quite 
reached the cultural zenith of Buck or Flash. Also 
largely forgotten today is the earth-bound Flash-and- 
Buck variant named Blue Bolt, who fought out- 
landish menaces and secret societies underground 
and, in 1940, became the first character collaborat- 
ed on by the soon-to-be-legendary Joe Simon and 
Jack Kirby team.) 

The colorful costumes, exotic locales, and larg- 
er-than-life menaces in the Buck Rogers and Flash 
Gordon comic strips were a major influence upon 
the first superhero, Superman — actually a "strange 
visitor from another planet" himself — and upon the 
burgeoning comic-book industry. During comics' 
Golden Age (1938-1954), Fiction House published 



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Space Heroes 



Planet Comics (1940-1954), an anthology spot- 
lighting "weird adventures on other worlds — the uni- 
verse of the future." Each issue of Planet teemed 
with electrifying epics starring handsome heroes 
and fetching females cut from the Rogers/Gordon 
cloth — Reef Ryan and Princess Vara, Mars (God of 
War), Auro (Lord of Jupiter), Flint Baker, the Red 
Comet, Gale Allen and the Girl Squadron, Mysta of 
the Moon, the Star Pirate, and the Space Rangers — 
discharging their ray guns against freakish extrater- 
restrial monstrosities and interplanetary warlords. 

Other publishers zoomed into the fray. Rex Dex- 
ter of Mars, a laser-blasting space hero who soared 
on steel wings, was one of the features premiering 
in Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939), the same comic 
that launched the career of the superhero Blue Bee- 
tle. A pulp-magazine character named Captain 
Future — a crossbreed of Flash Gordon and Doc Sav- 
age — blazed into action in 1940 with his proton pis- 
tol and superior intellect. An entirely different char- 
acter called Captain Future appeared in Startling 
Comics #1 (1940), but had no futuristic gimmicks, 
only an appropriation of the name. Spacehawk, the 
star-faring marshal first seen in Target Comics #5 
(1940), was a surprisingly grim strip from a cartoon- 
ist best known for madcap, Basil Wolverton. Star- 
ring in the short-lived Miracle Comics (1940-1941) 
was Sky Wizard, the "Master of Space," whose gar- 
ish red-and-green uniform went unappreciated by 
colorblind readers. Superworld Comics — the prod- 
uct of publisher Hugo Gernsback, originator of 
Amazing Stories, the first sci-fi pulp — starred Mitey 
Powers, an adventurer who battled "Martians on the 
Moon." Captain Dash, a blue-cowled aero cop who 
patrolled the thirty-first century, appeared — only 
once— in Comedy Comics #9 (1942). 

In its four-year run, Wonder Comics 
(1944-1948) included the forgettable Dick Devins 
("King of Futuria") and the leggy, redheaded space 
pirate named Tara, who brandished a sci-fi saber 
instead of a ray gun. Lance Lewis, Space Detective 
flew into Startling #44 (1947). Clad in red togs 
(bearing a blazing blue comet chest insignia) with 



orange-and-blue striped epaulets, Lewis fired his ray 
blaster at renegade robots with a penchant for kid- 
napping scantily clad ladies. And DC Comics' Tommy 
Tomorrow of the Planeteers' bumpy but lengthy ride 
in print began in the "real science" series Real Fact 
Comics #6 (1947). Tomorrow was used to depict the 
man of the future in educational strips, then 
matured into a full-fledged space-adventure series 
beginning in Action Comics #127 (1948). In his pur- 
ple outfit with short pants, Tomorrow navigated the 
stars in his ship the Ace of Space. 

American paranoia fueled by the spread of 
Communism and the threat of atomic warfare 
metaphorically played out in popular culture through 
invaders from outer space in films like The Day the 
Earth Stood Still (1951), and soon the new medium 
of television featured a galaxy of futuristic heroes. 
TV viewers were enthralled by Captain Video and 
His Video Rangers (1949-1955), featuring the 
"Guardian of the Safety of the World," a self-pro- 
claimed planetary protector who stunned his adver- 
saries (including Mook the Moon Man, Kul of Eos, 
and Toborthe Robot [read that name backwards]) 
with his Cosmic Ray Vibrator; and Tom Corbett, 
Space Cadet (1950-1952), who patrolled the cos- 
mos in the starship Polaris with the fellow members 
of the Space Academy. Space heroes stormed into 
other media: Commando Cody a.k.a. Rocketman, 
the "Sky Marshal of the Universe," was one of the 
last characters to headline a movie serial as that 
art form was dying out due to the emergence of 
television; and comics publisher Ziff-Davis' Crusad- 
er from Mars (1952) featured the alien Tarka, 
deported from the red planet for a crime and deter- 
mined to redeem himself by performing good deeds 
on Earth, over which he hovered in his soundless 
"Whirling Disc-craft." 

With Julius "Julie" Schwartz — the founder of 
science-fiction fandom and a former sci-fi literary 
agent — in the editorial pool of DC Comics, space 
heroes dotted DCs publishing starscape of the 
1950s. Strange Adventures #9 (1951) premiered 
Captain Comet, actually Adam Blake, an evolution- 



Ufifi 



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ary fluke — comics' first mutant— centuries ahead of 
his time. Captain Comet fought crooks and aliens 
with ESP, flight, and psychokinesis; for example, in 
Strange Adventures #28's (1953) "Devil's Island in 
Space," Comet's "super-normal senses detect dan- 
ger," but his eyes cannot see the invisible invaders 
encircling him. The Knights of the Galaxy, DCs ultra- 
modern interpretation of King Arthur's Knights of 
the Round Table, bowed in Mystery in Space #1 
(1951), fighting mundane menaces like the con- 
queror Korvo. The Atomic Knights, a group of far- 
flung (set way off in 1986) champions, debuted in 
Strange Adventures #117 (1960). Gardner Grayle 
led his defiant militia — each dressed in an ancient 
suit of armor — in opposition to the despotic Black 
Baron and other menaces threatening the nuclear- 
ravaged "future" Earth. Schwartz's titles included 
additional space characters (Star Hawkins, Space 
Cabbie, and the Star Rovers, among others), but the 
editor's best-remembered — and most enduring — 
sci-fi superhero is the jetpacked Adam Strange, pre- 
miering in Showcase #17 (1958) and sporadically 
appearing in myriad comics, including Justice 
League of America. 

DC editor Jack Schiff unveiled the Space 
Ranger in Showcase #15 (1958). The Ranger had a 
secret identity — business heir Rick Starr — and 
donned a red-and-yellow spacesuit with a bubble 
helmet and a rocketpack to fight futuristic bad guys 
(the Jungle Beasts of Jupiter and the Alien Brat 
from Planet Byra, among others) with a cutesy alien 
pal, Cryll, by his side. Ultra the Multi-Alien — com- 
mencing in Mystery in Space #103 (1965) — was a 
bizarre DC hero whose ragtag body was composed 
of four ethereal life forms. 

The "space race" between the United States 
and Russia encouraged a trend of star-spanning 
superheroes during the 1960s. Marvel Comics' Sil- 
ver Surfer flew into the pages of Fantastic Four #48 
(1966) first as the herald to the world-eating Galac- 
tus, then as a superhero in his own right. Mar-Veil, a 
military officer from the Kree empire, trekked to 
Earth in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (1967), where he 



became known as Captain Marvel, fighting aliens 
and supervillains for years before dying of cancer 
and being succeeded by his son, Genis. The 
Guardians of the Galaxy — Vance Astro, Charlie-27, 
Yondu, Starhawk, Martinex, and Nikki — was a 
superteam that premiered in Marvel Super-Heroes 
#18 (1969), waging war against serpentine soldiers 
that enslaved future Earth. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera 
introduced the animated hero Space Ghost, who 
used his power bands to battle Brak, Moltar, and 
other galactic antagonists. Wham-0, the makers of 
the popular Frisbee toy, produced a one-shot 
comic— Wham-0 Giant Comics #1 (1967)— starring 
Galaxo, a space policeman for the United World 
Interstellar Agencies, who communicated with vari- 
ous races via his Computo-Translator. Also during 
the 1960s, Gold Key Comics published two series 
starring sci-fi heroes: Magnus, Robot Fighter and 
M.A.R.S. Patrol. 

From the 1970s to the present, science-fiction 
heroes have frequently launched their careers, 
some blazing eternally, others going supernova with- 
in a few appearances. Among their number: the 
ABC Warriors, robotic combatants from the British 
comic 2000 AD; Alan Moore's social-commentary 
star-trooper saga The Ballad of Halo Jones (one of 
the relatively few series of this type with a female 
protagonist); Deathlok, Marvel's cyborg soldier — 
and a precursor to Robocop — with 75 percent of his 
body boasting cybernetic enhancements, first seen 
in Astonishing Tales #25 (1974); First Comics' 
Grimjack, a freelance assassin who chose a sword 
over technological weapons; Britain's popular Judge 
Dredd, Mega City's "Lawman of the Future," from a 
host of comics, Batman crossovers, and a poorly 
received 1995 live-action movie starring Sylvester 
Stallone; Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, written 
and drawn by the legendary Jack Kirby, a post-apoc- 
alyptic DC Comics series heavily inspired by the film 
Planet of the Apes; and creator Jim Starlin's Dread- 
star, an opposition leader embroiled in a conflict 
between the Church of Instrumentality and the 
Monarchy. (Starlin is perhaps the foremost practi- 



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Spacehawk 



tioner of the "cosmic" hero as well, a protagonist 
who mixes interstellar adventure with mind-expand- 
ing mysticism, as in the case of another character 
most associated with Starlin, the space-faring 
swashbuckler Adam Warlock.) 

Other futuristic favorites: Killraven, seen in Mar- 
vel's War of the Worlds series (appearing in the title 
Amazing Adventures), a continuation of H. G. Wells' 
classic, featuring a former gladiator turned leader of 
a rebellion against Martian tyranny; Frank Miller and 
Dave Gibbons' Martha Washington, an African-Ameri- 
can freedom fighter warring against a fascist-con- 
trolled near-future where the poor are incarcerated; 
Mike Baron and Steve Rude's Nexus, the fusion-gen- 
erating hero who dreamt of mass murderers, then 
sought them out to execute them; another Kirby con- 
coction for DC Comics, OMAC: One Man Army Corps, 
actually Global Peace Agent Buddy Blank, answering 
to the all-seeing satellite Brother Eye; the X-Men 
spinoff Star Jammers, Marvel's crew of interplane- 
tary pirates; writer/artist Walter Simonson's Star 
Slammers, a space militia for hire; America's Best 
Comics' bawdy time-travel series Jonni Future; and 
the Wanderers, a superteam 1,000 years in the 
future first seen as supporting-cast members in 
DCs Legion of Super-Heroes series before spinning 
off into their own comic in the 1980s. Most of these 
characters' realities are bleak and oppressive, with 
the space heroes acting as resistance soldiers to 
liberate themselves and/or others. — ME 

Spacehawk 

As superheroes began to dominate the newsstands, 
more publishers entered the comics market includ- 
ing, in 1940, Curtis, owners of the Saturday Evening 
Post, at the time one of the country's leading maga- 
zines. Their first title, Target Comics, featured a 
mixed bag of strips including Manowar, the White 
Streak, and Bulls-Eye Bill, but it was not until the 
introduction of Spacehawk in the fifth issue (June 
1940) that the comic really took off. Spacehawk was 



&% 



the creation of one of comics' most maverick talents, 
Basil Wolverton, whose bizarre, extraordinary artwork 
has earned him a cult following to this day. Wolverton 
had long held an affection for space heroes, stretch- 
ing back to his creation of Marco of Mars in 1928, 
and he had worked on such strips as Meteor Martin, 
Shack Shannon, and a group called the Spacehawks 
throughout the 1930s. Spacehawk (singular) differed 
from his predecessors in combining the science fic- 
tion setting of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers with the 
superpowers of the recently launched Superman. 

Like Superman, Spacehawk traveled from a dis- 
tant, alien planet to Earth's solar system to patrol 
the spaceways as a sort of intergalactic policeman, 
traveling anywhere he sensed "vibrations of hatred." 
He wore a bulky spacesuit with heavy metal boots 
covered in rivets, was armed with a ray gun, and, in 
his first few appearances, sported a rather ugly 
mask resembling melted Jello. While he could not fly 
under his own power (he had his own somewhat 
lumpen spaceship), he was nonetheless unnaturally 
strong, had a telepathic mind, and possessed a 
steely determination in dealing with the various ban- 
dits, space pirates, and menacing aliens whom he 
came across. In fact, as heroes go he was unusually 
ruthless, often disposing of his foes in a casually 
brutal manner, frequently shooting them dead. He 
was also, apparently, 800 years old but looked 
remarkably well preserved for his age. 

In its first year, the strip was filled with the 
strangest array of Martians, Saturnians, and Urani- 
ans that one could hope to find. Wolverton was a 
master of the "spaghetti and meatball" school of 
illustration (as he was once so memorably 
described) and his aliens were a bizarre looking 
bunch, seemingly constructed from warts, tenta- 
cles, frankfurters, and spikes. Strangely, they 
shared a fondness for the letter G in their names: 
Glak, Glork, Grubb, Gorvak, Grebo, Galar, and so on. 
In this rather macho world of boiler suits, guns, and 
monsters, there was usually little room for the fairer 
sex, though Queen Haba of Mercury provided the 
occasional dose of romance. 



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Even as early as 1940, some parents' groups 
were putting pressure on publishers to tone down the 
more outre elements in their comics, and Wolverton's 
editors regularly asked him to rein himself in. On the 
outbreak of World War II, they insisted that Space- 
hawk be brought down to Earth to fight the enemy 
and that the strip be cleared of its troublesome 
aliens. Spacehawk was made to reflect the growing 
patriotic sentiment of the day, and for most of 1941 
fought invading Japanese, an enormous Nazi subma- 
rine, and a dictator named "Moosler" (you figure it 
out). Wolverton reluctantly complied with these edito- 
rial shifts, but by then the strip had lost much of its 
special appeal, despite such innovative touches as a 
Japanese fifth column hiding in asteroids. On Earth, 
"an interplanetary feature couldn't survive," Wolver- 
ton later recalled. Nevertheless, our hero soon 
acquired an arch-villain, the bullet-headed, bald, 
moustachioed Prussian man-mountain, Dr. Gore, who 
wreaked havoc with his dastardly paralyzing ray. At 
one point, Dr. Gore was captured and carried off into 
the Martian desert by one of Spacehawk's alien pals 
(the unfortunately named Dork) but he soon returned 
in his own spaceship to fight again. 

As Wolverton had feared, once the feature was 
shorn of its space setting it got lost among the 
crowd of other superheroes, and it was canceled 
after thirty adventures; its last appearance was in 
Target Comics vol. 3 #10 in late 1942. Wolverton's 
influence lived on, however, and his detailed, 
grotesque pen work can be clearly seen in the art 
of R. Crumb and others from the 1960s under- 
ground comics movement. Spacehawk has been 
reprinted on several occasions, in self-titled book 
form in 1978 and as a regular series of comics 
from Dark Horse in 1989. — DAR 



Spawn 




Of the many creator-owned superhero properties 
that sprang from the 1992 advent of Image Comics, 
Spawn is without doubt the most influential. Con- 



Spawn #126 © 2003 Todd McFarlane. 

COVER ART BY GREG CAPULLO AND DANNY MIKI. 



ceived, written, and illustrated by Image co-founder 
Todd McFarlane — best known previously for writing 
and drawing Marvel Comics' multiplatinum-selling 
Spider-Man series (1990-1991)— Spawn #1 
(1992) begins the story of former U.S. Marine 
Corps soldier Al Simmons (a character named after 
one of McFarlane's college friends) who progresses 
to a brilliant career as a covert intelligence opera- 
tive after distinguishing himself by saving the presi- 
dent of the United States from an assassin's bullet. 
Simmons subsequently discovers that his mentor 
and superior, Jason Wynn, is presiding over a web of 
international intrigue and corruption. Wynn protects 
his secrets by sending an operative named Chapel 
(a character from fellow Image partner Rob Liefeld's 



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Youngblood series) to murder Simmons by burning 
his face off with a laser. 

Simmons finds himself not only dead, but also 
doomed to an eternity in hell because of the many 
crimes he had committed as a covert government 
operative. But Simmons has never taken defeat 
well; at the precise moment of his death, he makes 
a deal with Malebolgia, the demonic overlord of a 
Dantean "eighth sphere of hell." Thanks to this 
unholy bargain, Simmons gains the power to return 
to the world of the living, where he can see his 
beloved wife again — and, as the hellborn creature 
known as Spawn, now has an opportunity to wreak 
vengeance on the man who engineered his death. 
Spawn's hell-haggled supernatural powers include 
teleportation, superhuman strength and endurance, 
and the ability to transform his facial features — left 
in horrific ruins by the laser Chapel used to kill 
him — on a temporary basis. Added to his skills as a 
trained killer, these new gifts make Simmons all but 
unstoppable in combat. 

Spawn's resurrection wasn't the first such 
occurrence in the annals of superhero comics. 
McFarlane's demonic hero embroidered on such 
ectoplasmic predecessors as the Spectre (a power- 
ful and vengeful shade who originated in DC 
Comics' Golden Age [1938-1954]) and Deadman 
(who haunted DCs Silver Age [1956-1969] Strange 
Adventures anthology title) by exploring the conse- 
quences that flow from bargains made with the 
forces of darkness. After agreeing to be trans- 
formed into Spawn, Simmons finds himself back on 
Earth — where he learns that five years has passed 
since his death, and discovers that he is free to use 
his powers to do battle against minions of hell and 
other evildoers. But he also finds that he is expect- 
ed to command Malebolgia's demon armies in a 
war against the forces of heaven. Even more 
painfully, he learns that his wife has remarried and 
is now raising a family with her new husband. 
Unwilling to cause his widow further grief by re- 
entering her life — and not wishing to frighten her by 
allowing her to see his horribly scarred visage — 



Spawn opts to live out his days in the world's back 
alleys, among the dregs of humanity. Determined 
not to use his abilities to enhance the power of evil 
in the world, Spawn turns against Malebolgia, whom 
he sees as having betrayed the spirit of their bar- 
gain. Spawn subsequently commits himself to bring- 
ing the powerful demon down, while simultaneously 
trying to redeem himself for his prior misdeeds as a 
covert intelligence operative. Like Marvel's Punisher 
and DCs Batman, Spawn is separated from his 
family by forces beyond his control and responds to 
his trauma by waging an eternal one-man war 
against all the evil he encounters. 

Despite his good intentions and dogged determi- 
nation, Spawn must also contend with some sharp 
constraints against the use of his preternatural abili- 
ties — his battle against hell is hampered by the fact 
that killing the bad guys he encounters merely sends 
more evil souls into Malebolgia's employ, thus 
increasing the "evil quotient" of the universe. Also, 
every time he uses his abilities he places himself in 
danger of permanently returning himself to hell by 
depleting his finite supply of eldritch energy. On top 
of that, his cloak and some of the other pieces of his 
way-cool, heavy-metal costume are sentient, parasitic 
entities with agendas of their own. Simmons' life is 
further complicated by the unwanted presence of the 
Violator, an evil, sadistic clown sent by Malebolgia to 
act as Spawn's "chaperone" on Earth — a sort of 
"guardian demon" who might have been conceived 
by a Satanic Frank Capra. 

Because the series combined the twin Zeit- 
geists of its time — a reliance on the "gritty" ultravio- 
lence that became the lingua franca of many super- 
hero comics of the late 1980s; and an emphasis 
on aesthetics that sometimes overshadowed its 
storytelling — Spawn became an immediate hit 
among comics readers, collectors, and speculators. 
Spawn's appeal, which is strongest among teens 
and heavy metal enthusiasts, stems in no small 
part from his appearance, which is derivative of 
many of the superheroes — and rock bands — McFar- 
lane grew up with. Spawn's costume clearly shows 



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the influence of Marvel's Spider-Man, Doctor 
Strange, and the Punisher, along with liberal dollops 
of DCs Batman and Lobo. Spawn's visual appeal 
arguably transcends the milieu of the violent post- 
modern superhero; he wouldn't look at all out of 
place playing rhythm guitar with such rock bands as 
KISS or Gwar. 

The unrelentingly grim tone of Spawn might 
have stalled the series creatively fairly early in its 
run, had McFarlane not decided to bring in some 
new blood. Fan favorite writer Alan Moore, who 
gained international prominence after penning DCs 
seminal 1986-1987 Watchmen miniseries, wrote 
Spawn #8 (1993), and subsequent issues were 
authored by Neil Gaiman (best known for DC/Verti- 
go's long-running Sandman series), Frank Miller (of 
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns fame), Dave Sim 
(creator and writer-artist of Cerebus the Aardvark), 
and Grant Morrison (DCs Animal Man). Thanks in 
part to the efforts of these creators, Spawn's 
mythos evolved significantly in sophistication and 
expanded to include such new personages as the 
Hellspawn (earlier incarnations of Malebolgia's min- 
ions), Cogliostro (a powerful ally to Spawn, whose 
immortal nature and lengthy history are evocative of 
DCs Phantom Stranger), an angel known as Angela, 
and an antagonist called the Anti-Spawn. 

As the 1990s progressed, not only did Spawn 
become a popular stop for talented guest writers, 
the character also guest-starred in such intercom- 
pany "crossover" comics as Batman-Spawn: War 
Devil and Spawn-Batman (both 1994 Image 
Comics/DC Comics co-productions). Spawn also 
engendered several comics spin-offs, including 
Spawn Blood Feud (four issues, 1995); Spawn: 
Blood and Salvation (a 1999 one-shot); Spawn: The 
Undead (1999-2000); and such long-running titles 
as Sam & Twitch (1999-present), about a pair of 
urban detectives investigating the supernatural in a 
Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets NYPD Blue setting; 
Spawn: The Dark Ages (1999-2001); and 
Hellspawn (2000-present), the latter two of which 
feature versions of Spawn (Malebolgia's other 



demonic military commanders) that are even mean- 
er than the original 1992 incarnation. Taking on a 
life of his own during his first half-decade of exis- 
tence, Spawn also became the subject of a 1997 
feature film (Spawn, starring Michael Jai and direct- 
ed by Mark A. Z. Dippe), gave rise to an Emmy 
Award-winning HBO animated series (1997-1999), 
and provided a major impetus to Todd McFarlane's 
toy company (McFarlane Toys), which generated 
huge sales with its line of action figures based not 
only upon Spawn, but also on such licensed proper- 
ties as KISS, Shrek, The X-Files, Austin Powers, 
Army of Darkness, Alien, Predator, and the Beatles. 

Comics, toys, films, and television series 
aside, the greatest contribution that Spawn — and 
McFarlane — have made to the superhero genre may 
be in encouraging comics creators either to retain 
ownership and control of their creations, or to 
obtain better payment for their work. Like artist 
Neal Adams, whose crusades in the late 1960s and 
early 1970s on behalf of creators' rights pressured 
comics publishers to offer better terms to artists 
and writers than those found in the industry's then- 
standard "work- for-hire" contracts, McFarlane 
exerted a similar influence on the publisher-creator 
dynamic during the 1990s and beyond; indeed, 
McFarlane was one of Marvel's highest-paid cre- 
ators at the time he was still writing and drawing 
Spider-Man. 

Whether McFarlane's aesthetic effect on 
comics was equally salutary will no doubt be debat- 
ed for many years to come, however. But for good or 
ill, Spawn's "grittification" of the storytelling and 
design of many other superhero comics published 
over the past decade is undeniable, showing up 
clearly in such Image titles as Witchblade (1995), 
The Darkness (1996), Violent Messiahs (1997), 
and Rising Stars (1999). The darkness and other- 
worldly violence that characterize Spawn can also 
be seen in comics such as 30 Days of Night (Idea 
Design Works, 2002) by Steve Niles and Ben Tem- 
plesmith (who collaborated earlier on McFarlane's 
Hellspawn) and in Criminal Macabre (also by Niles 



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The Spectre 



and Templesmith, from Dark Horse Comics, 2003); 
and The Authority (1999, DC/WildStorm). 

Having successfully weathered the myriad ups 
and downs of the comics business since Spawn's 
inception — including the 1996 breakup of the core 
Image Comics partners and an ultimately success- 
ful (and costly) defamation lawsuit filed against 
McFarlane in 1999 by hockey player Tony Twist, who 
objected to having one of Spawn's villains (a gang- 
ster) named after him — Todd McFarlane still runs 
Todd McFarlane Productions (TMP) in 2004. TMP 
oversees Spawn's considerable licensing empire 
and continues to publish the original, ever-durable 
Spawn title, as well as its current spin-offs, which 
employ numerous other artists and writers. Whatev- 
er criticisms its detractors may have, Todd McFar- 
lane's Spawn represents one of the most phenome- 
nal success stories in the history of superhero 
comics. — MAM 



The Spectre 

Within a year of Superman's first appearance, DC 
Comics followed up with Batman and the Sandman. 
Soon after, among a flood of colorful crime fighters, 
Superman creator Jerry Siegel invented the first 
supernatural hero, the Spectre. Drawn by young artist 
Bernard Baily, Siegel's first Spectre story was fea- 
tured in More Fun Comics #52 in early 1940, and it 
is safe to say that young comics readers had never 
seen anything quite like it. The story opens with 
tough cop Jim Corrigan attending a party celebrating 
his engagement to socialite Clarice Winston. Follow- 
ing a tip-off, Corrigan rushes to a nearby race course 
where a bunch of local criminal "Gat" Benson's 
hoods are attempting a robbery. Corrigan rounds 
them up single-handedly, but later an enraged Ben- 
son kidnaps Corrigan, shoves him into a concrete- 
filled barrel, and throws it and Corrigan into a river. 

Naturally, this being a comic, death is hardly an 
impediment to a hero's career, and so at the gates 




Adventure Comics #432 © 1974 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM APARO. 



of Eternity the voice of God tells Corrigan that his 
work is not yet complete, and he is returned to 
Earth, where he destroys the gang of crooks. This 
new "avenging Spectre" has almost limitless pow- 
ers, including a death stare (by which criminals are 
literally frightened to death), and the ability to read 
minds, heal wounds, grow to an immense size, and 
even travel back in time. Sensing, quite understand- 
ably, that he is not quite the same as other men, 
Corrigan breaks off his engagement to Winston and 
goes home to sew himself a green hooded costume. 

Over the next couple of years, the Spectre 
struck terror into the hearts of crooks everywhere 
and was in many ways a figure of horror himself. He 
was effectively God's executioner and, whether it 



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was a common hood or an exotic weirdo such as 
Zor, the Blue Flame, Xmon, or the Black Doom, he 
dispatched each foe with cold efficiency. Love inter- 
est Winston made regular appearances in order to 
give the Spectre someone to rescue, but the Spec- 
tre's creators perhaps felt that their character was 
becoming too unsympathetic. After the character 
lost the cover slot on More Fun, Baily tried to 
humanize his hero by introducing a comedy side- 
kick, Percival Popp the Supercop, whose sole pur- 
pose was to get into trouble. The only outcome was 
a steady erosion of the Spectre's unique appeal, 
and in 1945 the strip was canceled. 

For much of the early 1940s, the Spectre was 
also a regular member of the Justice Society but, 
while many group members were enjoying success- 
ful revivals in the 1960s, the Spectre was conspicu- 
ous by his absence. Following a campaign by fans, 
the Spectral Avenger was finally brought back in 
three 1966 issues of Showcase Comics, which 
soon led to a regular series. Wary of returning to 
the original incarnation's rather bloodthirsty person- 
ality, the new strip played up the character's mysti- 
cal side, resulting in a series of rather cosmic, psy- 
chedelic adventures. However, this Spectre still 
lacked the sort of emotional depth that was making 
Marvel Comic's superheroes so popular, and it was 
not until the horror-obsessed 1970s that the strip 
attained any real popularity. 

Legend has it that after editor Joe Orlando was 
mugged in New York he envisioned a new Spectre 
who could wreak the vengeance that he felt so pow- 
erless to mete out. With inventive horror writer 
Michael Fleisher and artist Jim Aparo on board, the 
new Spectre debuted in the February 1974 issue of 
Adventure Comics #431 to a mixture of acclaim and 
disbelief. Fleisher had gone back to the Spectre's 
avenging roots and relished dreaming up new and 
inventive ways of killing villains. These included 
turning a hood to wood and sawing him up, cutting 
someone in half with a colossal pair of scissors, 
skewering a cell of terrorists with giant protractors, 
and causing a crime lord to be devoured by a twen- 



ty-feet-tall duck! Jim Corrigan himself was now a 
chain-smoking police detective in the Dirty Harry 
vein, harder than hard and as cold as the grave. 
From the start, fan reaction was divided; some 
loved the hard-hitting stories while others felt the 
strip was little more than an exercise in sadism. 
When DCs executives heard of the fuss, they took a 
look at the comic and were so appalled that they 
canceled it on the spot, despite its encouraging 
sales. Fleisher and Aparo had their revenge years 
later, however, when the whole series was collected 
in a deluxe package, complete with the unprinted 
stories completed before the axe fell. Apparently, 
what was once shocking was now a classic. 

Recent years have seen three more series, 
which have largely picked up where the 1970s 
series left off — with varying degrees of success. A 
lengthy 1990s run was particularly well received, 
and daringly even brought back Percival Popp, the 
Super Cop. The latest, post-millennium incarnation 
(which has since been canceled) had rather radical- 
ly revived long-deceased Green Lantern Hal Jordan 
in the guise of a kinder, gentler Spectre. The "Spirit 
of Redemption" had incarnations all over the uni- 
verse, with almost untold power; although this was 
apparently all too confusing for some, it was never- 
theless a sign that Jerry Siegel knew what he was 
doing when he devised the character all those years 
ago. — DAR 

Speed Racer 

Speed Racer. A name that conjures up images of 
fast cars, death-defying action, a gadget-packed 
supercarthat puts superspy James Bond to shame, 
and a daring eighteen-year-old dark-haired hero 
dressed in a blue shirt, white pants, and penny 
loafers — a hero with nerves of steel but harboring a 
family secret. For many American children growing 
up in 1967 — the year Speed's adventures first 
aired on syndicated television in the United 
States — Speed Racer was unlike anything they had 



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Speed Racer 



ever seen. He had no superpowers to speak of, but 
he still had adventures that matched any superhero 
from Marvel or DC Comics. Speed was in his 
teens — in a sense, he was closer in age to the audi- 
ence — and he was both human and fallible. He 
would often find himself in situations that were too 
much for him to handle alone. Finally, as a member 
of his father's Go Team, Speed would travel the 
world race circuit driving the Mach 5, an advanced 
prototype equipped with an array of special features 
that were activated by corresponding buttons on the 
car's steering wheel. 

Members of the Go Team included Speed; his 
father, Pops Racer; Sparky, Speed's friend and a top 
mechanic; Speed's mother; his younger brother 
(and troublemaker), Spritle; and chimp mascot 
Chim-Chim. Rounding out Go Team was Speed's girl- 
friend, Trixie, who was also a helicopter pilot and a 
martial artist. 

Since its initial broadcast, Speed Racer has 
grown in popularity, gaining more fans over the 
years. The show is clearly one of the most popular 
animated shows ever seen in the United States. Yet 
what many fans of the show did not know — at first — 
was that Speed Racer was one of the earliest anime 
to be imported from Japan to the United States. For 
many, it was their first look at this art form. 

To find the origin of Speed Racer, one has to go 
back several decades and across the Pacific 
Ocean, to Tatsunoko Productions (Science Ninja 
Team Gatchaman) in Japan. The late Tatsuo Yoshi- 
da, a popular manga artist and one of the co- 
founders of Tatsunoko, wanted to make an animat- 
ed adaptation of his manga Mach Go Go Go. The 
title itself is also a pun on "go," which means "five" 
in Japanese. Mach Go Go Go would be Tatsunoko's 
first full-color animated series. Jinzo Toriumi was 
both the planner and head writer, Hiroshi Sasagawa 
was the chief director, and Yoshida was the show's 
overall supervisor. Mach Go Go Go chronicled the 
adventures of Go Mifune, a young racecar driver 
who drove the Mach Go racer — and who had a strict 
moral code that often came into conflict with his 



racing career. His elder brother Kenichi had left the 
racing circuit after a bitter disagreement with his 
father, and Go would clash with his father as well. 
Throughout his adventures, Go's girlfriend Michi 
would remain at his side. The series was also influ- 
enced by the "spy craze" of the 1960s. The manga 
and eventual series, which premiered in 1967 and 
ran for fifty-two episodes, were popular in Japan and 
spawned a wave of merchandise. 

The American company Translux bought the 
rights to all episodes of Mach Go Go Go, but allowed 
Tatsunoko to have a role in the English-language adap- 
tation of the series. Peter Fernandez, a voice actor 
and screenwriter who had previously worked on Astro 
Boy (the American version of Tetsuwan Atom), super- 
vised the writing and dubbing for the series, now given 
the name Speed Racer. Fernandez also provided the 
voice for Speed and the mysterious Racer X. Names 
and locations were changed, but the music remained 
the same. Even the music for the catchy opening 
theme was the original background music, with only 
the words rewritten, starting with "Here he comes, 
here comes Speed Racer/ He's a demon on wheels." 
Go Mifune became Speed Racer — but the "G" on his 
shirt remained, leading to years of speculation by 
fans. Michi Shimura became Trixie (voiced by Corinne 
Orr, who also provided Spritle's voice). Rounding out 
the cast were Jack Grimes (Sparky) and Jack Curtis 
(Pops Racer). Another change occurred during the 
adaptation process — Speed became the main focus 
of the show; in the original Mach Go Go Go, there had 
been more focus on the car. 

One memorable aspect of Speed Racer was 
the cast of secondary characters and villains, many 
with somewhat bizarre names, such as Inspector 
Detector the Interpol agent, who would show up to 
help Speed solve a case. Another was Racer X — in 
reality Speed's brother Rex — the champion masked 
racer, the driver of the black and yellow Shooting 
Star, and a secret agent. Major villains from 
Speed's rouges' gallery included crime bosses 
Tongue Bloggard and Cruncher Block, and the sinis- 
ter hitman Ace Duecey. 



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All fifty-two episodes of Speed Racer ran on 
syndicated television in the United States starting 
in 1967, and became the first anime series that 
many viewers had seen. The show's fast-paced 
adventure, races, and characters were unlike any- 
thing viewers had experienced before, and many 
fans did not forget the series as they grew older. 
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Speed's adven- 
tures would be shown in many other countries and 
in different languages, eclipsing its original version 
in recognition. In the late 1980s Now Comics pub- 
lished a Speed Racer series written by Len 
Strazewski with art by Gary Thomas Washington. A 
second series followed in the early 1990s. Stories 
from the original Mach Go Go Go manga were trans- 
lated into English and released under the title of 
Speed Racer. The 1990s also marked a revival of 
interest in the TV series. MTV began airing 
episodes in the mid-1990s, and a compilation film 
called Speed Racer: The Movie toured film festivals 
and art houses around the United States. Volkswa- 
gen even used the characters in an animated com- 
mercial. The Children's Safety Network organization 
sponsored the construction of a full-sized Mach 5; 
Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr went on tours 
around the country with the car in order to promote 
their campaign for children's safety. 

The entire series was released on home video, 
and in April 2003 Family Home Entertainment began 
releasing the series on DVD. A best-selling book writ- 
ten by Elizabeth Moran titled Speed Racer: The Offi- 
cial 30th Anniversary Guide was published in 1997. 
Two years later, WildStorm released a three-issue 
comic miniseries written and drawn by Tommy Yune. 
The series detailed the origins of the Mach 5 and 
Speed's entry into the world of racing. It was popular 
enough to have a sequel of sorts released in 2000; 
this time Rex Racer was the focus, with the series 
detailing his journey toward becoming Racer X. Yune 
would return to write the series, with Jo Chen provid- 
ing the art. Combined with a new wave of merchan- 
dising, all of these projects brought Speed's adven- 
tures to a new generation. 



Not all of the revival projects worked. In 1993, 
Fred Wolf Films (responsible for the Teenage Mutant 
Ninja Turtles animated television series) produced a 
new Speed Racer television series called The New 
Adventures of Speed Racer, but it was not well 
received and was not successful in the end. Too 
many fans felt that the show — which featured 
updated designs for the characters and vehicles — 
lacked the essence and charm of the original. In 
Japan, Tatsunoko Productions produced an updated 
version of Mach Go Go Go in 1997, in time for the 
show's thirtieth anniversary; the series ran for thir- 
ty-four episodes. An English-dubbed version under 
the title of Speed Racer ran on the Nickelodeon 
cable channel starting in 2002. While the series 
was better than the earlier, ill-fated revival attempt, 
it still was not as popular as the original, either in 
Japan or America. The lightening, it seemed, could 
not be caught in the same bottle twice. — MM 

Spider-Girl: See Spider-Woman 

Spidev-Man 

Spider-Man is easily the most widely recognized 
character in Marvel Comics' four-color pantheon, 
and has been an American pop-culture mainstay for 
more than four decades. He was a radical departure 
from the staid conventions of the comic-book super- 
hero of the 1950s — a teenage character that wasn't 
relegated to sidekick status beside an older, more 
experienced hero. Creators Stan Lee (editor-scripter) 
and Steve Ditko (artist-plotter) loosed Spider-Man on 
an unsuspecting world in 1962 in Amazing Fantasy 
#15, portraying a scientifically brilliant but socially 
maladroit teen named Peter Parker — a high-school 
everyman — who receives a fateful bite from a 
radioactive spider during an atomic science demon- 
stration. Parker consequently finds himself in pos- 
session of the proportional abilities of an arachnid, 
including heightened strength, speed, agility, the 
ability to cling to walls and ceilings, and a precogni- 



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Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, #46 © 2002 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY FRANK CHO. 



tive "spicier sense" that alerts him to approaching 
dangers. Using his inborn scientific talents, Parker 
synthesizes a unique adhesive "web fluid" — though 
superstrong it dissolves after an hour's exposure to 
the open air — and builds a pair of wrist-mounted 
web-shooters that enable him to shape the webbing 
into various useful forms. He also designs and sews 
the web-festooned red-and-blue costume that would 
quickly become "Spidey's" most visible trademark, 
and a ubiquitous sight along Manhattan's skyline 
(hence the immortal and oft-repeated tag-line, "Your 
friendly neighborhood Spider-Man"). 

In addition to possessing superpowers atypical 
for his era — heroes with arthropod-like abilities 



were relatively uncommon in the early 1960s — Spi- 
der-Man also departs from the background typical 
of other "long-underwear" characters. Instead of 
hailing from another world like Superman, inheriting 
millions like Batman, or having the godlike advan- 
tages of Wonder Woman, Spider-Man is essentially 
an ordinary guy whose alter ego lives a basically 
normal life prior to gaining his extraordinary abili- 
ties. Co-creator Lee has described him as "an 
orphan who lived with his aunt and uncle, a bit of a 
nerd, a loser in the romance department, and who 
constantly worried about the fact that his family 
barely had enough money to live on. Except for his 
superpower, he'd be the quintessential hard-luck 
kid. He'd have allergy attacks when fighting the vil- 
lains, he'd be plagued by ingrown toenails, acne, 
hay fever, and anything else I could dream up." How- 
ever, Lee's publisher Martin Goodman wasn't initial- 
ly receptive to the idea of a teen hero taking center 
stage, nor did he want to accept Spider-Man's neu- 
roses, romantic deficiencies, and chronic concerns 
about money. Goodman also thought that the audi- 
ence would be repelled by the character's spider 
motif. Fortunately, Lee's instincts prevailed; Spider- 
Man's debut in Amazing Fantasy was an immediate 
and resounding success. 

From the beginning, Spider-Man's behavior 
deviates significantly from the prevailing super- 
heroic norms as well. Instead of selflessly dedicat- 
ing his superhuman gifts to crime-fighting or the 
general betterment of humankind, the newly 
empowered Spider-Man cashes in on his talents by 
becoming a television celebrity. After his first perfor- 
mance before the cameras, he refuses to bother to 
stop a robber from stealing the television station's 
studio box-office receipts. During the days that fol- 
low, Spider-Man's fame grows, though Peter Parker 
wisely keeps his identity concealed. But his world 
abruptly collapses a few days later when a burglar 
murders his uncle, Ben Parker, leaving Peter's Aunt 
May a widow (Ben and May Parker had raised young 
Peter after the boy's parents, Richard and Mary 
Parker, died while performing espionage on behalf 



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of the U.S. government). The grief-stricken Spider- 
Man tracks down Uncle Ben's killer, collaring his 
first criminal — only to make the horrible discovery 
that the murderer is the very same robber he'd 
allowed to escape from the television studio. "My 
fault," a tearful Peter Parker soliloquies after catch- 
ing the killer. "All my fault! If only I had stopped him 
when I could have. But I didn't— and now — Uncle 
Ben — is dead ..." Spider-Man's debut story closes 
with a somber narration that permanently sets the 
series' moral tone: "And a lean, silent figure slowly 
fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last 
that in this world, with great power there must also 
come — great responsibility!" 

Although Spider-Man's one-shot comics "pilot" 
in Amazing Fantasy #15 soon led to an ongoing 
series that began with The Amazing Spider-Man 
(abbreviated ASM) vol. 1 #1 in March 1963, the 
eponymous character immediately became integral 
to the ever-burgeoning "Marvel universe" as well, 
interacting (and sometimes exchanging blows) with 
such mainstays as the Fantastic Four, that group's 
Human Torch (another teen hero), Daredevil, and the 
Incredible Hulk. Spidey also quickly developed a col- 
orful, soap opera-worthy supporting cast of his own, 
including: the rabidly anti-vigilante Daily Bugle news- 
paper publisher J. Jonah Jameson; girlfriend Gwen 
Stacy (to be replaced later by hipster "party girl" 
Mary Jane Watson following Stacy's untimely death); 
high-school jock bully Flash Thompson, who would 
later become part of Parker's circle of friends; col- 
lege roommate Harry Osborn; and a roster of cos- 
tumed adversaries such as the Chameleon; Myste- 
rio; the Tinkerer; the Vulture; Doctor Octopus; the 
Sandman; the Lizard, Electro; the Enforcers; the 
Green Goblin; Kraven the Hunter; the Ringmaster 
and His Circus of Crime; the Scorpion; the Beetle; 
Spencer Smythe and the Spider-Slayers; Crime-Mas- 
ter; Molten Man; Master Planner; the Looter (later 
known as the Meteor Man); and the Kingpin. Like 
most of the superheroes of his time, Parker takes 
great pains to conceal his secret crime-fighting life 
from everyone around him; he is largely successful, 



despite being unmasked on more than one occa- 
sion. Stacy's father (NYPD Captain George Stacy) 
and Watson also figure out his secret on their own, 
but keep it to themselves. In 2001, even Peter's 
Aunt May discovers his secret. 

Parker is beset by chronic personal and finan- 
cial difficulties from the outset, such as having to 
earn enough money to pay his ailing Aunt May's 
medical bills; she had been poised at death's door 
virtually from the beginning of The Amazing Spider- 
Man, and even experienced "fake deaths" on two 
notable occasions. For many years, Peter Parker 
earned the money he needed to keep his aunt alive 
by selling photos of himself in action as Spider-Man 
(taken surreptitiously with an automatic camera, 
usually webbed to a wall) to his unsuspecting 
newsprint nemesis, Jameson. But Parker's earnings 
are barely sufficient to keep body and soul together, 
let alone properly maintain his Spider-Man cos- 
tume; on one memorable occasion (Spectacular 
Spider-Man magazine #1), Parker had to make do 
with a knock-off Spider-Man uniform borrowed from 
a costume-shop window; on another (ASM vol. 1 
#258, November 1984), he had to wear a paper 
bag over his head — and a Fantastic Four uniform 
lent to him by the Human Torch — while waiting for 
his Spidey suit to dry in a public Laundromat. 
Despite the myriad mundane problems Parker 
faces, he generally approaches life — and crime 
fighting — with an upbeat attitude and a sly sense of 
humor that often manifests as wisecracks delivered 
in the midst of battle. 

As The Amazing Spider-Man developed through 
the 1960s, the series distinguished itself with a 
sense of moral ambiguity that the vast majority of 
its contemporaries lacked; thanks largely to the 
inflammatory editorials of The Daily Bugle's Jame- 
son, Spider-Man spends many years as a fugitive 
from the law, though all the while he is attempting 
to do good in the world. Spidey's reputation isn't 
helped when he is blamed for the death of George 
Stacy, who had actually been killed by Dr. Octopus 
(ASM vol. 1 #90, November 1970). The wall- 



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crawler's first ongoing series is also unusual in that 
Parker and his supporting cast are not completely 
frozen in time in the manner of many competing 
comics. Issue #28 (September 1965) presents 
Parker's high school graduation. By issue #31 
(December 1965) he begins his physics studies at 
Empire State University, where he meets Gwen 
Stacy, the first major love of his life, who would later 
be slain by the first Green Goblin. By issue #185 
(October 1978), Parker graduates from college. And 
in ASM Annual #21 (1987), Parker marries the sec- 
ond great love of his life, Mary Jane Watson; in an 
alternate universe first glimpsed in What lf?\io\. 2 
#105 (February 1998) and explored more thorough- 
ly in the monthly Spider-Girl series (which debuted 
in October 1998), Parker and MJ eventually have a 
daughter named May "Mayday" Parker who inherits 
Dad's powers and takes up the family business of 
costumed crime fighting. 

Steve Ditko, the artist who originated Spider- 
Man's characteristic lean, "spidery" look, left the 
series with issue #38, after which penciler John 
Romita took over the illustration chores, adding a 
dash more realism to the character's still-develop- 
ing milieu and greatly affecting the look of the rest 
of the Marvel line as well (Romita eventually 
became the company's art director). It was Romita 
who provided the visuals for Spider-Man's climactic 
battle with the first Green Goblin in 1966, which 
broke another long-standing superhero taboo — both 
characters learn one another's secret identities (the 
Goblin is really Norman Osborn, the industrialist 
father of Parker's college roommate, Harry). Issues 
#96-#98 (May-July 1971) broke more new ground 
by portraying substance abuse by Harry Osborn. 
Although these three comics (written by Stan Lee 
and illustrated by Gil Kane) weighed in negatively on 
illegal drug use, the subject matter was sufficiently 
ahead of its time to prompt the Comics Code 
Authority (an industry self-censorship board) to with- 
hold its seal of approval. 

Many other Spider-Man artists and writers fol- 
lowed in the creative footsteps of Lee, Ditko, and 



Romita throughout the 1970s, including such 
scribes as Gerry Conway, Len Wein, and Marv Wolf- 
man, and such illustrators as Gil Kane, Ross Andru, 
and Keith Pollard. Even prior to this period, Spider- 
Man was already a fast-expanding franchise, unable 
to be contained between the covers of a single 
monthly publication. Not only had the character 
crossed over into numerous other Marvel titles (this 
"shared universe" was always one of Marvel's most 
appealing features), but he spun off briefly into a 
large-format magazine titled Spectacular Spider- 
Man, which lasted only two issues (July and Novem- 
ber 1968). Spidey's frequent crossovers with other 
Marvel characters led to a bimonthly title dedicated 
to this idea, Marvel Team-Up, which began in March 
1972 and ran for 150 issues. The debut issue 
teamed Spider-Man with the Human Torch, and the 
series eventually paired him with nearly every high- 
profile character in the Marvel universe (the series 
was replaced by the Web of Spider-Man monthly 
series, which started in April 1985; Marvel Team-Up 
had a second incarnation, an eleven-issue run that 
began in September 1997). 

A new monthly series called Spidey Super Sto- 
ries, intended for younger readers, began publica- 
tion in October 1974 and lasted for fifty-seven 
issues. As the 1970s continued, Spider-Man's 
adventures expanded into a fourth ongoing comic 
series (a monthly intended for the mainstream 
Spidey audience) titled Peter Parker: The Spectacu- 
lar Spider-Man (later shortened to The Spectacular 
Spider-Man), which debuted in December 1976 and 
ran for 263 issues. Marvel parodied the character 
in such series as Not Brand Echh (1967-1969) and 
Peter Porker, Spider-Ham (a bimonthly that began in 
May 1985 as part of Marvel's kid-oriented Star 
Comics line). Spider-Man even left the confines of 
the Marvel universe itself when he took part in the 
first crossover between the heroes of Marvel and 
DC Comics in the large-format ("treasury-sized") 
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (1976), 
which heralded several more eagerly-anticipated 
intercompany crossings during the next several 



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years. By April 1978, an unrelated character (Jessi- 
ca Drew) became the star of Marvel's monthly Spi- 
der-Woman series, which ran for fifty issues and 
spawned two more brief series in the 1990s. 

Although Spider-Man's editorial teams blazed 
fewer new trails than did either the Lee-Ditko or Lee- 
Romita pairings as the hero gained increased expo- 
sure during the late 1970s and early 1980s, this era 
still enjoyed some high-quality stories. Roger Stern's 
"The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man" (ASM vol. 1 
#248, January 1984) is arguably the finest example. 
In this haunting, poignant tale, Spider-Man reveals 
his closely guarded secret identity to a young fan. It 
isn't until the last panel that readers discover the 
reason for this revelation — it is a gift to a child who is 
fated very soon to die from a terminal illness. 

Spider-Man's most significant departure from 
tradition came more than two decades into his run. 
ASM vol. 1 #252 (May 1984) garbs Peter Parker in a 
new, black-and-white costume, which he acquires on 
a distant planet during the large-scale multi- 
hero/multi-villain twelve-issue Marvel Super Heroes 
Secret Wars crossover miniseries (May 1984 
through April 1985). This living costume, which sup- 
plies its own web-fluid and morphs itself into street 
clothes in response to Parker's thoughts, turns out 
to have its own evil, manipulative intellect. After 
Parker realizes that the symbiotic costume is con- 
trolling him rather than vice versa, he discards it; the 
jilted costume subsequently "possesses" a former 
newspaper reporter named Eddie Brock. The cos- 
tume and Brock — whose reputation was smeared 
after he had falsely accused Spider-Man of being the 
serial killer known as the Sin-Eater— join forces to 
settle their respective scores with the wall-crawler 
as Venom {ASM vol. 1 #300, May 1988). Venom 
resembles a supermuscular version of the black- 
and-white-clad Spider-Man, with the addition of hun- 
dreds of razor-sharp teeth and a long, prehensile 
tongue. This creature subsequently becomes one of 
Spider-Man's deadliest recurring villains. Venom also 
gives rise to the villain Carnage, who comes into 
existence when a piece of the symbiotic costume 



bonds with a deadly convicted killer named Cletus 
Kasady (ASM vol. 1 #361, April 1992). Carnage sub- 
sequently comes into conflict with both Venom and 
Spider-Man on several occasions. 

Another significant, if temporary, change Spi- 
der-Man experiences occurs during what is popular- 
ly known as the "cosmic Spidey saga," which ran in 
Spectacular Spider-Man #158-#160 (December 
1989 through January 1990, written by Gerry Con- 
way and penciled by Sal Buscema), Web of Spider- 
Man #59-#61 (December 1989 through February 
1990, written by Gerry Conway and penciled by Alex 
Saviuk), and ASM\/o\. 1 #328 (January 1990, writ- 
ten by David Michelinie and illustrated by Todd 
McFarlane). In this arc, Parker's accidental expo- 
sure to an unknown energy source at an Empire 
State University lab increases his power-level by 
orders of magnitude; Spider-Man soon discovers 
that he possesses hyperacute senses and can 
shoot devastating blasts of force from his finger- 
tips. However, Spider-Man also learns that with this 
even greater power comes even greater responsibil- 
ity. A cosmic struggle to prevent a superpowered 
robot called the Tri-Sentinel from causing a melt- 
down at a nuclear reactor ultimately bleeds off 
Spidey's excess power, restoring him to his "nor- 
mal" Spider-powered self. 

The title that launched Spider-Man into the 
1990s was called, simply enough, Spider-Man, and 
debuted in August 1990. Spider-Man showcased 
the writing and illustrations of fan-fave artist and 
Spawn originator Todd McFarlane, whose eye-grab- 
bing, rococo style drew unprecedented fan attention 
to the character. Particularly noteworthy are the 
detailed renderings of "Ditko-esque" poses and the 
ornately braided "spaghetti webbing" that flow from 
Spidey's web-shooters. The first issue of Spider- 
Man also inaugurated Marvel's soon-to-be-ubiqui- 
tous practice of releasing a single comic book with 
multiple covers, a marketing maneuver that 
arguably appealed more to collector-speculators 
than to readers; nevertheless, that issue set a 
benchmark for sales, pumping more than 3 million 



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copies into direct-market comics shops and news- 
stand venues around the world, a record that wouldn't 
be broken until the new X-Men title premiered the 
following year. November 1992 saw the release of 
the first issue of Spider-Man 2099, part of a group 
of titles set in the Marvel universe of the late twen- 
ty-first century. This future Spider-Man, whose real 
name was Miguel O'Hara, received his powers — 
which included a biologically extruded webbing that 
anticipated Sam Raimi's cinematic wall-crawler by a 
full decade — as a result of exposure to genetic-engi- 
neering treatments. Spider-Man 2099 was pub- 
lished monthly until August 1996 (issue #46). Spi- 
der-Man Unlimited began its quarterly, twenty-three- 
issue run in May 1993, part of an aggressive 
Spidey publishing program that lasted throughout 
the 1990s, even though comics sales in general 
softened greatly as the decade wore on. Numerous 
limited series, graphic novels, and reprint collec- 
tions continued to appear throughout this period. 

One of the biggest shakeups in Parker's 1990s 
adventures was a story arc commonly known as 
"the clone saga," which began in the Spidey comics 
that bore October and November 1994 cover dates. 
This arc reveals that Peter Parker is actually a clone 
of Spider-Man made way back in ASM vol. 1 #149 
(October 1975) by the Jackal (Miles Warren, one of 
Parker's college professors), while the real Peter 
Parker — who had been mistaken for a clone thought 
killed in an explosion along with the Jackal — returns 
in the guise of Ben Reilly (a combination of Ben 
Parker's first name and May Parker's maiden 
name). {ASM vol. 1 #150 [November 1975] had 
established that the "Peter Parker" left standing 
had never definitively learned whether he was the 
clone or the original.) After Reilly (a.k.a. Parker) 
returns to New York, the clone Peter Parker decides 
to leave behind his Spider-Man identity, allowing 
Reilly to take over as Spider-Man. This controversial 
development is regarded by many critics as one of 
the most significant editorial missteps in Spider- 
Man's checkered history because it was confusing 
and repudiated two decades of settled continuity. 



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The story arc was finally undone by the later revela- 
tion that Reilly was, in fact, not the original Peter 
Parker; the entire situation had been engineered by 
Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, who was 
back from the dead (Spider-Man #75, December 
1996). Rather than committing wholesale revision- 
ism on the Spidey milieu as the "clone saga" had, 
Untold Tales of Spider-Man (a twenty-five-issue 
series, beginning in September 1995) instead 
embroidered the existing web-slinging legend. Writ- 
ten with obvious respect and affection by acclaimed 
comics scribe Kurt Busiek, these stories were set 
very early in Spider-Man's timeline, "between the 
panels" of the earliest Lee-Ditko stories. 

Every superheroic icon that endures for several 
decades is bound to accrete an unwieldy amount of 
backstory, and Spider-Man is no exception. In an 
effort to "scrape off the barnacles," Marvel broke 
with tradition yet again by ending The Amazing Spi- 
der-Man's run with issue #441 (November 1998), 
as part of the "Final Chapter Arc," which continued 
in Spider-Man #97, Spectacular Spider-Man #263, 
and Spider-Man #98 (the final issues of those ven- 
erable series as well), preparatory to a controversial 
"reboot" of the character. In Spider-Man: Chapter 
One (which began in December 1998), writer-artist 
John Byrne — renowned for his complete rewrite of 
the history, origin, and powers of DCs Superman a 
dozen years earlier — updated Spider-Man's origin 
story, as well as his first year as a spandex-clad 
crime fighter, to mixed reactions. January 1999 saw 
the start of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, a new ongoing 
series, as well as the first issue of volume 2 of The 
Amazing Spider-Man, the revival of Spider-Man's 
flagship title. This series has run parallel to a 
reboot in Ultimate Spider-Man (which debuted in 
October 2000), in which writer Brian Michael Bendis 
retells the entire Spidey saga from a beginning 
moved up to the 2000s. 

The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #36 (December 
2001), written by J. Michael Straczynski (the creator 
of the Babylon 5 television series) and drawn by 
John Romita Jr., dealt with Spider-Man's reactions 



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to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on 
New York's World Trade Center, thereby gaining 
national media attention. Consistent with his 
"everyman" viewpoint, Spider-Man sees the non- 
superpowered police and fire personnel who 
risked — and lost — their lives during the catastrophe 
as the real heroes of the day. The carnage of Sep- 
tember 11 forces Spider-Man to honestly confront 
the limits of his ability to thwart evil. 

Now more than four decades into his exis- 
tence, Spider-Man is still going strong, both as a 
storytelling vehicle and as one of the enduring 
icons of American popular culture. The principle 
new storylines can be found today in Amazing Spi- 
der-Man (vol. 2) and Peter Parker: Spider-Man. 
Reacting to the glutted, depressed comics market 
of the late 1990s, Marvel's editorial staff has taken 
great pains to ensure the quality of these titles, as 
well as producing several well-executed ancillary 
ones, including Ultimate Spider-Man (the previously 
referenced retelling of older tales from the Spidey 
canon); Tangled Web, whose stories emphasize off- 
beat perspective on various events and characters 
from Spider-Man's lengthy past; and a second Spi- 
der-Man Unlimited comic, which essentially 
replaced Tangled Web in 2004 and spotlights tal- 
ents new to producing Spidey stories. High-profile 
writers who have signed exclusive contracts with 
Marvel to write about the enduring superhero 
include Straczynski and Kevin Smith, writer, produc- 
er, and director of such cult-classic films as Clerks, 
Mallrats, and Chasing Amy. With ASM highly popular 
and Ultimate Spider-Man releasing eighteen issues 
annually as of 2004, the wondrous wall-crawler 
clearly shows no sign of slowing down. And thanks 
to the mass exposure achieved by Raimi's 2002 
megahit film Spider-Man and its many merchandis- 
ing tie-ins, there is now no dearth of highly motivat- 
ed Spidey readers. Although today's Spider-Man 
titles sell at nowhere near the multimillion-copy lev- 
els that characterized McFarlane's 1990 Spider- 
Man premiere, Marvel's friendly neighborhood forty- 
something arachnid is clearly not about to hang up 



his webs any time soon, nor lose sight of the awe- 
some responsibilities his powers bring. — MAM 

Spider-Man 
in the Media 

"Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider 
can. Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like 
flies, look out, here's comes the Spider-Man." So 
start the lyrics of one of the most famous super- 
hero theme songs in history. Peter Parker was first 
bitten by the radioactive spider that gave him super- 
powers in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), but 
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's creation would surge in 
popularity in 1967, with the debut of ABC's animat- 
ed Spiderman series (without the official hyphen). 

Following their work the previous year with the 
syndicated daily animated program called The Mar- 
vel Super-Heroes, animators and producers Robert 
Lawrence, Grant Simmons, and Ray Patterson — 
under the company name of Grantray-Lawrence — 
debuted the Spiderman cartoon on September 9. 
Opening the show was the catchy, jazzy theme song 
by Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster. Viewers 
expecting the limited animation of Marvel Super- 
Heroes were treated to better visuals — even if 
much of the web-slinging scenes were reused over 
and over again — by animators including Disney 
artist Shamus Culhane and a young Ralph Bakshi. 

The Spiderman stories hewed closely to their 
comic-book counterparts. Villains included Doctor 
Octopus, Electro, Mysterio,the Green Goblin, and 
the Lizard, and also newly created villains such as 
the Imposter and Dr. Zap. Canadian actors were 
used to fill the voice roles; Bernard Cowan played 
the hero for the first season, while Peter Soles 
became his voice for the second season. A total of 
52 half-hour shows were completed, with 50 eleven- 
minute stories and 27 twenty-two-minute stories 
included. Spiderman was popular enough to last 



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Tobey Maguire portrays the web-slinging hero in Spider-Man. 



until September 1970, and has been a hit in syndi- 
cation markets ever since. 

The next place Spidey appeared was a surprise 
for fans. Children's Television Workshop had a pub- 
lic television series called The Electric Company. 
The educational show started in 1971, but it was 
during the 1974-1977 seasons that it had a spe- 
cial guest-star. A live-action Spider-Man appeared in 
almost thirty short segments, fighting Dracula, the 
Wall, a Yeti, worms, and assorted nasty people. The 
shorts taught young viewers life lessons, though the 
always-silent Spider-Man (Danny Seagren) wasn't his 
usual talkative self; instead, thought balloons 
above him expressed what he was thinking. 

With the exception of some full-cast audio 
adventures and a "rock opera" released on record 
and tape, Peter Parker's alter ego was down for 



another few years, until Stan Lee hit Hollywood. 
There, Lee sold CBS on the idea of a Spider-Man 
live-action series. Charles Fries was soon producing 
the show, and on September 14, 1977, Spider-Man 
premiered in primetime with a two-hour pilot film. 
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp in The 
Sound of Music) snared the dual role of Peter Park- 
er/Spider-Man, while David White (of Bewitched 
fame) played the blustering J. Jonah Jameson. The 
younger Aunt May was played by Irene Tedrow, while 
Michael Pataki played the new Police Captain Bar- 
bera, a constant thorn in Spider-Man's side. 

Although Spider-Man did well in the ratings — 
and a semi-regular series called The Amazing Spi- 
der-Man ran in spring 1978 — CBS failed to green- 
light a regular series. Eight more episodes spottily 
aired from September 1978 through July 1979, 



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before the network chopped Spidey's web-line in 
two. Although the series did not feature any cos- 
tumed villains, and the web-shooting effects were 
cheesey, the wall-crawling scenes with stuntmen 
subbing for Hammond were excellent. 

Spidey's next media appearance was never 
seen by U.S. audiences (except on bootleg videos). 
A Japanese Spider-Man (pronounced 
"Soupaidaman") ran on TV Tokyo from May 7, 1978 
through March 14, 1979. There were forty-one total 
episodes, produced by the famous Toei Company. In 
this version, motocross racer Yamashiro Takuya 
(Kayama Kousuke) was given a special bracelet by a 
dying spider-alien. Using his new powers to stick to 
walls and spin webs, Spider-Man was also equipped 
with a flying car called the Spider Machine GP-7, a 
flying fortress called "The Marveller," and a giant 
robot called "Leopardon" which would throw its 
sword to stop evildoers. Invariably, Spider-Man would 
face alien creatures from the Iron Cross Group, all of 
which could grow to be giant-sized monsters. Lead- 
ing the Iron Cross was Professor Monster (Andou 
Mitsuo) and Amazoness (Kagawa Yukie). 

Back in the States, animation beckoned again, 
and Spider-Man answered the call, appearing as a 
guest-star on ABC's Spider-Woman series from 
DePatie-Freleng during the 1979-1980 season. 
That company would also develop a new spider- 
series for NBC, debuting Spider-Man and His Amaz- 
ing Friends in September 1981. With smooth ani- 
mation that echoed comic-book artist John Romita's 
style, the series teamed Spidey with fellow crime 
fighters Iceman and Firestar, a female character 
created especially for the show. "Spider-Friends," 
as the show was called by fans, often guest-starred 
other superheroes such as the X-Men, Captain 
America, the Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange, the Black 
Knight, and even little-known jungle heroine Shanna 
the She-Devil! Villains included the Red Skull, Mys- 
terio, Green Goblin, Chameleon, and Loki. 

In September 1982, the series expanded to an 
hour, with new adventures of the Hulk taking half the 
time slot for The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing 



Spider-Man. The third and final season of the series 
in 1983-1984 found the billing reversed and the 
show became The Amazing Spider-Man and the 
Incredible Hulk. Concurrently with the first Spider- 
Friends series, a syndicated Spider-Man solo series 
ran in some markets. The twenty-six episodes had 
actually been completed prior to Spider-Man and His 
Amazing Friends, but aired in the 1981-1982 sea- 
sons. Because they were not syndicated in all areas 
of the country, this is one of the least-known ver- 
sions of Spider-Man on television. In this series, the 
plots again stayed close to their comics roots, and 
Spidey battled Dr. Doom, Electro, the Lizard, Doctor 
Octopus, Green Goblin and Kingpin. In 1988 — the 
year after the web-spinner debuted as a giant bal- 
loon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade — the 
Spider-Man solo episodes were re-syndicated as 
part of the Marvel Action Universe series. 

In November 1994, Fox aired a preview 
episode of a new animated Spider-Man series 
(often called Spider-Man: The Animated Series, 
though not in the credits), but the series proper did 
not begin until February 1995. After comic-book 
writer Martin Pasko left the show in its developmen- 
tal stages, animation veteran John Semper stepped 
in to finish development and get the show on track. 
Although the first season started out with single- 
part stories that had some character continuity, by 
the end of the season, and into the next, the show 
had multi-episode story arcs. The creators brought 
in many aspects of the Spider-Man comic-book uni- 
verse, including the black alien costume, and 
friends and foes such as Venom, Morbius the Living 
Vampire, the Punisher, Rocket Racer, Hydro Man, Dr. 
Strange, Daredevil, Carnage, Kraven, Black Cat, and 
more. By the end of its high-rated fifth season in 
1998, sixty-five adventures had been produced, giv- 
ing this Spider-Man the record for highest amount 
of Spider-time on television. 

In October 1999, Fox decided to relaunch 
Spidey in a new milieu. In Spider-Man Unlimited, the 
web-spinning hero was accidentally trapped on 
Counter Earth, a parallel world like Earth except for 



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beastmen bred by the High Evolutionary, though 
Spidey also faced Venom and Carnage there. Attired 
in a new costume and aided by Machine Man X-51 
and good versions of Vulture and Goblin, Spider-Man 
fought to protect the people of Counter Earth. 
Although the series was intended to run at least 
three years, Spider-Man Unlimited flopped in the rat- 
ings. Taken off the air with only four episodes 
shown, the series finally returned in December 2000 
for the remainder of its initial thirteen episodes. 

Part of the reason that the concept of Spider- 
Man Unlimited was so far away from its comic-book 
reality was that the Spider-Man feature film was 
finally about to get underway. It had been a long 
time in coming. A movie version of the web-spin- 
ner's adventures was first announced in the early 
1980s, with Poltergeist helmer Tobe Hooper origi- 
nally slated to direct a big-budget pic for Cannon 
from a script by Leslie Stevens. Then Hooper bowed 
out and the film was announced for Christmas 
1985, directed by Joseph Zito (Missing In Action III) 
with a script by Ted Newsom and John Brancato. 
Further announced dates included Christmas 1986, 
Easter 1987, and Christmases 1987, 1988, and 
1990. Multiple scripts were written, by Joseph Gold- 
man, Barney Cohen, Don Michael Paul, Ethan Wiley, 
Frank LaLoggia, and Neil Ruttenberg. Even the 
movie company changed, with the collapse of Can- 
non; movie mogul Menahem Golan's 21st Century 
Productions picked up the rights, and Golan 
planned to have Captain America feature-helmer 
and B-movie man Albert Pyun direct. 

Through the 1990s, scripting or getting 
attached to the "upcoming" Spider-Man film produc- 
tion seemed almost a cottage industry. A pilot 
script was written for a new ABC TV series by Manny 
Coto, working for New World (which owned Marvel). 
On the film front, Terminator and Aliens director 
James Cameron wrote a treatment and planned to 
direct the proposed feature. The web became even 



more tangled as Golan sold pieces of the rights to 
Vicaom, Carolco, and Columbia Tri-Star, and Carolco 
eventually sold their rights to MGM. In 1993 and 
1994, multiple lawsuits were filed by all the compa- 
nies claiming to own the Spider-Man rights. The bat- 
tles finally ended in 1999, and on March 1 of that 
year, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Enter- 
prises announced a deal to develop Spider-Man for 
film, television, and merchandise. 

Work began on a new script, with David Koepp 
adapting Cameron's treatment, then Scott Rosenberg 
and Alvin Sargent coming aboard. Practically every 
young male actor in Hollywood (and a few older ones) 
were rumored to be testing for the role of Peter Park- 
er/Spider-Man, and multiple hot film directors were 
rumored to be helming. In 2000, the dust settled, 
and Sam Raimi was announced as the director, with 
Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. Other cast members 
included Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin, and 
Kirsten Dunst as girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. As 
rumors flew fast and furious on the Internet, the 
most controversial element of the film was that Spi- 
der-Man's webshooters would be organic, with the 
webbing coming directly from Parker's wrists. 

By the time of its release on May 3, 2002, 
Spider-Man was one of the most widely anticipated 
films of the new millennium. Merchandising was 
omnipresent, and opening weekend netted over 
$114 million! The film would eventually top over 
$400 million in the United States alone. Critics 
adored the film, and fans did as well, thanks to a 
pleasant story, good acting, incredible special 
effects, and a costume that made real Spider-Man's 
red-and-blue comic-book threads. 

Even as filming for Spider-Man 2 was under- 
way, in July 2003 MTV debuted a new computer-ani- 
mated Spider-Man series that took its continuity not 
only from the Spider-Man feature film, but also from 
2003's Daredevil movie (with a guest-appearance 
by the Kingpin). Acclaimed Ultimate Spider-Man 



Opposite: Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) and Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson) share a tender moment in Spider-Man. 



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Spider-Man Villains 



comic-book writer Brian Michael Bendis took an 
active part in developing the series, which skewed 
older than its animated predecessors. Stars aplen- 
ty dropped by to voice characters: Neil Patrick Har- 
ris took on the title role, with Lisa Loeb as Mary 
Jane, while guests included Gina Gershon, Ed 
Asner, Rob Zombie, Jeffrey Combs, and Michael 
Clarke Duncan. Only thirteen episodes of the MTV 
series were produced. 

Announced to debut on June 30, 2004, Spider- 
Man 2 sees many returning cast members from the 
first film, including Maguire, Dunst, James Franco 
as Harry Osborn, Rosemary Harris as Aunt May, and 
J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. New to the 
cast this time is the pre-Lizard scientist Dr. Curt 
Connors (played by Dylan Baker), and the mechani- 
cally armed villain Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina). With 
Sam Raimi back in the director's chair as well, and 
a script by Koepp, Sargent, Alfred Gough, Miles Mil- 
lar, and Michael Chabon, the web-slinger is again 
poised to make a multi-million-dollar mark in the- 
aters and in the licensing arena. Uncle Ben may 
have warned Peter that "with great power comes 
great responsibility," but as Spider-Man's media 
appearances have shown over the years, with good 
spider-stories come great paychecks as well. — AM 



Spider-Man 

The greatness of any superhero is determined by 
the quality of the adversaries he or she must over- 
come, and Marvel Comics' Spider-Man is no excep- 
tion to this axiom. Over the course of more than 
four decades, supervillains such as Dr. Octopus, 
the Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, the Kingpin, 
and Venom have become enduring icons of roguery, 
constantly challenging both Spider-Man and his writ- 
ers to make their heroic best efforts. 



The principal distinguishing characteristic of 
Spidey's most enduring nemesis, Dr. Octopus (cre- 
ated by scripter Stan Lee and plotter-artist Steve 
Ditko), is four superstrong, lightning-quick, prehen- 
sile metal tentacles; like his principal foe, Spider- 
Man (Peter Parker), Dr. Octopus styles himself after 
an eight-limbed creature, and his origin story from 
1963 (in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #3) bears 
similarities to that of the wall-crawler as well. 

Shy and bookish as a child, young Otto 
Octavius excels at his studies, eventually earning a 
doctorate in physics and becoming a brilliant 
nuclear scientist. Dr. Octavius toils ceaselessly at 
scientific endeavors, becoming not only nationally 
famous but also extremely egotistical, keeping his 
co-workers literally at arm's length with the mechan- 
ical-arm harness he wears when handling haz- 
ardous materials — until an accidental lab explosion 
permanently bonds the metal limbs to his body and 
gives him mental (rather than merely mechanical) 
control over them. He can extend each limb from 
about six to twenty-five feet in length, moving them 
even more quickly and easily than he can his four 
natural limbs. But the accident also unhinges the 
self-absorbed Octavius, who turns his talents to 
superpowered crime, largely of the "rule-the-world- 
and-avenge-my-many-previous-humiliations" variety. 

Although Dr. Octopus occasionally menaces 
the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man has always been 
"Doc Ock's" principal foe. Dr. Octopus is the first vil- 
lain to publicly unmask Spider-Man, though without 
exposing the hero's true (teenage geek) identity, 
which no one, least of all Ock, finds believable. Ock 
also causes the death of NYPD Captain George 
Stacy, the father of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first 
serious girlfriend, and later hides out from the 
police in a room rented from Parker's Aunt May, 
whom he nearly marries, to Parker's enormous cha- 
grin. Ock later unmasks Spidey a second time and 
cures the hero of a lethal virus, only to be killed 
shortly thereafter by the cloned Spidey villain known 
as Kaine — and is briefly replaced by a female Dr. 
Octopus named Carolyn Trainer. Proving the axiom 



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Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin square off in the animated show Spider-Man. 



that death in comics is largely only an inconve- 
nience, Octavius is soon restored to life by the 
Hand, a mystical Asian crime syndicate; afterward, 
Ock has no recollection of having discovered Spider- 
Man's secret identity. Dr. Octopus remains one of 
Spidey's most lethal foes to this day. 

The Green Goblin, another classic Lee-Ditko 
creation from a 1964 issue of The Amazing Spider- 
Man (vol. 1 #14), is another mainstay of Spider- 
Man's rogues' gallery. Norman Osborn, growing up 
watching the many failures of his inventor father 
(Amberson Osborn), becomes obsessed with 
amassing power and wealth at an early age. Pursu- 
ing collegiate studies in business, chemistry, and 
chemical engineering, Norman Osborn forms 
Osborn Chemical in partnership with Dr. Mendel 
Stromm, one of his professors. After having the 



embezzling Stromm arrested and taking over his 
interest in the company, Osborn discovers in 
Stromm's notebooks a chemical formula capable of 
greatly increasing human strength and intelligence. 
Unaware that his young son Harry has innocently 
rearranged some of the chemicals in his lab, Nor- 
man tries to use Stromm's formula on himself, only 
to cause a violent explosion. After recovering from 
his injuries, it becomes evident that Osbom's exper- 
iment has made him superhuman — but has also 
rendered him criminally insane. 

After outfitting supervillains such as the 
Scorcher and the Headsman to help expand his 
wealth, Osborn develops the Green Goblin's demonic 
costume, the turbine-powered Goblin Glider he will 
fly into battle, and an arsenal of explosive pumpkin 
bombs. Thus equipped, he attempts to establish his 



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Spider-Man Villains 



own underworld credentials by trying to kill Spider- 
Man. His presence concealed by a compound that 
dulls Spider-Man's danger-detecting "spider sense," 
the Goblin discovers the hero's secret identity and 
imprisons Parker in a secret hideout, where he 
reveals his own true identity to Parker. During a cli- 
mactic battle, Osborn runs afoul of high-voltage 
wires, which leave him amnesiac and prompt the 
kind-hearted Spidey to leave him alone. 

Osborn's memories soon return, culminating in 
several clashes between the Goblin and Spider- 
Man. During the most memorable of these 1970s 
contretemps, the Goblin kidnaps Gwen Stacy and 
hurls her to her death from the top of the George 
Washington Bridge, only to impale himself (appar- 
ently fatally) on his own Goblin Glider shortly there- 
after in an attempt to murder Spider-Man. To pro- 
tect his father's reputation, Harry Osborn hides the 
Green Goblin's costume and equipment and buys a 
coroner's silence about the presence of the Goblin 
formula in the elder Osborn's blood. After acciden- 
tally discovering that Spider-Man is actually his 
roommate Parker, the mentally unstable and drug- 
addicted Harry assumes the Goblin's identity and 
begins waging his own battles against the wall- 
crawler, though he is later rehabilitated by Dr. Bar- 
ton Hamilton, a psychiatrist who eventually 
becomes the third Green Goblin. Years later, in 
1983, the ruthless fashion designer and business- 
man Roderick Kingsley takes up the Green Goblin's 
mantle as the Hobgoblin. 

Harry Osborn later reprises his role as the 
Green Goblin after exposing himself to a lethally 
toxic Green Goblin formula. While dying of chemical 
poisoning, Osborn menaces Spider-Man and his 
wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, but ultimately sacri- 
fices himself to prevent the death of his son, 
Normy. Unknown to everyone during this period, 
Norman Osborn's chemically spawned powers have 
enabled him to survive his apparent death. After 
years of living underground, the original Green Gob- 
lin emerges in the 1990s to perform some of his 
most heinous acts: He takes over Kingsley's corpo- 



ration; cruelly fakes Aunt May's death; murders Ben 
Reilly, Spider-Man's clone; and complicates Parker's 
life even further by purchasing his workplace, the 
Daily Bugle — thus reclaiming his original position as 
one of the premier bad guys in the Spider-Man 
mythos. Norman Osborn later begins trying to force 
Parker into becoming the heir to his criminal enter- 
prises, as told in the popular Revenge of the Green 
Goblin miniseries, which ran from October through 
December 2000. Like Doc Ock, death can scarcely 
slow the Green Goblin down. 

Kraven the Hunter sprang from the fertile 
minds of Lee and Ditko in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 
1 #15 in August 1964. Descended from the van- 
ished Russian aristocracy, Sergei Kravinoff garners 
a reputation as the greatest hunter in the world and 
seeks out an unusual trophy — Spider-Man's head. 
His strength, reflexes, and senses greatly augment- 
ed by exotic jungle elixirs, Kraven hunts Spidey on 
numerous occasions, and finally succeeds in bury- 
ing him alive. Taking possession of Spider-Man's 
late (and unlamented) black costume, Kraven briefly 
takes the wall-crawler's place — defeating the 
rodentlike villain known as Vermin — to prove his 
superiority over his vanquished foe before taking 
his own life in accordance with his twisted sense of 
honor. Kraven's son Vladimir Kravinoff (created by 
writer Howard Mackie and artists Tom Lyle and 
Scott Hanna) followed in his father's footsteps, tak- 
ing on the guise of the Grim Hunter. He fought 
Spidey (unsuccessfully) only once (in Peter Parker: 
Spicier Man #47, June 1994) before being killed by 
the villain Kaine not quite a year later. 

In 1967, Stan Lee and artist John Romita Sr. 
created Wilson Fisk, the crime boss known as the 
Kingpin, a man distinguished by his ruthlessness 
(he commits his first murder at the tender age of 
twelve), his huge size, his expensive suits, a ciga- 
rette holder, and a diamond-studded laser-blasting 
walking stick. Though he appears to be grossly fat 
in his introduction in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 
#50, the Kingpin is actually a deceptively quick pow- 
erhouse whose bulk is composed of solid muscle, 



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Spider-Man Villains 



and he fights Spider-Man to a standstill on many 
occasions; in the 1980s he becomes the principal 
enemy of Daredevil. Apart from the occasional turf 
war, the Kingpin — who was once the supervillain 
known as the Brainwasher in the late 1960s — has 
long been considered the leader of New York's 
underworld, and numbers most of the city's other 
mob bosses among his enemies. Despite his tough- 
ness, the Kingpin's strong-willed wife Vanessa 
exerts a powerful influence over him. Their adult 
son Richard also enters the family business, adopt- 
ing the personae of the underworld figures known 
as the Schemer and the Rose, who becomes one of 
the Kingpin's greatest criminal rivals. 

The Kingpin's reign over the underworld comes 
to an end in 1992 when Daredevil, several other 
crime bosses, and the criminal organization called 
Hydra (run by the Red Skull) defeat him. Undeterred, 
Fisk quietly rebuilds his illicit empire and mounts 
simultaneous attacks on such criminal rivals as Nor- 
man Osborn, Hammerhead, Silvermane, Caesar 
Cicero, and Don Fortunato. The Kingpin once again 
claws his way back up by 1998, only to be shot, 
dumped into a river, and struck blind by a gunshot to 
the face fired by a Fisk employee named Echo, 
whose father the Kingpin had murdered. Later 
Richard Fisk and a Kingpin employee named Silke 
stage a coup against the Kingpin, who has agreed to 
drop a dime on his fellow crime bosses to prevent 
his beloved Vanessa from leaving him. Vanessa foils 
this plot, saving the Kingpin's life and killing Silke's 
men as well as Richard, her own son. Leaving the 
Kingpin's empire divided, Vanessa flees with her 
husband to Europe, where he convalesces. 

The serpent-tongued, shark-toothed creature 
known as Venom is truly the stuff of nightmares. He 
was brought to eerie life by writers David Michelinie 
and Tom DeFalco, writer-artist Todd McFarlane, and 
artists Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding in the late 
1980s, a time when supervillains were becoming 
darker, grittier, and more vicious than ever before. 
After Spider-Man shreds his costume during the 
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars crossover mini- 



series (May 1984 through April 1985), he adopts a 
new jet-black costume that turns out to be a sen- 
tient alien life-form that feeds on his adrenaline. 
Spidey wears the costume for the next several 
months, taking advantage of its convenient ability to 
transform itself into civilian clothing. Spidey's sub- 
sequent discovery of the alien costume's desire to 
bond permanently with him leads him to ditch it. 
The jilted costume later joins with the suicidal ex- 
Daily Globe reporter Eddie Brock, who hated Spider- 
Man for ruining his career with the revelation that 
his biggest news story — which purported to reveal 
the identity of the late murderer known as the Sin- 
Eater — was a fraud. United in their antipathy toward 
Spider-Man, Brock and the alien symbiote costume 
begin a rampage through New York as the grisly, vio- 
lent composite creature called Venom. 

Seeing Spider-Man as evil, Venom believes 
himself to be "protecting" innocent people from the 
hero's depredations. Venom also finds himself at 
odds with Carnage, an even more horrible, violent 
creature who comes into being after a piece of the 
alien symbiote bonds with a criminal named Cletus 
Kasady, who made his debut in 1992 in Amazing 
Spider-Man vol. 1 #361. Though he actually 
behaves in a heroic fashion on several occasions, 
Venom's belief that people he regards as "evil" 
(including Peter Parker) should be killed places him 
squarely in the "villain" column. 

Venom later fights Spider-Man's clone, Ben 
Reilly, who manages to separate Brock from the 
symbiote temporarily. Afterward, Brock and the alien 
costume rejoin, becoming more violent, crazy, and 
dangerous than ever before. After Spider-Man's 
1998 "continuity reboot," Venom (now somehow 
unaware of Spidey's secret identity) becomes part 
of the Sinister Six, along with such Spidey main- 
stays as Electro and Sandman, both of whom he 
attacks savagely. After calling a truce with Spidey, 
then declaring war again, the emotionally unstable 
Venom is once again split back into his component 
beings by the part human/part alien Senator Stew- 
art Ward. The symbiote was next seen in a popular 



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Spider-Woman 



version in the parallel-universe Ultimate Spider-Man 
series in the early 2000s, and in a 2003 Venom 
series from the Tsunami line of youth-oriented 
reboots. Like any good Spidey villain, Venom can't 
stay out of the fray — or avoid starring in a new self- 
titled series— for long. — MAM 

SpfcTer-lnfoman 

Given the number of women in the Marvel universe 
who have taken on the mantle of Spider-Woman, one 
might think that the role was charmed. On the con- 
trary, it is more cursed. One of Marvel Comics' most 
recognizable heroines in the 1970s, Spider-Woman 
is now retired, and the various people who have 
filled the persona are now a score of supporting 
characters, even as Spider-Girl, a futuristic version 
of her, hangs onto her own series with the sticky 
tenacity of a wall-crawler. Pull back the webs, and 
take a look at the twisting history of Spider-Woman. 

Concerned that someone in either animation or 
comics would create a female character whose 
name played off its most popular property, Spider- 
Man, Marvel's then-president Stan Lee backed the 
decision to debut a femme fatale named Spider- 
Woman. Writer/editor Archie Goodwin created the 
character for Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977), 
working with artist Sal Buscema. In this story, the 
character was an agent for the villainous organiza- 
tion Hydra, assigned to kill Nick Fury, agent of 
S.H.I.E.L.D., and her origin involved her being mutat- 
ed from a real spider! A four-issue guest-stint in 
Marvel Two-In-One (#30-#33, August-November 
1977) ended with the now-heroic Spider-Woman 
learning she actually had a different backstory.... 

Spider-Woman's "true" origin was revealed in 
Spider-Woman #1 (April 1978). Jessica Drew learned 
that she had been exposed to radioactive uranium 
while a child, and that her scientist father had inject- 
ed her with an experimental serum made of irradiat- 
ed spider's blood to cure her. Put in cryogenic stasis, 



Jessica aged slowly, and was later released. Jessica 
discovered that she could fire bio-electric "venom 
blasts," had the ability to stick to walls, had superhu- 
man strength and speed, was immune to most tox- 
ins, and could secrete pheromones that made men 
desire her and women fear her. Her red-and-yellow 
costume also had a pair of glider wings that allowed 
her to approximate flying. 

In the Spider-Woman comic-book series, Drew 
lived for a while in Los Angeles, and became known 
to the public as a superpowered bounty hunter. She 
faced villains such as the sixth-century sorceress 
Morgan le Fay, Gypsy Moth, the Brothers Grimm, 
Viper, and others. Eventually, she moved to San 
Francisco and became a private detective as well. 
Along the way, Drew romanced S.H.I.E.L.D. agent 
Jerry Hunt, and worked with both wheelchair-bound 
criminologist Scotty McDowell and a dark hero 
named the Shroud. 

After a rotating series of writers, including 
Michael Fleisher, Chris Claremont, and Ann Nocenti, 
Spider-Woman was a muddled mess. Her powers 
were faltering, her supporting cast had changed 
numerous times, and her origin had been revised 
and expanded upon until it confused even longtime 
fans. Spider-Woman ended at issue #50 (June 
1983), with a story that appeared to have her body 
killed, her astral self trapped in limbo, and all mem- 
ory of her erased from the Marvel universe. 

The ending of Spider-Woman was an odd 
choice for so visible a character. After Filmation cre- 
ated an animated heroine named Web-Woman for 
the CBS animated series Tarzan and the Super 7 
(1978-1980), Depatie-Freleng sold ABC a Spider- 
Woman animated series. Debuting September 22, 
1979, the show lasted one season, with sixteen 
episodes (including a Spider-Man guest appear- 
ance). The show followed comic-book history very 
loosely. Jessica Drew was now the publisher of Jus- 
tice Magazine, using her enhanced spider-sense to 
warn her of dangers around the world. Spinning in a 
circle like Wonder Woman, Drew (the voice of Joan 
Van Ark) would become Spider-Woman and fly to 



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danger. Often, she would also have to rescue Jus- 
tice photographer/love interest Jeff Hunt and her 
smarty-pants nephew, Billy Drew; they would travel 
to sites of trouble in the Justice Jet Copter. The 
heroine faced mummies, Vikings, Dracula, and a 
few comic-book adversaries such as Kingpin and 
Dormammu. While Spider-Woman was on the air, 
she enjoyed a healthy licensing run, appearing on T- 
shirts, costumes, underwear, school supplies, stick- 
ers, Slurpee cups, and more. Once the show disap- 
peared, her appearances on licensed product grew 
less frequent. 

Jessica Drew didn't stay dead for long, thanks 
to the Avengers and Dr. Strange, who helped revive 
her in the comic books, even though she lost her 
powers in the process (The Avengers #240-#241, 
February-March 1984). Drew continued her life as 
a private detective in San Francisco, though she 
later worked in the East Asian city of Madripoor, a 
job which brought her into contact with Wolverine 
numerous times. In modern stories, Drew has 
worked alongside and even mentored her counter- 
parts, and it appears that some of her superpowers 
have returned. (Behind the scenes, writer Brian 
Michael Bendis wanted Drew to be the heroine of 
his Marvel MAX series Alias; when he could not use 
her, he created ex-heroine Jessica Jones instead, 
and later had her meet Drew in a memorable story- 
line that also involved the third Spider-Woman.) 

The second Spider-Woman was Julia Carpenter, 
a single mother from Denver, Colorado. First 
glimpsed in Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #6 
(October 1984), this Spider-Woman wore a black 
costume with white boots and gloves, and a white 
spider-symbol across her chest. Her powers — 
gained from secret exposure to spider venom by the 
evil Commission — included the ability to psionically 
stick to walls and ceilings, as well as to create 
strong "psi-webs" of energy. She also had 
enhanced strength and speed. She became a mem- 
ber of Freedom Force, a government-sponsored 
group that captured super-criminals such as the 
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Spider-Woman aided 




Spider-Woman #1 © 1978 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOE SINNOTT. 



the Avengers as well, and later joined Avengers 
West Coast and Force Works, but her career was 
cut short when a villainous opponent — also calling 
herself Spider-Woman — stole her powers. Prior to 
starring in Avengers West Coast and Force Works, 
Carpenter appeared in her own four-part Spider- 
Woman miniseries (November 1993-February 
1994). She also appeared as one of the semi-regu- 
lar characters in the syndicated 1994-1996 series 
Iron Man, part of Marvel Films and New World 
Entertainment's animated The Marvel Action Hour. 

The third heroine to wear the Spider-Woman 
mantle was actually a teen girl named Martha 
"Mattie" Franklin. Taking her father's place in a 



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The Spirit 

mystical ceremony, tomboy Franklin gained great 
strength. A fan of Spider-Man, Franklin took on the 
name Spider-Woman, until she lost her powers to 
Charlotte Witter, an evil woman who was aided by 
Doctor Octopus in stealing the powers of all three 
Spider-Women. Franklin eventually stole the powers 
back, gaining her immediate predecessor's powers 
and more — flight, super strength, venom blasts, 
psionic webbing, psychic powers, and adhesion — in 
the process. Franklin faced villains such as 
Shadrac, Nighteyes, and Flesh and Bones in the 
third Spider-Woman series, which lasted eighteen 
issues (July 1999-December 2000). Franklin 
turned up in the same Alias storyline (#16-#21, 
January-June 2003) as Drew, where it was discov- 
ered that she was addicted to drugs, and that her 
pusher was using her blood to give his own drugs a 
super-boost. 

Although she does not bear the name Spider- 
Woman yet, one girl in a potential Marvel future 
might one day take on that name. In a not-too-dis- 
tant future, Peter Parker has retired his life as Spi- 
der-Man to live with his wife, Mary Jane, and daugh- 
ter, May Parker. Shortly after May exhibits signs of 
superstrength and speed, Peter is forced into a bat- 
tle against the Green Goblin's vindictive grandson. 
Learning her father's secret, May takes one of his 
spare costumes and web-shooters and battles the 
Goblin, saving her father's life and embarking on a 
career as Spider-Girl. First appearing in What If? 
#105 (February 1998), May garnered her own 
series debut in Spider-Girl #1 (October 1998). In 
the ensuing years, she has fought old-time spider- 
villains such as Venom, as well as new and updated 
villains such as Dragon King, Mr. Nobody, Crazy 
Eight, Spyral, and Raptor. Although the Spider-Girl 
series has been on the brink of cancellation many 
times since, a vociferous fan base has always ral- 
lied for the series and saved it, making it the 
longest-running solo series starring a female char- 
acter in Marvel history. It seems that, not unlike 
cats, Spider-Woman and Spider-Girl may have nine 
lives. — AM 



The Spirit 

In the early days of comic books, aspiring artists 
could look to Lou Fine's work on the Black Condor 
for tips on anatomy, to Jack Kirby's Captain America 
for excitement, and to Bob Kane's Batman for 
mood. For storytelling, drama, inventiveness, char- 
acterization, and pacing, they turned to one of the 
medium's true innovators, Will Eisner, and his leg- 
endary newspaper feature, The Spirit. Eisner came 
into comic books in the mid-1930s and, together 
with Jerry Iger, created one of the first packaging 
firms — the Eisner/lger studio — producing comics 
for the many companies entering the nascent field. 
Along with Fiction House and Fox, one of the stu- 
dio's clients was Quality Comics, and it was Quality 
owner Everett "Busy" Arnold and the Des Moines 
Register and Tribune Syndicate who offered Eisner a 
partnership to produce for syndication a sixteen- 
page comic-book insert for Sunday newspapers, 
which would compete with the increasingly popular 
superhero comics springing up in the wake of 
Superman. After selling his half of Eisner and Iger, 
from early 1940 to 1942 Eisner and his new studio 
created a host of features for such Quality titles as 
National, Smash, Blackhawk, Uncle Sam and Mili- 
tary Comics, as well as the ground-breaking news- 
paper section, The Spirit. 

The Spirit was marketed through the Des 
Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate, and the fea- 
ture was eventually sold to approximately twenty 
newspapers, reaching a readership of 5 million. The 
Spirit section itself was a separate, sixteen-page, 
coverless insert, consisting of a lead seven- or 
eight-page Spirit strip by Eisner and two backup 
strips: Lady Luck (a detective feature by Chuck 
Mazoujian) and Mr. Mystic (a magician created by 
Bob Powell). The Spirit himself appeared in a daily 
newspaper strip from 1941 to 1944, and on-air in a 
short-lived radio show. 

Appearing in June 1940, the first Spirit section 
introduced readers to the dashing private detective 



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and criminologist Denny Colt, who is given a tip-off 
about mad scientist and all-round bad guy Dr. Cobra 
by his curmudgeonly friend, Central City Police Com- 
missioner Dolan. Colt tracks down Cobra to cata- 
combs beneath Chinatown but is accidentally 
drenched by a strange chemical. When Dolan and 
the police find him later, he is pronounced dead at 
the scene and buried in Wildwood Cemetery. Howev- 
er, when Colt shows up two days later at Dolan's 
police-headquarters office, Colt reveals that the liq- 
uid had merely induced a temporary state of sus- 
pended animation. The newly resurrected Colt 
decides to let the world carry on believing in his 
demise as a cover for his pursuit of the mad doctor, 
under the guise of "The Spirit." With Dolan in tow, 
and donning a blue business suit, gloves, hat, and 
domino mask as a "costume," the Spirit finally 
tracks down Cobra, who dies in a hail of bullets. 
Afterward, the hero decides to stay "dead," declar- 
ing, "There are criminals and crimes beyond the 
reach of the police, but the Spirit can reach them." 

Arnold and the Syndicate had wanted a super- 
hero to rival Superman, but Eisner had dreams of 
creating a more complex strip for the older, sophisti- 
cated newspaper readership, one that was not cut 
from the same superhero cloth as the Man of Steel. 
Eisner's compromise was to give the Spirit a small 
mask, covering his eyes, and a uniform (of sorts) — 
a white, long-sleeved shirt, blue suit, fedora hat, 
and gloves — which was (almost) ever-present over 
the feature's twelve-year existence. With his de 
facto costume and dual identity, though no super- 
powers of which to speak, the Spirit became one of 
the first detective heroes to stick with audiences. 
Over the strip's first few weeks, Eisner introduced 
the hero's slightly macabre hideout — a well-appoint- 
ed laboratory (for his clever inventions, such as 
smoke pellets and the short-lived car and plane) 
underneath Wildwood Cemetery — and the strip's 
colorful supporting cast. Principal among these 
were Commissioner Dolan's beautiful, blonde 
daughter Ellen, whose main goal in life appeared to 
be to marry the Spirit, and Ebony White, a plucky 




The Spirit #48 © 1988 Will Eisner. 

COVER ART BY WILL EISNER. 



young black cabbie who soon became the hero's 
driver, comic foil, and de facto sidekick. 

In its first few years, the feature was a more or 
less a traditional detective comic, albeit one laced 
with humor and the sort of energy found only in the 
comic books, but what set it apart from its rivals 
were Eisner's sophisticated storytelling, his inven- 
tiveness, and his ability to cram a witty, intelligent 
whodunit into seven pages. A lifelong fan of the 
movies (counting the films of Orson Welles, Alfred 
Hitchcock, and Man Ray among his influences), Eis- 
ner played around with "camera angles," page lay- 
outs and pacing, and changing panel shapes, sizes, 
and viewpoints to affect how his audience read the 



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The Spirit 



strip. If he wanted to slow a sequence down or 
speed it up, he had the visual tricks to do it, and to 
a large extent he was inventing the visual language 
of the medium as he drew, in the process inspiring 
generations to come; Eisner's 1985 book, Comics 
and Sequential Art, is still the definitive word on 
how to draw comics. An example of his playful 
inventiveness was the way in which, on his splash 
pages, he would spell out the word "Spirit" on bits 
of paper blowing in the breeze, on shop signs, in 
puddles, on the bars of a window, on steps, or in 
countless other ways. 

Soon after America entered World War II, Eisner 
was drafted, and for the duration of the conflict the 
strip was handled by quality staffers such as William 
Woolfolk, Manly Wade Wellman, and Bill Millard on 
scripts and Jack Cole and Lou Fine on artwork. It 
was still immaculately crafted but lacked the spark 
of genius that Eisner brought with him, a spark that 
was resolutely rekindled on his return in late 1945. 
After a couple of episodes that employed penciler 
John Spranger, Eisner really hit his stride in the late 
1940s, fashioning a succession of dazzlingly witty 
and creative stories. His years in the army had 
matured him as an artist, revealing a more fluid, car- 
toon-influenced style that delighted in creating mem- 
orable characters and atmospheric action 
sequences. Where the prewar episodes had starred 
a succession of matinee villains, such as the Black 
Bow and Mr. Midnight, the later Spirit stories fea- 
tured a more picaresque array of protagonists. 
Together with his increasingly influential new assis- 
tant Jules Feiffer (later a legendary cartoonist for the 
Village Voice and the New Yorker), Eisner explored 
the lives of Central City's losers, con-men, petty crim- 
inals, weirdos, outsiders, and corrupt officials, who 
rejoiced in such names as Bottles McTopp, Stuffer 
Balot, Snagg Debbin, PI Bumble, Tempus J. Fujit, 
Sven Galli, Stud Sharpe, and Rattsy Trapp. That is 
not to say that Eisner had abandoned arch-villains 
entirely, however; two recurring foes were the eccen- 
tric Mr. Carrion (with his pet buzzard Julia) and the 
mysterious Octopus, whose face was never seen but 



whose identifying trademark was his two purple 
gloves with three white stripes. 

More often than not, the Spirit's most memo- 
rable opponents were women — femmes fatales of 
the deadliest, most seductive variety. Inspired by 
such movie sirens as Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, 
and Bette Davis, Eisner fashioned a wildly entertain- 
ing parade of pouting assassins, including Nylon 
Rose, Dulcet Tone, Sparrow Fallon, Powder Pouf, 
Plaster of Paris, Autumn Mews, Thorne Strand, Flax- 
en Weaver, and Sand Saref. The Spirit's female foes 
were as likely to kiss him as try to kill him and, 
indeed, his first significant foe — Silk Satin — had 
been his childhood friend when they ran together in 
Central City's Slum Gulley. Satin eventually 
renounced her life as a thief, but less repentant 
was the man-eating P'Gell. Named in honor of Paris' 
notorious Pigalle district, P'Gell had left a string of 
wealthy and deceased husbands in her wake, and 
sported lips that would have been the envy of Jessi- 
ca Rabbit. In one of the strip's most memorable 
lines, she introduced herself with the immortal 
announcement: "I am P'Gell and this is not a story 
for little boys." 

Another example of Eisner's postwar creativity 
was the expansion and development of the series' 
supporting cast. Commissioner Dolan, Ebony White, 
and Ellen became integral, witty elements of the 
feature rather than mere plot devices to rescue, or 
be rescued by, its hero. Indeed, in many stories Eis- 
ner used the "crime of the week" as a hook on 
which to hang the exploration of his characters' per- 
sonalities, rather than as the stories' focal point. 
Ellen became more than just a would-be spouse 
and ultimately became Central City's mayor, while 
Dolan softened to become the Spirit's friend and 
confidant. For contemporary readers, White was 
more problematic. While he was a brave and fear- 
less companion for the Spirit, he was also rather 
too broadly caricatured; his Southern black dialogue 
("Yassuh, Mr. Spirit Boss!") and stereotyped fea- 
tures became decidedly un— politically correct. 
Although he was always well intentioned, Eisner 



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Starman 



eventually bowed to the trend and replaced Ebony 
with the less controversial — and Anglo — Sammy, 
Willum, and PS, three kids straight out of the popu- 
lar kid group the Little Rascals. 

Eisner had always prided himself on being as 
much a businessman as an artist (his studio had 
already made him financially secure by the age of 
twenty-five) and by the early 1950s, his outside inter- 
ests had largely curtailed his involvement in The Spir- 
it, leaving it in the hands of his studio. During these 
years, Eisner was aided by such notable artists and 
writers as Jules Feiffer, Wally Wood, and Tex Blaisdell. 
In late 1952, the feature was finally abandoned. But 
that was not to be the last anyone saw of the charac- 
ter. Busy Arnold had begun reprinting Spirit stories in 
Police Comics as early as 1942, and added a regular 
Spirit We in 1944. Both of these disseminated Spirit 
stories to comics fans for the rest of that decade. 
Despite the feature's newspaper demise, Fiction 
House reprinted vintage tales in their own Spirit 
comic from 1952 to 1954, and IW Comics released 
its own title a few years later. Harvey Comics intro- 
duced a new generation of fans to the Spirit in 1966, 
but its revival only lasted two issues despite some 
new Spirit additions from Eisner himself. However, 
the 1970s proved to be more receptive to the charac- 
ter, as first Kitchen Sink Press and then Warren Pub- 
lishing Company revived him. 

The Warren magazines reprinted up to ten clas- 
sic adventures from the postwar period in each issue, 
topping them off with lavishly painted covers. After six- 
teen issues, Kitchen Sink once again took over the 
title, going on to print Spirit stories for the next six- 
teen years. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, 
Spirit stories could be found in black-and-white maga- 
zines, lavish hardbacks, and a regular, full-color comic 
that ran for almost 100 issues. In addition, the 
masked hero entered into television for the first time 
when a pilot telefilm was produced and aired on ABC 
in July 1986, starring Sam Jones in the title role. By 
the time of Kitchen Sink's collapse in the late 1990s, 
almost every Spirit story had been reprinted — some 
many times — and Eisner had assumed the role of 



comics' great genius. After more than twenty years of 
publishing instructional comics for industry, schools, 
and the military, Eisner introduced a succession of 
well-received graphic novels, none of which starred 
the Spirit, but all of which intended to develop comic 
books as a mature medium. 

For the many reprint series, Eisner drew literally 
hundreds of new covers but always resisted the 
temptation of drawing new Spirit stories, preferring 
to concentrate on his graphic novels. However, in 
1997 Kitchen Sink finally persuaded him to let 
other, contemporary creators produce new Spirit 
tales — the first for decades. With such talents as 
Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Dave Gibbons, the 
series promised much but, despite the high level of 
craft on show, the results lacked the spark of the 
originals. In the 2000s, DC Comics has taken up 
Kitchen Sink's mantle as Spirit publisher, releasing 
a series of hardback "archives" volumes, reprinting 
in series the entire run of stories. In spite of its ori- 
gins in the transient world of newspapers, The Spirit 
has become one of the most reprinted series in 
comics history and has secured its place as one of 
the medium's cornerstones. — DAR 



Starman 



Starman is an interesting example of a character 
that was initially considered a relative failure but 
that has, after a very long wait, eventually achieved 
critical success. Starman was dreamed up by DC 
Comics as something of a successor to Superman, 
and the company launched him with much fanfare 
in 1941, through full-page advertisements in their 
comics, a cover and lead slot in Adventure Comics 
#61, and membership in their top-selling Justice 
Society of America strip. Starman's creators were 
among the company's best: Sandman and Dr. Fate 
creator Gardner Fox, and artist Jack Burnley, the 
first person to draw both Batman and Superman 
outside of their creators' studios. Even Starman's 
powers — flight and strength — and costume were 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



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Starman 



similar to those of Superman, although the cos- 
tume had different colors and a hood. And still the 
strip never quite caught on. 

Starman was wealthy American astronomer 
Theodore ("Ted") Knight, who had constructed a 
Gravity Rod (a.k.a. Cosmic Rod) that could harness 
the energy of the stars and effectively give him 
almost unlimited powers — including the ability to fly, 
create energy fields, and melt steel. Fox, and later 
writer Alfred Bester (the noted science fiction 
author), peopled the strip with a fine selection of vil- 
lains, including Electron, Dr. Droog, and their star 
rogue, the Mist, who coated himself (and his hench- 
men) with an invisibility paint, leaving only his head 
eerily visible. Burnley was by some margin the best 
draftsman at DC Comics and, as a 2002 reprinting 
of all his Starman strips has shown, the old 
episodes still look impressive today. Yet the strip 
lacked individuality, and DCs high hopes for its suc- 
cess and impact were never realized. Starman's 
cover slot was soon usurped by Manhunter, Green 
Lantern replaced him in the Justice Society, and the 
strip was concluded in 1946 with a change to 
another top artist, the great Mort Meskin. 

Like most Justice Society members, Starman 
was featured in numerous Justice League guest 
appearances in the 1960s and 1970s, and co- 
headlined with Black Canary in two attractive 1965 
issues of The Brave and the Bold. In fact, he had 
more adventures in the revived Justice Society than 
he had had in the 1940s and, while writers were 
rarely able to develop his personality very much, he 
made a decent enough team player. In the revived 
All Star Comics in 1976, his Gravity Rod was tem- 
porarily requisitioned by the Star-Spangled Kid (who 
then turned it into a belt) but this device was short- 
lived. Throughout the 1980s, Starman was an occa- 
sional presence in the All Star Squadron, one issue 
of which finally gave him the proper origin that his 
creators had forgotten to write: It seems that he 
was inspired to become a hero after seeing Batman 
in action — an origin that some fans say was hardly 
worth waiting thirty years for! 



H*> 



In spite of their early disappointment, the DC 
creative team must have thought that Starman was 
too good a name to waste on a bit-part player, and 
since the 1970s they have periodically tried to pass 
the title on to another character — or, to be precise, 
five other characters (so far). The first of these 
(Starman number two) was a blue-skinned alien 
attired in a sort of disco-era jump suit who starred 
in First Issue Special #12 (1976); he was met with 
complete indifference by a bemused public. Star- 
man number three, who ran throughout 1980 in 
Adventure Comics, was a futuristic superhero from 
another galaxy, and the strip featured art by Spider- 
Man's Steve Ditko. More successfully, the fourth 
Starman premiered in his own title toward the end 
of the 1980s and enjoyed four years of relative pop- 
ularity, though curiously he is almost forgotten 
today. This incarnation was Will Payton, who some- 
how inherited immense powers (flight, strength, and 
the ability to change his features) siphoned off from 
the previous Starman. In an interesting twist, this 
Starman bumped into yet another one: David 
Knight, son of the now aged first Starman, who had 
taken on his father's mantle (or, rather, cape). 

Readers next come across Knight in the first 
issue of yet another Starman project (in 1994) only 
to see him abruptly killed off and the Gravity Rod 
passed to his brother, Jack. This latest Starman 
(the sixth) was a reluctant superhero, preferring to 
rummage through junk for his antiques shop rather 
than tackle the likes of the Shade or the Mist, who 
perennially popped up in the comic. In a device that 
anticipated the post-millennial move away from cos- 
tumes, he opted to go into battle wearing a trench- 
coat and goggles and, even more revolutionary, he 
never bothered to adopt a secret identity. Much of 
the comic's appeal came from the interplay 
between two generations of superheroes, as father 
passed on advice to his novice son, and its quirky, 
reserved style gradually garnered the sort of praise 
that DC had hoped for back in the 1940s. Neophyte 
writer James Robinson became a star through his 
Starman scripts and then surprised everyone by 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Static Shock 



canceling the comic after eighty issues, declaring 
that he had told all the stories he wanted to tell — a 
unique ending to a unique comic. — DAR 

Static Shock 

During the day, Virgil Hawkins is a fourteen-year-old 
African-American teen attending Dakota Union High 
School with his best friend Richie Foley. But when 
he's not in school — or when trouble strikes — 
Hawkins dons a black, blue, white, and yellow cos- 
tume with a trenchcoat, white face mask, and gog- 
gles and zaps crime with his electrical powers as 
Static. Technologically gifted Foley aids Static, by 
wearing his own superhero suit and using his bril- 
liant gadget inventions to fight crime as Gear. But 
can the pair of teen heroes really keep Dakota City 
safe from the "Bang Baby" meta-human villains that 
are stealing and looting? 

Co-created by African-American comic-book vet- 
erans Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan, Static 
was originally a part of the minority-owned and 
diversity-based Milestone line distributed by DC 
Comics. Static #1 was released in June 1993, and 
the forty-seven-issue series followed the adventures 
of young Hawkins after he inhales a strange gas 
that the police used against a gang. The gas 
changes him, making him capable of throwing 
shock-powered taser punches at his enemies, and 
enabling him to fly on an electromagnetically 
charged garbage can lid. Hawkins' secret is known 
by Frieda Goren, his best friend and the hottest 
babe at Ernest Hemingway High. While dealing with 
school, his lower-income family, and his racing hor- 
mones, Static must also knock knuckles with bruis- 
ers, gang-bangers, and supervillains such as Hot- 
streak, Tarmack, Puff, Coil, and others. 

The WB network debuted a series called Static 
Shock, based on the comic, on September 23, 
2000. Several members of its production team had 
moved over from the popular Batman: The Animated 



Series and Superman shows but, wisely, Cowan was 
also hired as a producer and McDuffie as a story 
editor and writer for the series. Because of its Sat- 
urday morning time slot, Static Shock is a bit toned 
down from its gritty comic origins: guns aren't used 
as often; Foley is no longer a gay teen; Hawkins' 
mother is dead; and both the costume and Static's 
use of his powers are different. Perhaps most inter- 
esting though is that Static now exists in the larger 
"DC universe," as guest appearances from Batman, 
Superman, the Justice League, Green Lantern, and 
even a futuristic visit with the cast of Batman 
Beyond have occurred. 

On the series, Static has fought other charac- 
ters that received superpowers from the same 
mutagenic gas he inhaled. These so-called "Bang 
Babies" (named for the rumble, or "Big Bang," that 
the police used such unnatural force to put down) 
include Ebon, shadowy leader of the Breed (Talon, 
Shiv, D-Struct, Kangorr, and Aquamaria), as well as 
the flaming F-Stop/Hotstreak, blowhard Slipstream, 
bounty hunters Onyx and Puff, duplicate-maker 
Replay, and brother-sister act Boom and Mirage. 
Static and Gear are sometimes aided by other 
heroes, including the stretchable Rubberband Man, 
and genetically engineered Shebang. 

Still on the air as of 2004, Static Shock is an 
important stride forward for animation. Static was 
not the first African American superhero on televi- 
sion; All New Super Friends Hour's character Black 
Vulcan (1977), The Young Sentinel's Astraea 
(1977), Tarzan and the Super 7's Superstretch & 
Microwoman (1978), The New Fat Albert Show's The 
Brown Hornet (1979), and Kid Super Power Hour's 
Misty Magic (1981) had all predated him. But Static 
Shock was the first series centered around an 
African-American superhero, with a diverse cast 
both on-screen and behind the scenes. African- 
American comedian Phil LaMarr has voiced Static, 
and guest-stars galore have lined up to either play 
themselves — as in the case of NBA legend 
Shaquille "Shaq" O'Neal, Backstreet Boy A. J. 
McLean, and rapper Lil' Romeo — or perform charac- 



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Steel 



ter voices, as in the case of Terence Trent D'Arby, 
Neil Patrick Harris, David Faustino, Carl Lumbly, 
Coolio, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, and Alfre Woodard. 

Like its comic-book predecessor, Static Shock 
tackles issues both multicultural and urban. While 
one story might be about gang violence, another 
explores both the Chanukah and Christmas sea- 
sons (in-between superbattles of course). An 
episode called "Jimmy" (May 2002) dealt with teen 
gun violence. That episode was given the presti- 
gious Humanitas Prize in 2003, an award recogniz- 
ing film and television writers whose work both 
entertains and enriches the viewing public. At its 
best, Static Shock provides solid superheroic enter- 
tainment and a role model and promotion of diversi- 
ty for not only African-American viewers, but audi- 
ences of all colors and ages. — AM 



Steel 



John Henry Irons' life is one of second chances. His 
backstory: As an engineer for munitions manufactur- 
er AmerTek, Irons becomes disenchanted with his 
role as a designer of weapons of mass destruction 
when one of his creations is usurped by an enemy 
force. He destroys his technology, incurring his 
employer's wrath — to the extent of a death warrant. 
Taking the alias of construction worker Henry John- 
son, he hides out in Metropolis until being saved 
from a near-fatal fall by Superman, who admonishes 
him to make something of his life. After Superman 
"dies" in Superman #75 (1992), Irons is one of 
"The Reign of the Supermen," a quartet of succes- 
sors to the Man of Tomorrow (the others being 
Superboy, the Cyborg Superman, and the Eradica- 
tor). In his sterling debut in The Adventures of Super- 
man #500 (1993), he forges for himself a suit of 
high-tech armor and sledgehammer, and, memorializ- 
ing the fallen hero with a metal-plated "S" on his 
chest and a red cape, takes to the Metropolis skies 
as the new Man of Steel: Steel! 



«*1* 



Superman didn't stay dead for long, and upon 
his return, Steel stepped aside. But when weapons 
he designed were being used on the streets of 
Metropolis' Suicide Slum, Irons donned the armor 
again, busting bad guys with his sledgehammer. In 
February 1994, Steel was awarded his own monthly 
comic book written by Louise Simonson and illus- 
trated by Jon Bogdanove, as part of a dual agenda 
by publisher DC Comics: Expand the Superman 
franchise and develop a headlining black super- 
hero. Some readers criticized DC for shielding the 
face of Irons, an African American, behind a chrome 
countenance, but the hero's multi-ethnic cast — 
including Steel's younger brother Crash, the evil Dr. 
Villain, and a mob enforcer called Skorpio — was a 
welcome departure from the mostly white series 
dominating the publisher's line. 

Steel, commanding both remarkable intellect 
and gallant heroism, aided Superman on many 
occasions, as well as Supergirl and Superboy, all 
joining forces as "Team Superman." He was recruit- 
ed into the roster of DCs Justice League of America 
(JLA), becoming the group's techno-whiz, and also 
used his talents to construct Superman's private 
retreat, the Fortress of Solitude. A wave of post- 
"Death of Superman" merchandising included Ken- 
ner Toys' production of Steel action figures, and 
Steel appeared on the WB network's Superman ani- 
mated television series (1996). The character — 
sans the Superman connection — was the star of 
Steel (1997), a poorly received live-action feature 
film starring basketball legend Shaquille "Shaq" 
O'Neal in the title role. The promos for Steel played 
upon Shaq's massive size: "Heroes Don't Come Any 
Bigger." Ultimately, his comic-book series folded 
with Steel #52 (1998), and Irons was relegated to 
guest-star status. 

In 2001, Imperiex, a destroyer of planets, 
unleashed an intergalactic conflict in DC Comics' 
multi-part "Our Worlds at War" storyline that ran 
through a variety of the publisher's superhero 
series. Steel, having outlived his usefulness as a 
DC "B" player, perished in the battle. Yet the iron 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Stripperella 




Shaquille O'Neal stars in Steel. 



man was not banished to the scrap heap: The vil- 
lainous Darkseid restored life to Steel's form, 
encasing him inside alien armor called the Entropy 
Aegis. Action Comics #806 (2003) revealed that 
the soul of Irons apparently inhabits his hammer: It 
"speaks" to his niece, Natasha — "I chose to be 
Steel because I was given a second chance by 
Superman ... it is a gift that should not die with 
me" — and in a blinding explosion, Natasha Irons is 
transformed into the new Steel, ready to continue 
the family tradition of "hammer time." 

It must be noted that John Henry Irons was 
not the first DC superhero named Steel. DC pub- 
lished a short-lived series titled Steel the Inde- 
structible Man (1978-1979), starring a World War 
II— era superpatriot with striking similarities to Mar- 
vel Comics' Captain America. In the 1980s, this 
hero, also called Commander Steel, appeared in 
the pages of All-Star Squadron. His grandson, the 
second Steel, was a member of the Justice League 



of America during the team's brief stint in Detroit, 
Michigan. — ME 



Strfppere/fa 

Erotica Jones is an exotic dancer by night, crime 
fighter by ... later night. With "a heart of gold, a 
passion for animal rights, and a weakness for fash- 
ion," according to the plug she received on Spike 
TV's website, when she's not busy pole dancing 
Jones lends a helping hand and sympathetic ear to 
the other dancers at the Tender Loins strip club. 
When her belly ring vibrates, Erotica jumps into 
action as superhero/secret agent Stripperella. 

As an agent for the organization T.H.U.G.G., 
Stripperella battles supervillains Dr. Cesarian (a 
plastic surgeon who injects beautiful models with 
deadly implants that make them obese), Pushy 



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Sub-Mariner 



Galore (a former genetic physicist who breeds ani- 
mals with designer logos on their skin), and Cheapo 
(a dime-store-rate villain). In between, she dodges 
the catty looks and subversive plans of fellow 
dancer Catt, and spends time exercising her super- 
powers: floating to safety via her superpowered 
hair, doing the Scissor-ella (which involves knocking 
out bad guys with her thighs), and playing with the 
super-gadget lie-detector she conceals in the chest 
area of her costume. 

Stripperella is the brainchild of Spider-Man co- 
creator and all-around Marvel Comics genius Stan 
Lee, who modeled the stripper-turned-superhero 
after actor Pamela Anderson, who voices the part of 
Jones/Stripperella. The animated show debuted in 
June 2003 on Spike TV (the revamped network for- 
merly known as TNN). Joining executive producer 
Lee behind the scenes are director Kevin Altieri, 
known for his work on the highly acclaimed Batman: 
The Animated Series, and writers Kevin Kopelow 
and Heath Seifert (Nickelodeon's All That), who 
came aboard to give the show its comedic twist. Kid 
Rock provides the theme song. Regular and guest 
voices are courtesy of Mark Hamill, Kid Rock, 
Kristin Davis, Maurice LaMarche, and Dee Bradley 
Baker. —GM 

Sub'Matimv 

Bill Everett's Sub-Mariner was the first of 
Timely/Marvel Comics' "big three" superheroes to 
be created, back in early 1939, and proved to be 
one of the company's most enduring characters, as 
well as being the first anti-hero in comics. The Sub- 
Mariner was dreamed up by Everett for a promotion- 
al comic called Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, pack- 
aged by Funnies Inc. — the art studio of which he 
was co-owner and art director. The project was not a 
success; only eight copies are known to exist, sug- 
gesting that few copies were ever circulated to the 
general public. However, later that year, when Fun- 
nies Inc. was contracted by pulp publisher Martin 



Goodman to package a comic, Everett recycled his 
original Sub-Mariner story, adding a short origin 
sequence, and so Marvel Comics #1 was born, hit- 
ting the newsstands in October 1939. The comic, 
co-starring the Human Torch, the Angel, and Ka-Zar 
(the latter two have no relation to their later name- 
sakes), was retitled Marvel Mystery Comics with its 
second issue, and soon became one of the nascent 
industry's best-selling books. At the time of the Sub- 
Mariner's creation in April 1939, the only costumed 
superhero on the stands was Superman, making 
Everett's character genuinely groundbreaking. 

The Sub-Mariner's brief origin relates how 
explorer Leonard McKenzie leads a scientific expedi- 
tion to the Antarctic and, during exploratory explo- 
sions on the ice shelf, accidentally damages an 
undersea kingdom. The settlement (later christened 
Atlantis, inevitably) sends up one of its blue-skinned 
inhabitants — Princess Fen — to bargain with the 
men, and she ends up having an affair with McKen- 
zie, who nevertheless carries on with his dangerous 
experiments, killing most of the kingdom's inhabi- 
tants in the process (albeit unwittingly, it seems). It 
takes the Atlanteans twenty years to rebuild their 
numbers, but by 1939 — led by the product of the 
union between McKenzie and Fen, Prince Namorthe 
Sub-Mariner — they are ready to unleash their wrath 
on the unsuspecting surface-dwellers. The half- 
human Namor was pale-skinned and sported winged 
feet, pointed ears, and a somewhat triangular head. 
He possessed extraordinary strength (swimming 60 
miles per hour and lifting 75 tons underwater) and 
could even fly out of water — however, he weakened 
after several hours of not being wet and needed to 
immerse himself at least once a week. 

In his earliest Marvel Mystery tales, the Sub- 
Mariner was to prove a menace to humankind in 
general, rampaging through cities and striking terror 
into American hearts (indeed the name Namor 
means "avenging son"), but he soon turned his 
attention elsewhere. In Spring 1941, he was given 
his own comic, in which the Nazis rashly attacked 
Atlantis, and for the rest of World War II Namor was 



«»ft 



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Sub-Mariner 



to prove their nemesis, at least in those stories in 
which he was not pummelling his erstwhile co-star, 
the Human Torch. As the war progressed, he began 
to star in other Timely titles, including USA, Daring, 
All Winners, The Human Torch, and All Select, but 
by this point Everett was long gone, having been 
drafted in early 1942. Everett was a skilled, fluid 
artist with a genuine love of the sea, and though his 
successors (including Carl Pfeufer and Syd Shores) 
did not share that same enthusiasm, the strip 
thrived in his absence. 

The postwar Sub-Mariner was an altogether 
tamer beast since, having defeated the Axis hordes, 
he seemed to regard himself as a de facto Ameri- 
can, helping the police and hanging out with the 
beautiful Betty Dean, while rarely returning to 
Atlantis. As sales began to decline, the company 
introduced his shapely cousin Namora as a sort of 
companion-in-arms (first appearing in Marvel Mys- 
tery #82 in 1947) and she was soon spun off into 
her own short-lived comic. More importantly, Everett 
returned to the strip that year, a much improved 
artist, but even he could not halt the industrywide 
slump and, by mid-1949, both Marvel Mystery and 
Sub-Mariner were canceled. 

By late 1953 Marvel (now known as Atlas) 
decided to try out the superhero genre once more 
and, following a couple of issues of Young Men, all 
three of the company's principal heroes were given 
their own comics again. Whereas Captain America 
and the Human Torch proved to be short-lived, a 
proposed Sub-Mariner television series (which 
never materialized) persuaded Martin Goodman to 
keep Namor's title afloat for ten issues. With 
Everett (and Namora) back on board, it was as if 
nothing had changed, and all of the 1950s Sub- 
Mariner yarns are a joy, particularly since Everett 
had improved still more, marrying a winningly car- 
toony touch with delicate, detailed rendering. There 
was also less of the rampant commie-bashing 
prevalent in the other revivals. Barely a year after 
the final issue of the series (#42, 1955), DC 
Comics brought out Showcase #4, starring the 




Sub-Mariner #57 © 1973 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY BILL EVERETT. 



Flash, meaning that Marvel only just missed out on 
starting the big superhero revival of the Silver Age 
(1956-1969). As it was, readers had to wait until 
1962 to enjoy the Sub-Mariner again. 

The action in Fantastic Four #4 opens with the 
latter-day Torch (in his unrelated Johnny Storm ver- 
sion) burning the stubble off a Bowery bum and dis- 
covering the Sub-Mariner underneath. In a piece of 
retro-fitting from later in the decade, it was revealed 
that a character called Destiny had destroyed most 
of Atlantis and that Namor had just survived, but he 
was stricken with amnesia. When his memory was 
restored, the newly angry Subby went on the ram- 
page, swearing revenge on humankind — much as he 



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Sub-Mariner 



had done in his early days. For the next couple of 
years, he was a regular (unwelcome) guest in the 
pages of Fantastic Four (where he developed a crush 
on the Invisible Girl) and popped up all over the Mar- 
vel universe. After a particularly memorable ram- 
page through New York City in Daredevil #7 , it 
became obvious to Marvel that Sub-Mariner was too 
strong a character to be wasted on occasional guest 
shots, and he was finally given his own series again. 

Namor's new berth was Tales to Astonish. In 
issue #70 (1965) he ousted the moribund Giant- 
Man strip and, under the guidance of writer Stan 
Lee and artist Gene Colan, it was a handsome fea- 
ture. As in the 1940s, the company found it hard to 
sustain a strip centered on an outright villain, and 
so the feature concentrated on Namor's regal side 
in Atlantis. It introduced a supporting cast of love 
interest Lady Dorma; the steadfast, bearded vizier 
Vashti; and the plotting warlord Krang. Within a few 
issues, Namor had graduated from prince to king. In 
1967, Bill Everett once again (temporarily) returned 
to his favorite son, though his hard-living lifestyle 
had taken its toll and critics generally agree he was 
not at his best. Nevertheless, a year later the Sub- 
Mariner was promoted to his own title and began a 
successful run of more than seventy issues. 

The new title introduced a new creative team — 
Roy Thomas (on scripts) and John Buscema (on art 
for the first year) — and a dynamic new approach. 
Indeed, the early issues were almost underwater 
sword-and-sorcery stories. The comic soon settled 
down to a more traditional superhero look and intro- 
duced a succession of fishy villains, including Tiger 
Shark, Stingray, Commander Kraken, and Orka the 
Human Killer Whale, in addition to Marvel's all-pur- 
pose underwater thug, Attuma. The 1970s fully re- 
established the Sub-Mariner at the heart of the 
company and he also starred in The Defenders, The 
Invaders, and Supervillain Team-up. In his own 
comic he suffered a number of tragedies, including 
the death of Lady Dorma, the loss of his throne, 
and the departure of Thomas (after four years). On 
the plus side, he tracked down his long-lost father 



(last seen in Marvel Comics #1) and was reunited 
with his (other) creator, Bill Everett, one last time. 

By 1972, Everett had conquered his personal 
demons and was once again at his quirky, intricate 
best, and he immediately introduced a new element 
into the strip in the form of the perky, teenage 
Namorita, daughter of the long-forgotten (and now 
regrettably deceased) Namora. Everett's tenure was 
to be brief (from #50 to #61), and he died four 
pages into a new episode. By the decade's end, all 
the Sub-Mariner's various titles either had been 
canceled or (in the case of The Defenders) had writ- 
ten him out of their lineup. The 1980s were an even 
less promising era for Subby, reducing the character 
to the status of "villain of the issue" in scattered 
Fantastic Four numbers; why the public had tired of 
him remains something of a mystery. 

A new decade brought an old fan — industry 
favorite John Byrne — a new comic called Namor 
(sixty-two issues between 1990 and 1995), and a 
move in a darker direction. Much like Aquaman, his 
DC Comics counterpart, Namor became caught up 
in the trend toward darker, harsher heroes and he 
grew his hair long and sported a beard (never a 
good sign in comics). A revival of his romance with 
the Invisible Girl (now Invisible Woman) went 
nowhere, but he did gain a son along the way, cour- 
tesy of the previously villainous Llyra. The same 
year that the Namor comic was initiated also saw 
the birth of a new superteam, the New Warriors, 
starring Namorita. The New Warriors was a far more 
lighthearted venture and, against the received wis- 
dom of the day, proved more popular than Namor's 
supposedly more cutting-edge nihilism. 

By the millennium, both Namor and Namorita 
were homeless once more, but a 2003 series 
proves that there is life under the sea yet. With a 
hero who should realistically now be in his eighties, 
Marvel decided that their new comic — once again 
called A/amor— would feature untold tales of his 
youth, and its charmingly gentle approach has her- 
alded another innovative chapter for the Prince of 
the Seas. — DAR 



«1<> 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Super Friends 



Super Mends 

For thirteen years, they protected the Earth from 
within their headquarters, the Hall of Justice. If they 
had kept their title the same, ABC and Hanna-Bar- 
bera's group of superheroes would have been 
among the longest-running animated series in histo- 
ry, but even though they always got along, the Super 
Friends got new series titles on a regular basis. The 
core team always remained Superman, Batman, 
Wonder Woman, Robin, and Aquaman, although 
multiple other heroes and sidekicks often joined 
them for adventures. 

Superheroes had fallen out of favor with net- 
works as the 1970s began, but in 1972, a pair of 
CBS New Scooby-Doo Movies with guest stars Bat- 
man and Robin, and two episodes of ABC's The 
Brady Kids which guest-starred Superman and Won- 
der Woman, changed the minds of development 
executives at ABC. Soon, the alphabet network 
commissioned Hanna-Barbera to create a new 
supergroup to entertain on Saturday mornings, but 
they wanted the adventures to be moralistic and 
nonviolent. Hanna-Barbera picked five of DC 
Comics' top heroes — Aquaman was included over 
Flash or Green Lantern because he had already had 
his own animated series — and saddled them with 
teen sidekicks Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. 
Simple but elegant designs by comics master Alex 
Toth gave all the characters a dynamic flair. 

Super Friends debuted on September 8, 1973, 
with an adventure in which the heroes had to stop 
energy thieves who came from an energy-depleted 
planet. Of the sixteen episodes produced, other 
adventures included guest-stars Green Arrow, Flash, 
and Plastic Man, and saw the Super Friends battle 
a super-computer called G.E.E.C, dastardly pol- 
luters, and alien balloon people. Although Super 
Friends did well in the ratings — and actually 
received primetime promotion — it was dropped from 
the air in August 1975, only to return again in Feb- 



ruary 1976. Half-hour edited versions of the shows 
ran from December 1976 to September 1977. 

The first title change for the series came on 
September 10, 1977, when The All New Super 
Friends Hour debuted. This version altered the for- 
mat, showing four adventures over the hour (one half- 
hour story, and three mini-adventures). Interspersed 
between each story were Safety Tips, three-part 
Decoder Clues games, and alternating Crafts or 
Magic Tricks short segments. The other major 
change for the series was that Wendy, Marvin, and 
Wonder Dog were dumped for new sidekicks: alien 
teens from Exxor named Zan and Jayna, and their 
space monkey, Gleek. Zan and Jayna were the Won- 
der Twins, and when they pushed their fists together 
and yelled "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" Zan could 
form anything made of water or ice, and Jayna could 
become any animal from Earth or another planet. 

The short stories tended to feature one or two 
characters teaming up to stop disasters or villains, 
and many of them guest-starred other heroes from 
the DC Comics universe: Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Rima 
the Jungle Girl, Green Lantern, Flash, and the Atom. 
Created for the series were the new multicultural 
heroes Black Vulcan (an African-American man with 
electrical powers), Apache Chief (a Native American 
man who could grow to be a giant), and Samurai (an 
Asian man who could spin his lower torso into a tor- 
nado). The final of fifteen episodes also featured 
the first supervillain adapted from the comics: 
Hawkman's foe Gentleman Jim Craddock, the Gen- 
tleman Ghost. 

On September 9, 1978, ABC debuted what 
would be the most popular incarnation of the series 
ever: Challenge of the Super Friends. In this series, 
the Super Friends were now regularly joined by Flash, 
Green Lantern, Hawkman, Black Vulcan, Apache 
Chief, and Samurai, leaving Wonder Woman the sole 
female heroine (the Wonder Twins were gone for 
these stories). Fighting against them was the Legion 
of Doom, whose members included well-known 
comic-book villains Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Cheetah, the 



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Super Friends 



Riddler, the Scarecrow, Toyman, Sinestro, Black 
Manta, Captain Cold, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon 
Grundy, and Giganta. The Legion of Doom met in the 
Hall of Doom, a building that resembled Darth 
Vader's helmet and was built in a swamp. 

Although the villains were out to conquer the 
world, and often caused major problems, they just 
as often escaped justice at the end of each half- 
hour adventure. When television's Standards and 
Practices arm objected, the Legion were caught in 
some episodes, only to be miraculously free the 
next week. Not only did the show feature many 
comics characters, several episodes showcased 
the origins of the heroes and villains, including 
Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Lex 
Luthor, Giganta, and the Legion of Doom itself. 

Since Challenge of the Super Friends was a 
one-hour show, and the Legion of Doom stories only 
took half that time, separate half-hour stories filled 
the rest of the hour. These sixteen stories did fea- 
ture the Wonder Twins, fighting evil alongside the 
crew from the previous season's adventures. These 
stories were a little more cosmic in nature, with Mr. 
Mxyzptlk, Dracula, the Greek Gods, and dangers 
from Exxor, Krypton, and other planets stressing out 
the Super Friends. Challenge proved so popular that 
the show was expanded to ninety minutes from 
November 1978 to September 1979, with older 
reruns added in to fill the time. 

Another name change came in 1979, and the 
show became The World's Greatest Super Friends. 
Though the series was an hour, only eight new 
episodes were produced. Fantasy ruled these 
episodes as the heroes battled space knights of 
Camelon and the Frankenstein monster, took a trip 
to the Planet of Oz, and faced their evil 
dopplegangers. Gone were the extra heroes, though 
the Wonder Twins stuck around. 

The 1980-1981 season saw the title simpli- 
fied to The Super Friends Hour. Eight new half-hour 
shows were produced, though each was split into a 
trio of seven-minute short stories. Eight new Safety 



Tips, Magic Tricks, and Crafts shorts were produced 
as well. The cast returned to its wider reach, as 
guest-stars Apache Chief, the Atom, Flash, Hawk- 
man, Hawkgirl, Rima, and others stopped by to lend 
a helping hand. Villains included Mr. Mxyzptlk and 
Bizarro, in addition to non-comic-book menaces 
such as the Voodoo Vampire, the Termites from 
Venus, and the Incredible Crude Oil Monster. 

Things got a bit complicated for the heroes 
over the next several years. In September 1981, 
the series was renamed The Super Friends, and 
more short adventures were produced (three per 
half-hour), adding a new Hispanic hero named El 
Dorado to the mix. Six new half-hours (eighteen sto- 
ries) were produced and aired in the 1981-1982 
season, but 1982-1983 featured all reruns. Eight 
more half-hours (twenty-four stories) were produced 
for the 1983-1984 season but did not air in the 
United States. Thus, for viewers, the 1983-1984 
season was also all reruns. 

Concurrent with a new line of action figures from 
Kenner known as Super Powers, ABC and Hanna-Bar- 
bera changed the title of the series again with the 
September 8, 1984 episode. Super Friends — The 
Legendary Super Powers Show featured Superman, 
Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green 
Lantern, Flash, Hawkman, Atom, Black Vulcan, 
Apache Chief, Samurai, and the Wonder Twins. Also 
introduced into the stories was teen hero Firestorm. 

The Legendary Super Powers Show started out 
as a thirty-minute series, but by December it had 
been expanded to an hour. The stories were either 
two separate eleven-minute tales, or a two-part 
storyline; in addition to eight new half-hours, two 
half-hours from the missing 1983-1984 episodes 
were also aired. Darkseid and others of Jack Kirby's 
Fourth World characters (Kalibak, Desaad, the Para- 
Demons) were the main antagonists, while familiar 
comic villains such as Brainiac, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Mirror 
Master, and Lex Luthor also bedeviled the heroes. 

In September 1985, the series changed titles 
once again, losing its Super Friends connection 



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once and for all as it was renamed The Superpow- 
ers Team: Galactic Guardians, and the character 
designs were changed to reflect the templates 
drawn by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in the DC Comics 
Style Guide for licensors. Eight more half-hours 
were produced, with some of them cited by fans as 
the best stories of the entire run. 

While the team remained functionally the 
same, African-American teen hero Cyborg was 
added to the mix, perhaps testing the waters for a 
proposed Teen Titans series, of which he would 
have been a part. Lex Luthor, Darkseid, Brainiac, 
and Bizarro were back to cause trouble, while new- 
comers the Royal Flush Gang (with Joker in tow) and 
Felix Faust appeared. But it was in an episode 
called "The Fear" that fans got a real "first": the 
story of Batman's origin was told for the first time 
on television or in film! Another story bucked televi- 
sion tradition and harkened back to a much-loved 
Silver Age (1956-1969) Man of Steel comic-book 
story: "The Death of Superman" was one of the 
rare cases that the word "death" ever appeared in 
an animation title. 

Galactic Guardians ended its run on Septem- 
ber 6, 1986, closing out thirteen seasons of the 
various Super Friends series. The show was later 
sent to syndication, then to USA Network (where all 
the missing 1983-1984 episodes were finally 
shown), and finally to Cartoon Network, where it 
resides today. Well-remembered by older fans, and 
embraced by younger viewers, Super Friends began 
a resurgence of popularity after the turn of the cen- 
tury. Cartoon Network produced newly animated 
promos featuring the characters (and brought back 
many of the original voice actors), and even fea- 
tured Black Vulcan and Apache Chief on its Harvey 
Birdman, Attorney at Law series. 

Justice League, the successor to Super 
Friends, began airing on Cartoon Network in Novem- 
ber 2001. DC Comics launched a nostalgia-laden 
campaign in 2002, publishing the first of two Super 
Friends trade paperbacks, and following them later 
with action figures, posters, statues, and other lim- 



ited edition materials. The Wonder Twins have 
shown up in recent years in the pages of Extreme 
Justice and Young Justice, and even Apache Chief 
was reborn as Manitou Raven in the pages of JLA. 
Warner Bros, also began to release Challenge of 
the Super Friends DVDs, to surprisingly high sales. 
It seems that the Hall of Justice may be retired as 
headquarters for DCs greatest superheroes, but 
the popularity of the Super Friends goes on. — AM 

Super-archers 

Comic-book publishers were scrambling to create 
new costumed crime fighters in the wake of Super- 
man's instantaneous success in Action Comics #1 
(June 1938). Since the wildly popular Errol Flynn 
movie The Adventures of Robin Hood was attracting 
long lines at the box office during that summer, the 
notion of pitting a contemporary bowman against 
villains armed with guns was too good for comics 
creators to ignore. 

Centaur Publications struck the first bull's eye 
with the Arrow, comics' original super-archer — and 
the first costumed hero to appear in print after 
Superman. Bowing in Funny Pages (September 
1938), the Arrow, written and drawn by Paul Gus- 
tavson, mixed the archery motif of Robin Hood with 
the mystique of pulp hero the Shadow. The Arrow 
was a masked enigma — even the readers weren't 
privy to his identity. His adventures routinely pitted 
him against thugs and deviants, whom he would 
disable, and sometimes even destroy, with a well- 
aimed arrow and absolutely no compunction. The 
Arrow graduated into his own title in October 1940, 
where he was unmasked — for readers — and 
revealed to be a United States federal agent named 
Ralph Payne. Removing the mystery around the 
hero also removed his appeal, and The Arrow was 
canceled after its third issue. 

Fawcett Comics' Golden Arrow was the next 
super-archer, drawing aim in Whiz Comics #2 (Febru- 



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Super-archers 



ary 1940). Raised by a prospector in the 1940s 
American West, Golden Arrow was actually Roger Par- 
sons, who became a master bowman to avenge the 
murder of his parents. Golden Arrow was far from the 
traditional costumed crusader: He dressed in nonde- 
script garb and wore no mask. Nonetheless, he con- 
tinued to target criminals throughout comics' Golden 
Age (1938-1954), appearing both in Whiz and in six 
issues of his own title. Three months after Golden 
Arrow's debut, Quality Comics premiered its own 
super-archer, the Spider — in a strip titled Alias the 
Spider— \n Crack Comics #1 (May 1940). Dressed in 
a vibrant yellow shirt and blue tights, the Spider, 
secretly wealthy playboy Tom Hallaway, took crime 
prevention into his own hands as a bowman whose 
quiver contained a "spider seal" arrow he fired into 
the hands of gun-wielding mobsters. 

The next super-archer of note was the first uni- 
formed villain to challenge Superman: the Archer, 
who appeared in Superman #13 
(November-December 1941). This rogue was a 
green-clad, masked assassin, piercing victims' 
hearts with perfectly aimed shafts. Once Superman 
caught him, the Archer was revealed as a big-game 
hunter who admitted, "I thought hunting human 
beings would prove more profitable!" While the 
Arrow and Golden Arrow may have impressed 
comics readers, the Archer missed the mark, his 
weapons seeming trivial against the superhero who 
was "more powerful than a locomotive." 

Appearing concurrently with the Archer was 
DCs Green Arrow, inarguably comics' best-known 
bowman. First seen in More Fun Comics #73 
(1941), "GA" was more than DCs answer to Robin 
Hood: He was a clone of the publisher's own Bat- 
man! Behind his domino mask and emerald cos- 
tume was millionaire playboy Oliver Queen. Living 
with Queen was a young ward named Roy Harper, 
who fought alongside his mentor as the superhero 
sidekick Speedy. While most adult superheroes first 
established themselves as solo crime fighters 
before adopting sidekicks, Green Arrow and Speedy 
debuted as a team. This dynamic duo was head- 



quartered in an Arrow Cave, drove an Arrow Car, 
took to the air in an Arrow Plane, and relied upon an 
amazing arsenal — not gadget-filled utility belts like 
Batman and Robin used, but quivers brimming with 
regular and trick shafts: the boomerang arrow, the 
boxing-glove arrow, the super-sensitive-sonar arrow, 
even a fountain-pen arrow! 

Despite their lack of originality, Green Arrow 
and Speedy commanded a long-running presence in 
comics: They survived the 1950s, the decade when 
most superheroes disappeared from print, and the 
1960s, when GA joined the Justice League of Amer- 
ica and Speedy hooked up with the Teen Titans. 
Green Arrow was reinvented in 1970: Queen lost 
his fortune and became a bearded leftist, using his 
tongue more frequently than his bow in a series of 
critically acclaimed adventures with Green Lantern. 
This relevant take on GA made him one of DCs 
most popular characters throughout the 1970s, but 
by the mid-1980s he was overhauled again, begin- 
ning in a miniseries entitled Green Arrow: The Long- 
bow Hunters. Queen was now a grizzled vigilante, 
not unlike the original super-archer, the Arrow. The 
character died in the mid-1990s and was succeed- 
ed as Green Arrow by his bowman son Connor 
Hawke. Speedy, no longer a teen sidekick, matured 
into his own as Arsenal, firing concussive arrows 
among a varied cache of weapons. In 2001 the 
1970s version of Green Arrow was resurrected from 
the dead in a new monthly series, originally written 
by filmmaker Kevin Smith (Dogma, Chasing Amy). 
Curiously, in his lengthy career, Green Arrow has 
encountered a variety of adversaries, but has never 
developed a recognizable rogues' gallery or even a 
signature villain. 

The other major super-archer of note is Marvel 
Comics' hotheaded bow-slinger Hawkeye. Beginning 
with his first appearance in 7a/es of Suspense #57 
(1964), ace sideshow marksman Clint Barton set 
his sights on becoming a superhero, but got shaft- 
ed when the police misinterpreted his actions. After 
flirting with a life of crime alongside a Russian spy 
called the Black Widow, Hawkeye salvaged his repu- 



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Superboy 



tation and joined Marvel's mightiest superteam in 
The Avengers #16 (1965). Hawkeye's quiver is 
loaded with an array of trick arrows, but instead of 
the preposterous weapons in Green Arrow's employ, 
Vibranium arrows, stun-arrows, and other scientifi- 
cally enhanced barbs help this Avenger in his war 
on crime. Readers have followed Hawkeye through 
myriad Marvel team books including The Defenders, 
West Coast Avengers, and Thunderbolts. Unlike 
Green Arrow, Hawkeye has hit the mark less often 
as a solo player, with two limited series in 1983 
and 1994 and an ongoing one starting in 2003 that 
fans may or may not embrace long-term. However, 
his impulsiveness and staunch loyalty to his team- 
mates will no doubt save him a place in readers' 
affections no matter which comic he lands in. 

Other super-archers have come and gone, from 
White Feather in DCs superhero parody The Inferior 
Five to the Amazon Artemis in the pages of Wonder 
Woman and the grim-and-gritty Shaft in Rob 
Liefeld's Youngblood. Marvel's Bullseye may not 
shoot arrows, but he throws any object with deadly 
force and accuracy. In the 2000s archery is depict- 
ed in fantasy comic books like CrossGen's Sojourn, 
but as real-life science creates technologically 
astounding weaponry, superhero stories, which have 
always been required to stay one step ahead of 
reality, have begun to steer away from the tradition- 
al bowmanship inspired by Robin Hood. One excep- 
tion to this rule is Arrowette, an adolescent archer 
first seen in Impulse #28 (1997), who later joined 
the teen team Young Justice. — ME 



Superboy 

Superman was approaching his seventh birthday in 
1945 and had proven himself a phenomenal sales 
success as the star of Action Comics, World's 
Finest Comics, and his own title. Beginning with 
More Fun Comics #101 (January-February 1945), 
publisher DC Comics found a new way to milk its 




Superboy #188 © 1972 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY NICK CARDY. 



Kryptonian cash cow — "The Adventures of Super- 
man When He Was a Boy" — Superboy! 

When Superman first took flight in Action 
Comics #1 (June 1938), creators Jerry Siegel and 
Joe Shuster established that this "strange visitor 
from another planet" had delayed his crime-fighting 
career until adulthood, upon the death of his adopt- 
ed Earth parents. Funny how the prospect of exploit- 
ing a lucrative franchise can inspire reinvention: 
With Superboy, Superman's origin was retrofitted to 
offer readers a pint-sized superhero. The Superboy 
series, backdated roughly a dozen years from the 
Man of Steel's adventures, took the hero who would 



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Superboy 



one day protect the bustling city of Metropolis and 
plunked him down in a hick town appropriately 
called Smallville. Enthusiastic younger readers 
made Superboy a hit, and the hero burst out of 
More Fun into the lead spot in Adventure Comics 
and his own long-running title. 

The basic story of Superboy remained the 
same as Superman's — childless Jonathan and 
Martha Kent discover a humanoid baby in a crashed 
rocketship and adopt him as their son, Clark, guid- 
ing him to use his otherworldly powers (flight, super- 
strength, invulnerability, superspeed, supervision, 
superhearing, and, yes, superbreath) to benefit 
humankind — but then the variations began. Super- 
boy's blue-and-red suit was sewn by "Ma" Kent from 
the very blankets into which the infant was swad- 
dled. He frolicked about the sky with another sur- 
vivor of Krypton, his superdog Krypto. Lana Lang, 
not Lois Lane, was his headstrong female compan- 
ion (and neighbor). Instead of an Arctic Fortress of 
Solitude, the Boy of Steel operated out of a secret 
headquarters underneath the Kents' modest home. 

Initially, Superboy appeared to be a pre-teen, 
but before long the strip's writers made him a 
teenager at Smallville High School. Young Kent per- 
fected his "mild-mannered" persona to deflect any 
suspicion of his S-chested identity, but that didn't 
fool nosy Lang, who spent years trying to prove that 
the boy next door was the Boy of Steel. Teenage 
Kent struck a more resonant chord with the reader- 
ship than his adult counterpart: His angst closely 
mirrored the growing pains experienced by his read- 
ership. While the writers expertly characterized 
young Kent, they rarely explored the Boy of Steel's 
immaturity with his superpowers — Superboy was 
essentially Superman in a smaller package. 

By the 1960s, Superboy had developed a 
rogues' gallery including Bizarro, the Kryptonite Kid, 
and classmate-turned-evil-scientist Lex Luthor, who 
blamed Superboy for the permanent loss of his hair 
(!). He regularly encountered a bevy of young super- 
friends, most notably the Legion of Super-Heroes, a 
club of teen champions from a thousand years in 



the future. Youthful versions of a pre-Batman Bruce 
Wayne, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Lois Lane even 
stopped by Smallville, as did the time-traveling 
Robin the Boy Wonder and a cadre of other crusad- 
ing kids in one-shot appearances. 

Superboy never matched the ubiquitous mer- 
chandising muscle of Superman, but a handful of 
items bearing his likeness have been produced over 
the years, from a model kit and board game in 
1966 to an action-figure two-pack with Supergirl in 
2002. On three occasions, the Boy of Steel has 
starred in television series: in The Adventures of 
Superboy unsold pilot (1960) starring Johnny Rock- 
well; in Filmation Studios' 1966 Superboy animated 
cartoon (part of The New Adventures of Superman 
series); and in the live-action Superboy syndicated 
program (1988-1992) starring John Haymes New- 
ton in season one and Gerard Christopher in the 
remaining three seasons. Smallville, a live-action, 
teen-oriented hour-long drama that premiered in 
2001 on the WB network, updated the Superboy 
legend (sans costumed identity), with a young Clark 
Kent (Tom Welling) on a journey of super-discovery. 

Superboy was expunged from DC Comics' con- 
tinuity in 1986 in writer/artist John Byrne's Man of 
Steel miniseries, which re-established Superman's 
inaugural appearance as transpiring during the 
hero's adulthood. In the aftermath of DCs highly 
publicized "Death of Superman" storyline in 1992, 
a new Superboy — a cloned proxy for the deceased 
Man of Steel — was introduced in Adventures of 
Superman #500 (1993). Kryptonian DNA doesn't 
lend itself to replication, discovered the geneticists 
at Metropolis think tank Project Cadmus, so their 
test-tube titan was grown from a scientist's herit- 
able matter and programmed to parrot Superman's 
powers. Superboy's abilities are accredited to "tac- 
tile telekinesis": He can fly, he is invulnerable, and 
he is strong like the Man of Steel, but he also com- 
mands the power to disassemble any object. After 
Superman returned from the grave, he accepted 
"The Kid" (as Superboy is often called) into his 
super-"family," bestowing upon him the Kryptonian 



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name of Kon-EI. Hip, brash, and fashion-conscious, 
this Superboy starred in a healthy run of his own 
title from 1994 to 2002, as well as the short-lived 
spinoff Superboy and the Ravers. Superboy was a 
member of Young Justice before settling, in the 
summer of 2003, into the roster of a revamped 
Teen Titans. — ME 

Superboy 
in the Media 

What was Superman like as a boy? Since 1945, 
fans have known the answer. Superboy first 
appeared in More Fun Comics #101 (January-Feb- 
ruary 1945), and starred there for a while until mov- 
ing on to headline Adventure Comics the following 
year (with #103, April 1946). In his comic-book 
adventures, Superboy loved redhead Lana Lang, 
palled around with Pete Ross, zipped around the 
skies with Kryptonian superdog Krypto, and helped 
Martha and Jonathan Kent — Ma and Pa Kent to 
everyone — on their Smallville farm. But what about 
Superboy's media appearances? 

The Boy of Steel almost made his first televi- 
sion debut in 1961. Following the death of TV 
Superman actor George Reeves, in 1959, producer 
Whitney Ellsworth wanted a super-spin-off. In April 
1961, Ellsworth attempted to recreate the hit show 
The Adventures of Superman, using the same styl- 
istic touches to tell stories of the Boy of Steel. 
Ellsworth commissioned a total of thirteen scripts, 
though only the first was ever filmed. "Rajah's Ran- 
som" adapted the story "The Saddest Boy in Small- 
ville" from Superboy #88 (April 1961). Clark 
Kent/Superboy was played by John Rockwell — who 
bore a strong resemblance to Reeves — while Lana 
Lang was played by Bunny Henning. The live-action 
black-and-white pilot never aired. 

A few years later, CBS began showing Filma- 
tion's animated The New Adventures of Superman. 



The series consisted of two short Superman stories 
and one Superboy story per half-hour. Many of the 
Superboy stories were written by comic-book writ- 
ers, including Bob Haney, George Kashdan, and Leo 
Dorfman. Bob Hastings voiced Superboy and young 
Clark Kent, while Janet Waldo was Lana Lang, and 
Ted Knight narrated. The series ran from September 
10, 1966, to September 2, 1967, when it became 
the Superman-Aquaman Hour. In September 1968, 
the series became the Batman-Superman Hour, and 
ran until September 6, 1969. Thirty-six Superboy 
stories were produced, in which Superboy and Kryp- 
to averted natural disasters, sea dragons, alien 
invaders, and the occasional super-criminal such as 
Mighty Lad. 

In December 1978, Warner released a big-bud- 
get live-action feature called Superman — The 
Movie. Although he did not wear the familiar cos- 
tume, young actor Jeff East portrayed teenage Clark 
Kent in Smallville, who was struggling with hiding 
his superpowers and with the death of his foster 
father, Jonathan Kent (Glenn Ford). Ma Kent was 
played by Phyllis Thaxter, while Diane Sherry played 
the briefly seen Lana Lang. The Smallville scenes — 
along with sequences set on Krypton before its 
destruction — formed one-third of the film. 

Young Clark Kent next appeared (at various 
ages) in Ruby-Spears new animated Superman 
show for CBS (1988-1989). In addition to an eigh- 
teen-minute action-oriented Superman lead story, 
each episode featured a four-minute backup story 
entitled Superman's Family Album, detailing Kent's 
years from Smallville baby to young noncostumed 
hero-to-be to his first adult appearance in costume 
in Metropolis. 

Following the relative failure of the feature film 
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Cannon Films 
gave up the live-action rights to the Superman family. 
Previous Superman movie producers Alexander and 
llya Salkind snapped them up again and sold Viacom 
on a half-hour syndicated series featuring Superman 
as a teen. The week of October 8, 1988, Superboy 
premiered with unknown actor John Haymes Newton 



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Superboy in the Media 




Sherman Howard was the new 
Lex Luthor, fresh from cosmetic 
surgery. DC villains Metallo 
(Michael Callan), Bizarro (Barry 
Meyers), and the Yellow Peri (Eliz- 
abeth Keipher) appeared, as did 
Kryptonian parents Jor-EI and 
Lara (George Lazenby and Britt 
Ekland). In the third season, the 
series was renamed to The 
Adventures of Superboy, and 
Kent began to intern for the 
Bureau for Extranormal Matters. 
In the series' fourth and final 
season (1991-1992), Kryptonite 
Kid (Jay Underwood) appeared, 
and Jack Larson and Noel Neill 
(from The Adventures of Super- 
man) guest-starred in an 
episode. Although there was talk 
of a TV movie, Superboy was 
gone after 100 episodes. The 
series has not been syndicated 
in the United States since. 



John Haymes Newton is the Boy of Steel in Superboy. 

in the lead role. Stacy Haiduk played Lana Lang, and 
other series regulars were Jim Calvert, as Clark's col- 
lege roommate and Perry White's son, T. J. White, 
and Scott Wells as the young Lex Luthor. The series 
centered around Shuster College in Siegelville, a nod 
to Superman's creators. Initially signed for thirteen 
episodes, the show grabbed top ratings, and was 
renewed for a second set of thirteen episodes. 
Comic-book characters such as Mr. Mxyzptlk (Michael 
J. Pollard) and Ma and Pa Kent (Salome Jens and 
Stuart Whitman) appeared, and Jackie Cooper (Perry 
White in the films) directed an episode. Superman 
comic-book editor Mike Carlin and Justice League 
editor Andy Heifer wrote many episodes. 

For the second Superboy season in 1989, New- 
ton, Wells, and Calvert were dumped. Gerard 
Christopher became the new Boy of Steel, while 



The Boy of Steel was off the 
air for nearly a decade, until the 
WB network debuted Warner's Smallville on October 
16, 2001. This one-hour live-action drama series fea- 
tures the adventures of teenage Clark Kent (Tom 
Welling) and Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), as well as a 
slightly older Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). The 
cast is rounded out by John Schneider as Jonathan 
Kent, Annette O'Toole (the adult Lana Lang in Super- 
man III) as Martha Kent, Sam Jones III as Clark 
Kent's friend Pete Ross, Allison Mack as teen 
reporter Chloe Sullivan, and John Glover as the 
Machiavellian father, Lionel Luthor. Comic-book 
authors Mark Verheiden and Jeph Loeb are on board 
the Smallville production team to script episodes and 
help oversee the series, but the producers, Alfred 
Gough and Miles Miller, have promised "no tights, no 
flight," saying that Kent will never fly on the series, 
nor wear the well-known Superman costume. 



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Although the first Smallville season dealt too 
much with kryptonite-created villains — Smallville 
had been the site of a kryptonite meteor shower 
that killed Lang's parents, drove Luthor bald, and 
brought Clark Kent to Earth — the show was still a 
hit. The producers changed tactics in the second 
season, bringing an edgier set of stories into play 
and touching on moments that foretold the future of 
Kent and Luthor's relationship; now they are 
friends, but eventually they will be bitter enemies. 
Kent's powers have begun to develop more, includ- 
ing X-ray vision, heat vision, and moments where he 
seems to defy gravity. He also learns more about 
his origins from the spaceship that brought him to 
Earth and the cryptic Dr. Virgil Swann (Christopher 
Reeve), and has visited Metropolis. Smallville's 
third season in 2003-2004 continued the trend, 
beginning with a red-kryptonite-influenced Kent call- 
ing himself "Kal" and committing not-so-super acts. 

Although he hasn't had Krypto to trail along 
since the demise of his animated cartoon, Super- 
boy has done pretty well for himself. In fact, com- 
bined with his adult adventures as Superman, the 
last survivor of Krypton has had more media adven- 
tures than any other superhero in history. And as 
Smallville has taught its wide audience, for Super- 
boy, compared to high school and love triangles, 
kryptonite is a breeze. — AM 

SupevcWes 

Golden Age (1938-1954) and Silver Age 
(1956-1969) comic-book writers devoted their 
energies to inventing their new superheroes' pow- 
ers, weaknesses, supporting casts, and rogues' gal- 
leries. In their ambitious pursuit of building charac- 
ters and storylines, they left many of their charac- 
ters' cities requiring urban development. Super- 
heroes' municipalities of those eras bore different 
names, but a reader would be hard pressed to find 
any diversity between the Golden Age Flash's Key- 
stone City and the Silver Age Flash's Central City 



other than their heroic occupants. If captions didn't 
inform readers that Green Lantern lived in Coast 
City or that Hawkman called Midway City home, 
most fans wouldn't know the difference. Even 
Gotham City, Batman's base of operations, suffered 
an identity crisis until the 1970s. This metropolis' 
appellation had certainly become legend, being 
coined in Batman #4 (Winter 1941), but other than 
its allure to garish psychotics, little made Gotham 
unique from other superheroes' locales (although it 
was home to an usual amount of giant props during 
the 1950s). 

Then came DC Comics' reinvention of Batman 
in the 1970s, when the hero was returned to his 
original "creature of the night" reputation. Gotham 
City was renovated into a dark and foreboding 
megalopolis where misconduct ran rampant. The 
site where young Bruce (Batman) Wayne witnessed 
the gangland slaying of his parents was christened 
Crime Alley, and Arkham Asylum, an institution for 
the criminally insane, supplanted the run-of-the-mill 
prison that had previously incarcerated Batman's 
rogues. Soon, Gotham's very architecture appeared 
more ... gothic (from the efforts of talented interior 
and cover artists like Neal Adams and Michael Kalu- 
ta), with minacious spires, gargoyles, and parapets. 

Visionary Anton Furst designed the cinematic 
Gotham City for director Tim Burton's film Batman 
(1989), blending the urban density of Blade Runner 
into the mix and earning an Academy Award for his 
efforts. In "No Man's Land" (1999), a multi-chap- 
tered story arc serialized throughout DC Comics' 
Batman franchise, Batman's turf was leveled by an 
earthquake and rebuilt by Metropolis billionaire Lex 
Luthor (from the pages of Superman) into a city of 
glass, with radiant new skyscrapers juxtaposed 
alongside surviving structures from Gotham of old. 
Homages to former Bat-artists, writers, and editors 
were introduced, including Robert Kane Memorial 
Bridge, Cape Carmine (Infantino), and (Jim) Aparo 
Park. In the DC continuity of the 2000s, Gotham 
City is the home of a host of heroes: joining Bat- 
man as Gothamites are Robin, the Huntress, Ora- 



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Supercities 



cle, Batgirl, Catwoman, Plastic Man, and even the 
private eye Slam Bradley. 

If Gotham represents the City of Yesteryear, 
then Metropolis is its antithesis: the City of Tomor- 
row — but where else would the Man of Tomorrow, 
Superman, call home? Even during Superman's ear- 
liest appearances in the late 1930s, Metropolis 
clearly stood unique among supercities. Artist Joe 
Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel, creators of Super- 
man, were heavily influenced by filmmaker Fritz 
Lang's vision of the future in his film Metropolis 
(1927), which they saw as children. The luminous 
structures of DC Comics' Metropolis stretched bold- 
ly to the heavens, parroting humankind's eternal 
reach for improvement, a trait personified in Super- 
man himself. 

The focal point of Metropolis has always been 
the Daily Planet building, home of the newspaper 
where Superman is employed in his alter ego of 
Clark Kent. During the Silver Age, Kent's home, 344 
Clinton Street, apartment 3D, was an occasional 
setting; upon returning home from work each 
evening, he tossed his hat onto a bust of former 
Superman comics editor Mort Weisinger, which he 
called "Morty," and kept a few Superman robots 
secreted behind a hidden closet partition. 

When Superman's history was reworked begin- 
ning with the miniseries The Man of Steel (1986), 
the twin towers of Luthor's LexCorp became a famil- 
iar site, a haunting image in the wake of the real-life 
destruction of New York's World Trade Center tow- 
ers on September 11, 2001. In 2000, Superman's 
foe Brainiac upgraded himself and the city by down- 
loading a supervirus into a computerized Metropo- 
lis. Today's Metropolis is the technological nucleus 
of the DC universe. 

The enduring legend of Superman inspired a 
real-world city, Metropolis, Illinois, to "adopt" the 
Man of Steel as its native son in 1972, a move 
sanctioned by DC Comics. In an official ceremony 
on January 21 of that year, Carmine Infantino, then 
the publisher of DC, ventured to Metropolis and 



spoke before a crowd of hundreds of area children 
and citizens and representatives from the media. 
Infantino introduced "Superman" (as portrayed by 
local Baptist minister Rev. Charles Chandler), who 
was awarded the key to the city. A theme park, the 
Amazing World of Superman, was started but 
scrapped halfway through due to a shortage of 
funds. In the 2000s, the Metropolis, Illinois, Cham- 
ber of Commerce continues to use Superman as its 
not-for-profit mascot, and a statue of the Man of 
Steel proudly overlooks its town square. 

Erected in stark contrast to DC Comics' 
Metropolis, Clark Kent's hometown Smallville is a 
quaint Midwestern farming community where, in the 
good ol' days of the Silver Age, Ma and Pa Kent 
operated a general store. In current DC Comics con- 
tinuity, Superman often returns to the homestead to 
seek advice from his parents on the family farm. 
This dichotomy between Superman's two Earth 
cities also illustrates the hero's dual personalities: 
"Anytown, USA" Smallville represents Kent, the per- 
sonification of everyman, while Metropolis symbol- 
izes the realization of ideals and dreams, just as 
Superman does. 

Several other supercities have evolved from 
Superman's mythos. The Man of Steel's scientifical- 
ly advanced native planet, Krypton, has provided 
three splendorous cities with globe-shaped sky- 
scraper spires and flying cars, employing an image 
of the future originating in the 1930s comic strips 
Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon: Kryptonopolis, 
birthplace of Kal-EI (Superman's Kryptonian name); 
Argo City, which survived the planet's destruction; 
and Kandor, which was miniaturized by Brainiac and 
held as a trophy in a giant bottle. On at least two 
occasions Superman has sought solace in cities 
other than Metropolis and Smallville: In Action 
Comics #179 (1953), Superman temporarily sets 
up shop in the hamlet of Mapleville, which is then 
renamed Supermanor, but Supermaw'a surrounding 
the hero's residency ultimately makes the Man of 
Steel the town's least-liked neighbor; and in Jack 
Kirby's The Forever People #1 (1971), Superman's 



*&> 



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encounter with a group of godlike teens lures him to 
the remarkable city of Supertown, home of a race of 
superpeople, on the planet New Genesis. 

DC Comics' Paradise Island (a.k.a. Themysci- 
ra), an oasis of lush forests and ancient Greek 
architecture, has remained hidden from the rest of 
the world for centuries and is the habitat of a race 
of physically superior females called the Amazons. 
Amazonian Princess Diana bested all challengers in 
a competition of warriors for the right to travel to 
"Man's World" as Wonder Woman. In the Marvel 
universe, there exists at the end of a rainbow bridge 
the city of Asgard, the home of the Norse gods. 
Asgard is ruled by the all-powerful Odin, whose 
sons, the god of thunder Thor and the god of evil 
Loki, have respectively assisted and plagued 
humankind for many years. 

Atlantis, the lost continent of yore, appears in 
both DC and Marvel comic books as an undersea 
city. DCs Atlantis is protected by a huge dome, 
although its populace, at one time governed by the 
superhero Aquaman, has adapted to breathing 
underwater. Sorcery was introduced to the mythos 
of DCs undersea kingdom beginning in the 1980s, 
and Garth, once known as Aquaman's sidekick 
Aqualad, is now a powerful mystic called Tempest. 
Marvel's version of the aquatic civilization is inhabit- 
ed by blue-skinned warriors who have often been 
led to attack the surface world by their wrathful 
ruler, Prince Namorthe Sub-Mariner. These assaults 
began in the earliest years of comics' Golden Age, 
but the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's first anti-hero, has 
grudgingly grown to accept the surface dwellers, 
even joining forces with some of Marvel's super- 
heroes to fight against common threats. 

While a handful of DC Comics superheroes — 
the Teen Titans; Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner, John 
Stewart, and Guy Gardner; some members of the 
Justice Society of America (JSA); and even Wonder 
Woman — have called or call New York City home, 
the bulk of Marvel's characters reside there. This 
concept was fathered in the early 1960s by 
writer/editor Stan Lee, who wanted a realistic envi- 



ronment for the company's legion of superheroes. 
From the humble beginnings of a mere handful of 
crusaders like the Fantastic Four (whose headquar- 
ters, the Baxter Building skyscraper, is located in 
midtown Manhattan), the Mighty Thor, and the 
Amazing Spider-Man (although Spidey's alter ego, 
Peter Parker, lived in Forest Hills, Queens, when he 
was a teen), soon an entire universe of champi- 
ons — Daredevil, Iron Man, the Avengers, Captain 
America, Doctor Strange, and many, many more — 
were peppering the skies and streets of the Big 
Apple, though often in distinctive settings that 
amounted to mini-cities (Daredevil's Hell's Kitchen, 
Doctor Strange's Greenwich Village). 

In Marvel's continuity, New Yorkers are usually 
portrayed with stark realism — brusque and self-pre- 
serving, but able to unite in times of crisis. Marvel's 
Manhattan has for more than forty years been a 
magnet for mayhem, with alien invaders, destructive 
monsters, and lunatic supervillains striking without 
notice. Marvels (1996), a celebrated four-issue 
miniseries written by Kurt Busiek and painted by 
Alex Ross, adroitly retells Marvel Comics' mile- 
stones through the eyes of people on the street. 
When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 leveled the 
World Trade Center and rocked the real world, Mar- 
vel addressed this tragedy, as the twin towers also 
collapsed in the comics, with Spider-Man, Captain 
America, and other superheroes — as well as "aver- 
age" New Yorkers — rallying to assist the fallen. Pub- 
lishers DC, Image, and Dark Horse also dealt with 
this horrific event by releasing several special 
comic books, the proceeds from which benefited 
the tragedies' victims and their families. 

The X-Men operate from the Xavier Institute for 
Higher Learning in the wooded confines of West- 
chester County, New York, offering these mutants, 
held suspect by so many homo sapiens, safe haven 
from the bigotries of city dwellers. The Inhumans, 
another race of outcast superheroes, first settled 
on a North Atlantic island named Attilan before hid- 
ing out in the Himalayas, and eventually establish- 
ing the lunar colony of New Attilan. 



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Another unique supercity is Astro City, from the 
award-winning comic-book series of same name cre- 
ated by Busiek. Astro City's history is rich with 
superpowered friends and felons like the Samaritan 
and Jack-in-the-Box. Dark Horse Comics' immodest- 
ly named "Comics' Greatest World" consists of four 
distinctive environments: Arcadia, an Art 
Deco-inspired Mecca for mobsters and the base for 
anti-heroes X and Ghost; Steel Harbor, a bombed- 
out urban landscape overrun by superthugs, where 
Barb Wire and the Machine protect the weak; Gold- 
en City, a picture-perfect, gated megalopolis where 
superheroine Grace and her agents of change Cata- 
lyst inspire the masses; and Cinnabar Flats, the 
sparsely populated, southwest desert location of an 
interdimensional vortex and a top-secret military 
installation — as well as the stomping grounds for 
Hero Zero and Division 13. Like Dark Horse's Arca- 
dia, DCs Fawcett City is an architectural testament 
to Art Deco design. Fawcett City is home to Captain 
Marvel, Mary Marvel, and CM3 (formerly known as 
Captain Marvel Jr.). 

DCs contemporary superheroes continue the 
publisher's long-standing tradition of spanning the 
continental United States in mostly fictitious bergs. A 
2004 survey of DC cities and their superpowered res- 
idents includes: Bludhaven (where Batman's prodigal 
son, Dick Grayson — the original Robin the Boy Won- 
der—fights crime both as a police officer and as the 
costumed hero Nightwing); Portsmouth City (home of 
Dr. Mid-Nite of the JSA); Star City (home of Green 
Arrow); St. Roch, Louisiana (home of Hawkman and 
Hawkgirl); Salem Tower, Massachusetts (home of Dr. 
Fate); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (home of Firestorm, 
the Nuclear Man); Bette Noire, the shadowy, some- 
what supernatural Gulf Coast home base of Fallen 
Angel; and Z'onn Z'orr, Antarctica (home of J'onn 
J'onzz, better known as the Martian Manhunter). 

Even real-life cities can seem exotic in the New 
York-centric comics world; it was big news when 
Marvel actually situated a superteam in Los Ange- 
les (the Champions, in the 1970s), and just as 
novel when the company started a long-running 



%0* 



West Coast counterpart to its popular Avengers 
team in the 1980s. Chicago, America's "Second 
City," has played perennial host to the superhero 
world's second string, including Marvel's mysterious 
Cat and satirical Hawk-Owl and Woody and Jack 
Kirby's Ninth Men, with one bona fide star, Erik 
Larsen's Savage Dragon, also calling the city home. 

Still, fantasy cities remain an essential ingredi- 
ent of superhero lore. The mid-1990s Milestone line 
centered its multicultural heroes in the fictional Mid- 
western metropolis of Dakota, and Alan Moore's ABC 
titles have given the made-up supercity a new lease 
on life. Tom Strong takes place between the tradi- 
tional/technological island of AttabarTeru and the 
Utopian town of Victorian skyscrapers, Millennium 
City; Top Ten is set in the dizzying sci-fi city of Neopo- 
lis, a kind of sprawling superhero ghetto; Greyshirt 
and Cobweb confine their adventures to the twilight- 
toned, natural-gas-powered Indigo City; and many of 
the heroes of the parallel Earth called Terra Obscura 
ply their trade in Invertica City, a metropolis built into 
a crater in which "everywhere is downtown." 

A recurring trend for comics writers has been to 
relocate superheroes to actual cities — Barbara Gor- 
don (Batgirl, later Oracle) was once a congress- 
woman in Washington, D.C., and fought crime there 
at night; Green Arrow vacated Star City in the 1980s 
and 1990s and aimed for Seattle; at one time the 
Justice League of America was headquartered in 
Detroit; Wonder Woman temporarily set up digs in 
Boston; and for a while Supergirl hung her cape in 
Charlotte, North Carolina — in efforts to pique reader 
interest with fresh, new environments. Outside of 
the sporadic insertion of geographic landmarks, 
however, these (and other) real-life locations have 
seemed surreal on the comics page. — ME 



Supergirl 

"It ... uh ... must be an illusion!" stammers Super- 
man as he witnesses "a youngster flying, dressed 



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Supergirl 



in a supercostume," zipping from a crashed space- 
ship. It's Supergirl, the cousin of Superman, arriving 
on Earth in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). Super- 
man discovers that this ebullient, golden-haired 
teen is Kara, a survivor from his homeworld of Kryp- 
ton. When the planet exploded years ago — the hor- 
rific event that led to baby Superman being sent to 
Earth — the entire megalopolis of Argo City survived, 
hurled from the explosion and existing on a chunk 
of planetary debris. As a meteor shower decimates 
the floating city and its populace, scientist Zor-EI — 
brother of Jor-EI, Superman's biological father — 
rockets his daughter Kara to Earth to join her 
cousin. Given the tragedy from which she has just 
emerged, Supergirl's giddiness seems rather cal- 
lous as she soars about in a blue-skirted version of 
Superman's uniform, but this was a time of inno- 
cence for publisher DC Comics' characters. 

Superman concealed Kara's existence from the 
world, covertly instructing Supergirl on how to use 
her powers (slightly weaker versions of his own). 
Disguising herself with a brunette wig and taking 
the Earth name Linda Lee, Supergirl resided at an 
orphanage in the hamlet of Midvale, eventually 
being adopted by the Danvers family. After almost 
three years (in real time) of laboring in the shadows 
as her cousin's secret weapon, Supergirl was intro- 
duced to the world by Superman in a televised tick- 
er-tape parade in Action #285 (February 1962). 

Throughout the 1960s, Supergirl starred as 
the backup strip in Action Comics, sometimes 
cover-featured as a guest star to her top-tiered 
cousin. Unmistakably, the character was created 
as an attraction for young girl readers, and while 
most boys reading comics shunned DCs Wonder 
Woman title, they read Supergirl's stories since 
they shared space in Action with the immensely 
popular Man of Steel. Supergirl soon had her own 
supporting cast — Linda Lee Danvers' boyfriend 
Dick Malveme, her adopted parents, Streaky the 
Super-Cat, and Comet the Super-Horse, plus the 
thirtieth century's Legion of Super-Heroes, particu- 
larly member Brainiac 5, who carried a torch for the 




SUPERGIRL uncovers 

WM21 feu 



.■>< 



IN A 

SURPRISE FEATURE!! 



Supergirl #3 © 1973 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY BOB OKSNER. 



Girl of Steel — but the super-cousin herself never 
quite evolved past second-banana status. Her 
Action stories were lighthearted fluff, generally 
dealing with teen-age heartache or a campus- 
based mystery. In June 1969, Supergirl assumed 
the lead spot in Adventure Comics, but despite fre- 
quent costume changes (including a hot pants 
ensemble she donned for most of the 1970s) and 
two attempts at headlining her own title, it became 
obvious to readers that she had never really devel- 
oped her own personality. Still, publisher DC 
Comics kept the character in print in one fashion or 
another, trading on her licensing potential through 
a variety of dolls, pencil cases, purses, and other 
products targeting young girls. 



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Superhero Cartoon Shows 



In the early to mid-1980s, Supergirl, having 
shed her hot pants for a skirt and a headband right 
out of singer Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" music 
video, was headed for the big time — and for disas- 
ter. Writer Marv Wolfman, while pitching to DC his 
twelve-issue comic-book opus Crisis on Infinite 
Earths, suggested that Supergirl be killed to give 
more emotional resonance to this continuity-reshap- 
ing series. Editorial director Dick Giordano agreed, 
calling Supergirl "Superman with boobs." The com- 
pany's other executives hesitated, as Supergirl was 
about to star in a summer 1984 movie from the pro- 
ducers of the first three Superman movies. The the- 
atrical Supergirl, featuring Helen Slater in a charm- 
ing title performance with Faye Dunaway hamming it 
up as a campy witch antagonist, tanked at the box 
office, and the decree was made: Supergirl would 
die. And she did so in Crisis #7 (October 1985), 
valiantly sacrificing herself to save other heroes. By 
the end of the Crisis series, the Girl of Steel had 
been removed from the rewritten DC mythology. 

In 1986, author/artist John Byrne revamped 
the Superman legend in his six-issue Man of Steel 
series, and by 1988, a new Supergirl was intro- 
duced. Created from protoplasm in an alternate 
reality known as the "pocket universe," Supergirl, 
originally called "Matrix," ventured to Metropolis to 
recruit Superman's aid in overcoming a menace 
from back home. Making Earth her adopted planet, 
the new Supergirl's career has been fraught with 
change. After merging her body with that of the 
dying Linda Danvers, she upped the super-ante by 
becoming an angel with fiery wings before morphing 
yet again, experiencing a makeover into a cutesy 
blonde with a bare midriff and lace-up boots. 

In late 2002, DC Comics came full circle when 
Supergirl encountered a youngster, flying, dressed 
in a supercostume, zipping from a crashed space- 
ship, just as Superman had done in 1959. This was 
the Kryptonian Supergirl Kara, the cousin of Super- 
man and a survivor of Argo City — but from a parallel 
universe, to which she soon returned. Beginning in 
the pages of Superman: The 10-Cent Adventure 



Dflfi 



(2003), yet another Supergirl — a buxom babe in a 
black swimsuit and blue, flowing cape — entered DC 
continuity, claiming to be the daughter of Super- 
man. These continual changes illustrate what's 
right and wrong with the twenty-first-century Super- 
man franchise: While it's exciting to see new spins 
on classic themes, frequent reinventions make the 
continuity so confusing that it is inaccessible for 
the casual or new reader. That may be why, in early 
2004, DC brought back a contemporary version of 
the "real" Kara Zor-EI, best known to the general 
public and best loved by longtime fans, in issue #8 
of the hit Superman/Batman series. — ME 

Superhero 
Cartoon Shows 

Animation has been a staple of television almost 
since the medium's inception, although super- 
heroes were not quick to catch on. Early cartoons — 
relegated mostly to Saturday mornings or after- 
school timeslots — were generally repeats of theatri- 
cal comedy shorts strung together into half-hour 
blocks. Early examples of superhero cartoons 
included all funny-animal characters such as The 
Mighty Mouse Playhouse (1955-1966), the Bob 
Kane-created Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse 
(1960), shoe-shine boy turned superhero Underdog 
(1964-1973), and insect and rodent heroes The 
Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965-1968). 

1965 saw the debut of the first two animated 
superheroes who were played for adventure instead of 
comedy. The Eighth Man (syndicated, 1965) was a 
Japanese import show about an android crime fighter, 
while Grantray-Lawrence's The Marvel Super-Heroes 
(syndicated, 1965) featured five days of superhero 
programming (Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, 
Iron Man, Mighty Thor, and Sub-Mariner). 

New heroes were created for American televi- 
sion in 1966. Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles 

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The animated show Iron Man. 



(CBS, 1966-1968) featured a trio of rock-and-rolling 
crime fighters known as Fluid Man, Multi-Man, and 
Coil Man. CBS's Space Ghost and Dino Boy (CBS, 
1966-1968) gave top billing to a space-bound 
crime fighter with powerful gauntlets. The Super Six 
(NBC, 1966-1969) starred heroes defined by their 
names: Granite Man, Super Scuba, Elevator Man, 
Magnet Man, and Captain Whammy. Ralph Bakshi's 
The Mighty Heroes (CBS, 1966-1967) were an odd 
quintet named Diaper Man, Cuckoo Man, Rope 
Man, Strong Man, and Tornado Man. 

1967 was a banner year for animated heroes. 
Batfink (syndicated, 1967) was a parody of a cer- 
tain other Bat-hero, and was accompanied by side- 
kick Karate. Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (NBC, 
1967-1968) featured stories with Birdman, Bird- 
boy, and their pet eagle Avenger as they fought 



crime, while Vapor Man, Galaxy Girl, and Meteor 
Man were the trio of the title. Galaxy Girl shared 
with Invisible Girl of Hanna-Barbera's The Fantastic 
Four (ABC, 1967-1970) and Mera of Filmation's 
The Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure (CBS, 
1967-1968) the title of the first animated super- 
heroines. Grantray-Lawrence again checked in with 
an ultra-popular Spiderman series (ABC, 
1967-1970), while Super President (NBC, 
1967-1968) saw the country led by a crime-fighting 
Commander in Chief. 

The following several years debuted few new 
hero shows, largely because the others were popu- 
lar enough to go to second or third seasons. Filma- 
tion's The Batman/Superman Hour (CBS, 
1968-1969), Aquaman (CBS, 1968-1969), and 
The Adventures of Batman (CBS, 1969-1970) were 



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Superhero Cartoon Shows 



extensions of previous shows. In 1973, Hanna-Bar- 
bera teamed several of DC Comics' top heroes 
together as Super Friends (ABC, 1973-1977), while 
police janitor turned kungfu hero Hong Kong 
Phooey (ABC, 1974-1976) rode to crime sites in 
his Phooeymobile. Old heroes got a new life in The 
Space Ghost/Frankenstein Jr. Show (NBC, 
1976-1977), and comedy dog hero Dynomutt 
joined with Blue Falcon to fight crime in The Scooby- 
Doo/ Dynomutt Hour (ABC, 1976-1977). 

1977 saw the format of Super Friends altered 
for The All-New Super Friends Hour (ABC, 
1977-1978), while Batman played double duty, 
also starring in Filmation's The New Adventures of 
Batman (CBS, 1977) and later The Batman/Tarzan 
Adventure Hour (CBS, 1977-1978). The following 
year, the show was changed to Tarzan and the 
Super 7 (CBS, 1978-1980), and several superhero 
elements were added: Freedom Force featured Isis, 
Hercules, Merlin, Super Samurai, and Sinbad; Web 
Woman featured a heroine given spider powers and 
accompanied on her adventures by an alien pet 
named Spinner; Manta and Moray showcased the 
last survivor of an underwater civilization and his 
girlfriend; and Super Stretch and Microwoman fea- 
tured African Americans Chris and Christy Cross 
who could shrink and stretch to fight crime. 
Rumored legal trouble from both DC and Marvel led 
to few episodes (and fewer reruns) of the latter 
three series. 

1978 also saw Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (ABC, 
1978), another new title for Hanna-Barbera's Chal- 
lenge of the Super Friends (ABC, 1978-1979), and 
a trio of familiar Marvel heroes — plus a clownish 
robot sidekick — in The New Fantastic Four (NBC, 
1978-1979). The following year was a banner year 
for heroes, though several of them were comedy ori- 
ented. The Super Globetrotters (NBC, 1979-1980) 
refashioned the basketball-playing Harlem Globe- 
trotters into the superheroes Multi-Man, Sphere 
Man, Gizmo Man, Spaghetti Man, and Fluid Man. 
The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show (ABC, 
1979-1980) featured the Quality/DC stretchable 



character, as well as a segment called Mighty Man 
and Yukk featuring a tiny hero and the world's ugli- 
est dog fighting crime. Hanna-Barbera debuted a 
new series called Fred and Barney Meet the Thing 
(NBC, 1979), teaming characters from The Flint- 
stones with one member of the Fantastic Four. 
Another Marvel character made her debut in 
Depatie-Freleng's Spider-Woman (ABC, 
1979-1980), and the DC superteam got another 
new incarnation with The World's Greatest Super 
Friends (ABC, 1979-1980). 

Format changes resulted in more name 
changes for older series in 1980: The Super 
Friends Hour (ABC, 1980-1981), Batman and the 
Super 7 (NBC, 1980-1981), and The Plastic 
Man/Baby Plas Super Comedy (ABC, 1980-1981). 
Hanna-Barbera mixed monsters and teens to 
become the superheroes Drak, Frankie, and Howler 
and pitted them against Dr. Dred and O.G.R.E. in 
Drak Pack (CBS, 1980-1982). The following season 
saw the return of Space Ghost in Space Stars 
(NBC, 1981-1982), and another name change for 
The Super Friends (ABC, 1981-1984). Marvel's 
web-spinning hero appeared on the network show 
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (NBC, 
1981-1982) and in a syndicated solo version 
called simply Spider-Man (1981-1982). Prescott- 
Scheimer's Kid Super-Power Hour with Shazam! 
(NBC, 1981-1982) featured animated adventures 
with the Fawcett/DC Marvel Family (Captain Marvel, 
Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr.), as well as adven- 
tures of the teen heroes who attended Hero High 
(Captain California, Gorgeous Gal, Dirty Trixie, Misty 
Magic, Rex Ruthless, Weatherman, and Punk Rock). 

The following several years mainly featured 
name and format changes for a few continuing 
series: The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider- 
Man (NBC, 1982-1983), which added a half-hour 
Hulk component; The Amazing Spider-Man and the 
Incredible Hulk (NBC, 1983-1984); and Super 
Friends — The Legendary Super Powers Show (ABC, 
1984-1985). A British comic strip was brought to 
the United States with Bananaman (Nickelodeon, 



uflfi> 



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1985-1987), in which a banana-eating wimp 
becomes a superhero. That year also saw the final 
name change and final incarnation for Hanna-Bar- 
bera's venerable Super Friends with The Superpow- 
ers Team: Galactic Guardians (ABC, 1985-1986). 

Defenders of the Earth (syndicated, 1986-1987) 
featured King Features' comic-strip heroes the Phan- 
tom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, and 
Lothar as they protected Earth's future from Ming the 
Merciless. A family of bionic-powered heroes fought 
Dr. Scarab in Bionic Six (syndicated, 1987). An old 
heroic mouse reappeared for funny — and sometimes 
controversial — new stories with Mighty Mouse: The 
New Adventures (CBS, 1987-1989), while comic- 
dom's hero supreme reappeared in a new Ruby- 
Spears series with Superman (CBS, 1988-1989). 
The universe's cuddliest hero arrived in the form of a 
superpowered teddy bear, set to battle Skeleton, Bulk, 
and Texas Pete in The Further Adventures of Super- 
Ted (syndicated, 1988-1989). 

As the 1990s began, superheroes had all but 
disappeared from the airwaves, though that would 
soon change. Environmental heroes faced villainous 
polluters and strip miners in Captain Planet and the 
Planeteers (syndicated, 1990-1995), while Disney 
produced its first hero cartoon with the adventurer 
known as Darkwing Duck (Disney Channel and ABC, 
1991-1995), who protected the city of St. Canard 
from evildoers. Musician M. C. Hammer donned 
magic shoes to become a superhero in Hammer- 
man (ABC, 1991-1992), but by the following year, 
weird heroes were in vogue. DIC produced a short- 
lived Swamp Thing cartoon (Fox, 1991), while 
bizarre and deformed Troma movie creations Toxic 
Crusader (toned down from Toxic Avenger), double- 
craniumed Headbasher, Junkyard, and No Zone 
fought against evil polluters and mutants such as 
Zarzoza from the planet Smogula, Bonehead, Psy- 
cho, and Dr. Killemoff in Toxic Crusaders (syndicat- 
ed, 1991-1992). The following year, two excellent 
comic-book adaptations began their long runs on 
Fox: Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1994) 
and X-Men (1992-1997). 



1994 was the biggest year for superheroes in 
history with eight new series debuting, and one 
going through a name change: The Adventures of 
Batman & Robin (Fox, 1994-1997). Marvel's web- 
spinner debuted with a brand new show in Spider- 
Man (Fox, 1994-1998), while New England Comics' 
big blue hero arrived in The Tick (Fox, 1994-1997), 
and Image saw representation with both Jim Lee's 
WildC.A.T.S (CBS, 1994-1995) and The Maxx on 
MTV Oddities (MTV, 1994-1995). Two Marvel series 
were combined for The Marvel Action Hour (syndi- 
cated, 1994-1996), with Fantastic Four and Iron 
Man sharing the screen. Animation met live-action 
in the wacky talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast 
(Cartoon Network, 1994-2003), and a purple-clad 
King Features hero saw more futuristic adventuring 
against environmental villains in Phantom 2040 
(syndicated, 1994-1996). 

Several more comic book properties reached 
TV screens in 1995, with DIC's production of Mal- 
ibu's UltraForce (syndicated, 1995-1996), Image's 
Savage Dragon (USA Network, 1995-1997), and 
Dark Horse's movie spin-off The Mask (CBS and 
syndicated, 1995-1997). Also on tap were the zany 
antics of a computer geek turned rubber-boned 
superhero in Steven Spielberg Presents Freakazoidl 
(WB, 1995-1996). Superhero action figures came 
to life in the Kablam! segment Action League Now!!! 
(Nickelodeon, 1996-1999), with short segments 
featuring the Flesh, Stinky Diver, Thundergirl, the 
Chief, and Melt Man. The following year DC pro- 
duced the critically acclaimed Superman (WB, 
1996-1997) and Marvel's green-skinned Goliath 
returned in The Incredible Hulk(\JPU, 1996-1997). 
Both series changed titles and gained fellow heroes 
the next season, with The New Batman/Superman 
Adventures (WB, 1997-1998) and The Incredible 
Hulk and She-Hulk (UPN, 1997-1998). Aimed 
squarely at mature audiences, Todd McFarlane's 
Spawn also debuted in latenight timeslots (HBO, 
1997-1999). 

In 1998, Marvel's angst-ridden space hero 
debuted with The Silver Surfer {Fox, 1998-1999), 



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and a trio of cute girl heroines debuted with their 
own series (though two earlier cartoons had aired in 
1995 and 1996). Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom 
are The Powerpuff Girls (Cartoon Network, 
1998-present) and they fight such enemies as evil 
monkey Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Princess More- 
bucks, and others. The following year, a futuristic 
relaunch of Marvel's top hero tanked in the ratings 
with Spider-Man Unlimited (Fox, 1999), while a futur- 
istic version of DCs dark hero soared with Batman 
Beyond (WB, 1999-2002). Even cute and addictive 
kids series Spongebob Squarepants (Nickelodeon, 
1999-present) got into the hero business with 
undersea crime-fighters Barnacle Boy and Mermaid 
Man appearing as Spongebob's favorite TV heroes. 

An old Hanna-Barbera hero was revived for the 
bizarrely funny Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (Car- 
toon Network, 2000-present), in which the ex-hero 
took on legal cases from other cartoon characters. 
Milestone's African American teen hero Static 
debuted in his own series called Static Shock (WB, 
2000-present), while Marvel's popular mutants were 
revived in X-Men: Evolution (WB, 2000-present). Bat- 
man Beyond spun off a fugitive hero character into its 
own series with The Zeta Project (WB, 2001-2002), 
while DCs top heroes reunited for a well-received Jus- 
tice League (Cartoon Network, 2001-present), which 
aired in both widescreen and full-frame formats. Ren 
& Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi created The Ripping 
Friends (Fox and Cartoon Network, 2001-2002), a 
quartet of strange musclebound heroes — Rip, Slag, 
Crag, and Chunk — who "ripped" criminals ranging 
from wormy Flathead and egg-stealing Ovulatorto sen- 
tient wads of chewing gum. The series proved too odd 
for Saturday mornings. And speaking of odd, The Fair- 
ly Oddparents (Nickelodeon, 2001-present) features 
Timmy, a boy whose wishes can bring his favorite 
comic-book heroes to life, including Crimson Chin 
(voiced by Jay Leno) and Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder, 
as well as Crash Nebula. Timmy also becomes Turbo 
Timmy in one episode. 

In 2002, Disney produced a show in which 
young kids become the superheroes Captain Cran- 



*flt* 



dall, Skate Lad, and Rope Girl in Teamo Supremo 
(ABC and Toon Disney, 2002-present), fighting vil- 
lains such as Baron Blitz, Mr. Inflato, the Sinister 
Stylist, and the Birthday Bandit. An anime-inspired 
version of Teen Titans (Cartoon Network, 2003-pre- 
sent) debuted, with the teen heroes opposing the 
Fearsome Five, Terminator, Trident, and others. On 
the adult front, Pamela Anderson's Stripperella (TNT 
and Spike, 2003-present) doffed clothes and bat- 
tled villains, and Spider-Man returned (MTV, 2003) 
for a set of computer-animated adventures based 
on the feature film. 

Besides the clearly superhero-related series, 
many animated shows feature adventurers, fantasy 
heroes, or space characters who don't quite fit the 
superhero mold: Boys are represented by Marine 
Boy, Jonny Quest, Gl Joe, Masters of the Universe, 
Flash Gordon, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and 
Men in Black; girls have such heroines as Jem, She- 
Ra: Princess of Power, and Aeon Flux. As the above 
history shows, while the twenty-first century moves 
forward and computer-generated animation 
becomes more commonplace, superhero cartoon 
shows will remain an integral part of the television 
landscape. — AM 

Superhero 
Confidants 

Confidentiality and superpowers are usually bedfel- 
lows — superheroes' identities are called "secret," 
after all — requiring the superhero to solve personal 
crises alone, with no one to talk to. But not all 
superheroes are doomed to this solitary fate. Walk- 
ing in and out of the lives of superheroes, lending 
their sympathetic ears, have been sidekicks (includ- 
ing Captain America's Bucky, Green Arrow's Speedy, 
and Plastic Man's Woozy Winks), significant others 
(like the Elongated Man's spouse Sue and the Fan- 
tastic Four's husband/wife duo Mr. Fantastic and the 

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Invisible Woman), super friends (Kitty Pryde of the X- 
Men touched embittered Wolverine's heart, and the 
Justice League's Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are 
the best of "buds"), godlike guardians (the Keeper 
spectrally watches over Kid Eternity, and Thor 
answers to his all-knowing father, Odin), kindly rela- 
tives (Billy Batson — Captain Marvel — talks to both 
his sister Mary and his Uncle Dudley), and stereo- 
typed ethnic companions (the Lone Ranger's Tonto, 
the Green Hornet's Kato, Captain Aero's Chop Suey, 
and Green Lantern's Pieface, among others). 

Some confidants have become crucial to their 
superheroes' mythology. The character who defined 
the genre — Superman — may have lost his Krypton- 
ian birth parents when his home planet exploded, 
but is adopted on Earth by "Ma and Pa" (Martha 
and Jonathan) Kent, who eagerly offer him their wis- 
dom. In Superman's 1938 origin, the Kents instruct 
the young extraterrestrial to conceal his super- 
strength while in his guise of Clark Kent, and to 
wisely channel his might: Ma Kent advises, "... 
when the proper time comes, you must use it to 
assist humanity." This sentiment is echoed in direc- 
tor Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie (1978), 
when actor Glenn Ford as Pa Kent assures teenage 
Clark (Jeff East), "You are here for a reason." When 
Superboy ("The Adventures of Superman When He 
Was a Boy") was retrofitted into Superman continu- 
ity in 1945, Ma and Pa Kent appeared as support- 
ing cast members, helping their teenage son help 
conceal his identity from nosy next-door neighbor 
Lana Lang. The Kents eventually passed away, trig- 
gering Clark's move from Smallville to Metropolis to 
become Superman. When the Superman mythos 
was rebooted with the miniseries The Man of Steel 
(1986), Superboy was eliminated but Ma and Pa 
Kent remained alive, specifically to mentor their 
adult super-son. In the 2000s, Superman frequently 
soars home to seek advice from his parents. 

Lang was also altered as a result of The Man 
of Steel: As Clark Kent's high-school sweetheart, 
she anticipates marrying him after graduation. He 
takes her into his deepest confidence and reveals 



to her his superpowers, then leaves her behind to 
pursue his career as Superman. Lang's love for 
Kent remains unrequited. She weds classmate Pete 
Ross, who later becomes the U.S. vice president, 
but eventually separates from him and moves to 
Metropolis, presumably to be closer to Kent. 

On television's live-action The Adventures of 
Superman (1953-1957), the public believes that 
the Man of Steel's confidant is Daily Planet reporter 
Clark Kent, the perception being that Kent can con- 
tact the Man of Steel during crises. In the DC comic 
books of the Silver Age (1956-1969), cub reporter 
Jimmy Olsen is Superman's "pal." The Man of Steel 
entrusts young Olsen with kryptonite, alien 
weapons, and interplanetary artifacts, but never 
reveals his Kent identity to the lad for his own pro- 
tection against criminals who might harm him for 
that information. The Silver Age Superman and Bat- 
man share many secrets, including knowledge of 
their dual identities and access to their private 
headquarters, the Fortress of Solitude and the Bat- 
cave, respectively. Superman's most unusual Silver 
Age confidant is President John F. Kennedy, who 
actually fills in for Kent on an occasion when Super- 
man and his alter ego must appear simultaneously. 

"Lois, for the past few years I've lived a double 
life," confesses Kent to the woman he loves, Lois 
Lane, in Action Comics #662 (1991). Five years 
later, Kent and Lane become husband and wife. 
Mrs. Kent assists her husband in grappling with the 
enormous responsibilities of being the planet's pre- 
mier superhero. 

Batman, emotionally scarred since childhood 
after witnessing the brutal slayings of his parents, 
is a more introverted character than Superman. For 
the first year of his career, beginning in 1939, Bat- 
man is wanted by the Gotham City police and lives 
alone as millionaire Bruce Wayne. When his ward 
Dick Grayson (Robin the Boy Wonder) enters his life 
in 1940, the lad's joie de vivre permits some sun- 
shine to seep into the Dark Knight's dour existence, 
yet Batman keeps his feelings at arm's length from 
his junior partner. In the 1980s, Batman's obses- 



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sion divides the Dynamic Duo, but they ultimately 
reconcile when Wayne confesses that he regards 
Grayson as his son. 

Once Alfred Pennyworth — better known as 
"Alfred the Butler"— joins the Wayne household in 
1943 as a gentleman's gentleman and stumbles 
across his employer's dual identity, Wayne is forced 
to accept Alfred into his inner circle. Over the 
decades, Alfred undergoes a gradual transformation 
from a superhero's valet — dusting the Batcave and 
laundering tights and cowls — to Wayne's guardian 
angel. Alfred reminds his resolute boss of his 
engagements, ensures that he eats and sleeps, 
and nurses his wounds, both physical and emotion- 
al. Wayne may consider Grayson his son, but pri- 
vately admits that Alfred is his "father." 

While Batman's inhospitality may be unpalat- 
able among his teammates in the Justice League of 
America, one man has called the Dark Knight 
"friend": Gotham City police Commissioner James 
Gordon. They meet as adversaries, however, in Bat- 
man's very first appearance, when Gordon orders 
his officers to fire at the shadowy vigilante, a scene 
replayed over the decades in revisions of Batman's 
history, including Frank Miller and David Mazzuc- 
chelli's "Batman: Year One" (1987) and Tim Bur- 
ton's motion picture Batman (1989). Over time, Gor- 
don realizes that Batman and he are playing on the 
same team. From the 1940s through the 1960s, 
Commissioner Gordon views Batman as his (dark) 
knight in shining armor, using the Bat-signal to sum- 
mon the hero when needed — a dependency played 
for laughs on TV's campy Batman series 
(1966-1968), in which it seems that Gordon's inept 
police force can handle no threat without the aid of 
Batman and Robin. During Batman's 1970s return 
to his ominous roots, Gordon and Batman are 
allies, with the commissioner often spooked when 
the Caped Crusader stealthily steps out of the 
shadows into his office. As Batman's stories grew 
even grittier beginning in the mid-1980s, the rap- 
port between he and Gordon became strained, but 



they maintain a mutual respect that continues in 
the 2000s, despite Gordon's retirement. 

Gordon's daughter, former Batgirl Barbara Gor- 
don — known among the superheroes of the DC uni- 
verse as the mysterious information broker Ora- 
cle — is often a voice of reason or friendship to the 
street operatives who use her services, including 
Black Canary, the Huntress, the new Batgirl, and 
Nightwing. Oracle's uncanny fluency as a hacker 
makes her privy to virtually any data stored in com- 
puter networks, and thus she knows or has discov- 
ered the secret identities of many of DCs heroes. 
While she routinely offers counsel, the austere, self- 
reliant Oracle seeks information, not advice, from 
others. For most of her Bargirl career, she kept her 
costumed guise a secret from Commissioner Gor- 
don (although he deduced the truth), and in the 
2000s she similarly shields her covert Oracle activi- 
ties from her father. 

For years, lawyer Matt Murdock — Marvel 
Comics' blind superhero, Daredevil — shoulders the 
burden of his dual identity alone, but once his law 
partner Foggy Nelson discovers the truth, Murdock 
gains a trusted confidant. Daredevil has divulged 
his alter ego to three former girlfriends: The Black 
Widow guards his confidence, but an addled Karen 
Page sold Murdock's secret identity for drugs, and 
his college sweetheart — the assassin-for-hire Elek- 
tra — tried to kill him. Throughout his one-man cru- 
sade against New York City crime, Daredevil fre- 
quently crosses paths with the amazing Spider- 
Man. The two are now staunch allies and some- 
times talk heart-to-heart on rooftops. 

Two other confidants are snared within Spider- 
Man's personal web. Mary Jane Watson, wife of the 
hero's alter ego Peter Parker, dated Parker for years 
before walking down the aisle with him. The 
demands of her career as a model and his moon- 
lighting as a crime fighter lead to their separation, 
but as of 2004 they remain romantically attached. 
Parker's sickly Aunt May doted on him during his 
adolescence, with the teen living in perpetual fear 
of his Spider-Man identity being exposed to her. His 



*ffi 



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Superhero Creators 



worst nightmare nearly comes true in the landmark 
The Amazing Spider-Man #39 (1966), when the 
insidious Green Goblin unearths Spidey's true iden- 
tity and attacks Parker where he is most vulnera- 
ble — outside of his home, with Aunt May inside! 
Years later (in 2001), Aunt May inadvertently discov- 
ers her nephew's dual identity when she finds him 
in bed, bloodied and bruised from a supervillain tus- 
sle, a tattered Spider-Man uniform by his side. Aunt 
May surprises Parker by supporting his superhero 
career. — ME 

Superhero 
Creators 

Superheroes as diverse as Wonder Woman and 
Spawn share one characteristic: They were originally 
conceived by a spark of an artist's or writer's imagi- 
nation. Each of the costumed characters unveiled 
since the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1 
(June 1938) has his or her own story of evolution, 
with innovative folk behind the scenes who thought, 
hoped, and dreamed that their creation would be 
the next Man of Steel. 

To the superhero and comic-book aficionado, 
names like Jack Kirby and John Byrne are as impor- 
tant as Clark Kent and Peter Parker. A complete sur- 
vey of the individuals who have produced the adven- 
tures of the superheroes chronicled in this volume 
is too extensive to include, but some creators' lega- 
cies are so embedded in superhero history that 
they must be mentioned. 

(There are numerous legendary comics artists 
and authors who have not, or have rarely, produced 
superhero work. So as not to diverge from the focus 
of this encyclopedia, industry legends such as Alex 
Raymond, Harvey Kurtzman, Bernie Krigstein, Jack 
Davis, Frank Frazetta, Hal Foster, Al Williamson, 
George Evans, Carl Barks, Joe Orlando, John Sev- 
erin, Russ Heath, Robert Crumb, Richard and 



Wendy Pini, Harlan Ellison, and Dave Sim are not 
discussed, but are acknowledged here for their 
superlative contributions.) 

GOLPZNAGe OFCOMTCS 

cma-1954) 

The Golden Age of superhero comics was an 
era of assembly-line production. Publishers shoved 
hordes of young, enthusiastic artists into sweat- 
shops and pressured them to produce, produce, 
produce, with ambitious businessmen like Harry "A" 
Chesler, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Charles Biro, 
Martin Goodman, and "Busy" Arnold always looking 
over their shoulders. Most of the stories printed 
during the Golden Age were crude, but some writers 
and artists emerged as talented draftsmen, pio- 
neering visionaries, or, in a few cases, both. During 
their day, however, they were largely ignored by the 
public who devoured their work. 

"In 1940, comic-book artists, if they were 
regarded at all, were not [well] regarded," said car- 
toonist Will Eisner. Eisner's The Spirit appeared not 
in traditional comic books, but in the newspapers 
as a comic supplement, from 1940 to 1952. 
"Comics before (The Spirit) were pretty much pic- 
tures in sequence, and I was trying to create an art 
form," Eisner once commented. And that he did: 
With his dramatic storytelling, contrasting lights and 
darks, and ingenious splash pages (which often 
incorporated the Spirit's name as an artistic ele- 
ment), Eisner raised the bar for other illustrators. 
Beyond The Spirit, Eisner has contributed to main- 
stream comics (including Quality's Uncle Sam), illus- 
trated numerous graphic novels, and authored a 
tome many comics professionals regard as the 
industry's premier textbook: Comics & Sequential 
Art. Eisner is the patron saint of comics profession- 
als — the industry's top awards, presented annually 
at the San Diego Comic-Con, bear his name. 

Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high- 
school buddies from Cleveland, Ohio, created 
Superman in the early 1930s, first as an illustrated 



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Superhero Creators 



prose story, then as a proposed newspaper strip. 
They had such faith in their concept, they ambitious- 
ly promoted their creation as "The Smash Hit Strip 
of 1936," but the syndicates rejected the series. In 
1938 their hero finally saw print in a DC Comics 
start-up title called Action Comics, and the rest, to 
borrow a cliche, is history. Siegel and Shuster sold 
DC the rights to Superman for a reported $130, but 
in subsequent decades they, and their heirs, have 
contested copyright ownership in court. 

Illustrator Bob Kane commanded more busi- 
ness savvy than did Siegel and Shuster: Kane bro- 
kered a deal to be listed as the sole credited cre- 
ator of Batman, first published in Detective Comics 
#27 (May 1939). Historians have long contested 
Kane's claim, as writer Bill Finger was the artist's 
partner and contributed much to Batman's canon. 
Along with Finger, artist Jerry Robinson worked 
under Kane's wing and eventually assumed a larger 
profile as a Batman illustrator. Robinson once said 
of Finger, "Unlike most of the writers in the early 
comic-book industry, Finger wrote very visually. His 
stories were well-plotted and paced." The controver- 
sy of Batman's authorship aside, Kane was largely 
responsible for the look of the series: "I wanted my 
style a little cartoony," he said, "a cross between 
Dick Tracy and illustration." Kane's studio, which 
included stalwarts Dick Sprang and Jack Burnley, 
continued to produce Batman stories, with and with- 
out Kane's participation, well into the 1960s. 

Charles Clarence "C. C." Beck was in his mid- 
twenties when he was hired as a house artist by Faw- 
cett Publications in the late 1930s. Beck was paid a 
biweekly wage of $55 to crank out cartoons and spot 
illustrations for Fawcett's magazines. When his 
employer entered the comic-book business, Beck 
was tapped to draw their new Captain Marvel series 
that premiered in Whiz Comics #2 (1940). His clean, 
simple style helped make Captain Marvel the best- 
selling superhero of the Golden Age. In the 1950s 
the character was sued off the stands by DC Comics, 
but Beck ultimately returned to Captain Marvel in the 
1970s when DC revived the hero in the title Shazam! 



ufl* 



Cartoonist Jack Cole had been in the comics 
trenches for a while before bouncing to prominence 
with his creation, Plastic Man, in Police Comics #1 
(1941). Cole's art was a wild blend of comedy and 
drama: His storytelling was impeccable, his splash- 
es rivaled Eisner's, and he used his malleable 
hero's stretching ability to lead the reader's eye 
from panel to panel. Chagrined by the lack of 
respect afforded comic-book artists, Cole, in the 
1950s, became an acclaimed artist for Playboy 
magazine and realized his dream of launching a 
syndicated newspaper strip, Betsy and Me. At the 
pinnacle of his success, Cole took his own life, a 
suicide that his surviving family members still find 
puzzling decades later. 

Joe Simon was a multi-talented gent: He wrote 
and drew comics, but through his editorial position 
at Fox Comics he met and partnered with Jacob 
Kurtzberg, better known as Jack Kirby. Kirby was a 
street-smart kid who grew up in New York's rough- 
and-tumble Lower East Side during the Great 
Depression. Simon and Kirby formed comics' most 
celebrated writer/artist team of the Golden Age. 
Together, they produced Fawcett's Captain Marvel 
Adventures #1 (1941) and a variety of strips for DC 
Comics, but in 1941 struck gold (for the publisher, 
alas, not for themselves) with Timely (Marvel) 
Comics' Captain America. As a team, Simon and 
Kirby pioneered new ground with a host of horror, 
Western, and other titles — they even co-created the 
romance-comics genre — until parting ways in the 
late 1950s. Simon went on to invent Brother Power 
the Geek and Prez for DC, while Kirby became 
"King" as the visual architect of the Marvel Age of 
Comics in the 1960s: Kirby co-created the Fantastic 
Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Thor, and many 
other characters with Stan Lee. In the 1970s Kirby 
created the vast "Fourth World" for DC Comics in 
series including The New Gods, but never complet- 
ed his epics due to the titles' cancellations — "It's 
an unfinished symphony," observed Kirby's protege 
Mark Evanier. Kirby later returned to Marvel, then 
illustrated independent comics, animation model 



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Superhero Creators 



sheets, and toy designs. Simon and Kirby's lives 
during the Golden Age inspired author Michael 
Chabon's Pulitizer Prize-winning novel The Amazing 
Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In the 2000s Kirby's 
work is examined in the quarterly fanzine The Jack 
Kirby Collector from TwoMorrows Publishing. 

Alex Toth, a cutting-edge illustrator who 
emerged during the late Golden Age, ignited the 
comics page in the 1950s and beyond with experi- 
mental art techniques that challenged his contem- 
poraries. Toth has always been intensely committed 
to his craft: "I respond to honesty of skill, motive, 
talent, and preparation," he once said. Toth's super- 
hero work was sporadic in later decades, but when 
it occurred, it was highly lauded, including his 
Atom/Flash team-up in The Brave and the Bold #53 
(1964). Toth was also the designer behind three 
popular animated TV series: Hanna-Barbera's origi- 
nal Space Ghost, Fantastic Four, and Super Friends. 

Other Golden Age greats include Lou Fine (Doll 
Man, the Ray, Black Condor), who learned to draw 
while bedridden with polio as a teen; Tarpe Mills, a 
rarity for the era, a female comics artist (of the char- 
acter that's arguably the first major superheroine, 
Miss Fury, originally a newspaper strip and later 
reprinted in comic-book form); Mac Raboy, whose 
stunningly realistic style contrasted his Captain Mar- 
vel Jr. work from Fawcett's cartoonier Captain Marvel 
house style; Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner, 
whose vivid underwater scenes and intimidating star 
made Marvel's first anti-hero a huge success; Carl 
Burgos, whose flaming hero the Human Torch 
became Marvel's best-selling character; Wayne Bor- 
ing, who helped Shuster by illustrating Superman 
stories during the hero's Golden Age boom and con- 
tinued drawing the character into the 1960s; Shel- 
don Mayer, DC editor (of All Star Comics) and artist 
of the first superhero parody, the Red Tornado, in the 
Scribbly backup series; cover artists extraordinaire 
Alex Schomburg ("I always felt Alex Schomburg was 
to comic books what Norman Rockwell was to The 
Saturday Evening Post," noted Stan Lee) and Matt 
Baker (whose Phantom Lady covers are prized 



among collectors of "Good Girl" art); William Moul- 
ton Marston, a psychologist who created both the lie 
detector and Wonder Woman; and Sheldon Moldoff, 
an unsung journeyman who illustrated countless 
Batman and Hawkman tales for DC. 



SU V£Z AG£ OF COMICS 
0956-19690 

DC Comics editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz is 
credited as the father of the Silver Age of comics. In 
the 1930s Schwartz was one of the founders of sci- 
ence-fiction fandom, and later worked as a literary 
agent for sci-fi authors Ray Bradbury and Alfred 
Bester before becoming a DC editor in the 1940s. 
Superheroes dwindled in popularity after World War 
II, their series supplanted by other genres including 
funny animals, horror, TV adaptations, and romance, 
and by the mid-1950s Schwartz was editing, not 
surprisingly, science-fiction comics like Strange 
Adventures. After the first three issues of DCs try- 
out title Showcase failed to capture the audience's 
imagination, Schwartz in 1956 proposed to his fel- 
low editors that the Flash be revived in issue #4. 
"Some of my co-workers were incredulous and 
asked me why I thought Flash would succeed now, 
having failed so dismally a few years before," 
Schwartz recalled in his autobiography Man of Two 
Worlds (2000). He countered that the comics' audi- 
ence replenished itself every few years, and while 
the editors remembered the Flash, the character 
would be new to most readers. Schwartz won his 
argument and was tapped to edit the revival, which 
became a reworking, as the Silver Age Flash was an 
entirely new character. The new Flash was a tremen- 
dous success, prompting Schwartz to continue the 
trend by revamping Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawk- 
man, and other characters, resurrecting the entire 
superhero genre in the process. Schwartz enjoyed a 
lengthy career at DC, charting the courses of Bat- 
man and Superman for many years, retiring in the 
mid-1980s but continuing with the company as a 
consultant and "goodwill ambassador." 



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Carmine Infantino, who had started his comics 
career by drawing random strips during the Golden 
Age, was, like most other artists employed during 
the 1950s, illustrating cowboy, mystery, and sci- 
ence-fiction comics when Schwartz tapped him to 
be the artist for the relaunch of the Flash in Show- 
case. Infantino became DCs artistic star of the 
1960s, visible on The Flash, Batman, Adam 
Strange in Mystery in Space, the Elongated Man in 
Detective Comics, and many of the company's most 
vibrant covers. Outside of the mid-1960s success 
with Batman, DCs sales were outdistanced by Mar- 
vel's. "DC needed a kick in the rump," claimed 
Infantino in a 2003 interview in Back Issue maga- 
zine. "And they brought me on board to do it." Infan- 
tino was hired as DCs art director in late 1966, and 
before long was booted upstairs to editorial director 
and later president. During his ten-year tenure, he 
steered the company to new creative heights and 
higher sales. 

Schwartz recruited Gil Kane for his new ver- 
sions of Green Lantern and the Atom. Kane was a 
young artist during the Golden Age, working largely 
unnoticed until earning the spotlight with his 1960s 
work in Green Lantern. Famous for his dynamic ren- 
dering style and unusual camera angles, Kane even- 
tually drew The Hawk and the Dove, Captain Action 
(which he also later scripted: "I've always main- 
tained that the best art came out of a continuity, 
either wholly created, of at least broken down dra- 
matically, by the artist himself," he wrote in 1969 in 
the letters column of Captain Action #5), and Super- 
man for DC, and The Amazing Spider-Man and Cap- 
tain America for Marvel, among many other credits. 

Writer Gardner Fox and artist Joe Kubert were 
selected for Schwartz's revival of Hawkman, the 
winged superhero, not a surprising selection since 
that team was also responsible for many of the Gold- 
en Age Hawkman's adventures. Kubert's lithe, sinewy 
figures made him perfect for the character's graceful 
aerial moves. Later in the Silver Age, Kubert spear- 
headed DCs war titles, most notably Sgt. Rock in Our 
Army at War, and in the 1970s wrote and drew DCs 



critically acclaimed Tarzan comic. In 1976 he opened 
the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, an 
industry institution at which many gifted illustrators 
have studied. Fox also wrote Justice League of Ameri- 
ca and other series for Schwartz. 

Other creators in editor Schwartz's corner: 
author John Broome (The Flash, Green Lantern), 
also a Golden Age carryover; penciler Mike 
Sekowsky, the original artist on Justice League, and 
Dick Dill in, the illustrator who replaced him; and 
artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. Penciler 
Swan, whose first published comics work was in 
1946, had been illustrating various Superman titles 
since the 1950s, working under iron-fisted editor 
Mort Weisinger; in the 1960s he ascended to the 
position of Superman artist supreme by illustrating, 
at various times, Superman, Action Comics, World's 
Finest Comics, Superboy the Legion of Super- 
Heroes in Adventure Comics, and Superman's Pal 
Jimmy Olsen. Anderson launched his comics career 
in the 1940s and later enjoyed a stint illustrating 
the Buck Rogers syndicated newspaper strip. 
Schwartz regularly employed Anderson throughout 
the 1960s, as a solo artist on Hawkman and The 
Spectre, and as a regular cover inker for Infantino 
and Sekowsky. During a 1970 updating of Super- 
man, Schwartz united Swan and Anderson on the 
series, a perfect meshing of two clean styles in col- 
laboration nicknamed "Swanderson." 

TH£ MABVZL AG£ 

If Julie Schwartz engineered the Silver Age, 
Stan Lee was its hijacker. In 1961 writer/editor Lee 
and co-conspirator artist Jack Kirby produced Fantas- 
tic Four#l for Marvel Comics. With its unique take 
on realistic superheroes, Fantastic Four put Lee and 
Marvel on the map. Lee quickly followed with a uni- 
verse of problem-ridden characters, including the 
Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the X- 
Men. Through innovation and Lee's knack for hyper- 
bolic self-promotion, Marvel steamrolled over DC in 
the 1960s and became the industry leader. 



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Jack Kirby penciled most of Marvel's original 
titles with Lee, but other artists were on board as 
the line expanded. Steve Ditko drew The Amazing 
Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Doctor 
Strange in Strange Tales. Ditko's peculiar illustrative 
style, with his flair for frenetic movement and equi- 
librium-bending perspectives, made his work visual- 
ly unique. The Ditko/Lee partnership eventually sev- 
ered over disagreements about Spider-Man charac- 
ter and storyline authorship. Throughout his illustri- 
ous career, Ditko has drawn Blue Beetle for Charl- 
ton, Beware the Creeperfor DC, and Mr. A, a study 
of the struggle between good and evil. Once Ditko 
left Spider-Man, he was replaced by an artist with a 
dissimilar style but one who managed to catapult 
the series into a different yet equally popular 
course: John Romita, Sr., fresh off a stint on Mar- 
vel's Daredevil. Ultimately Romita's energetic 
approach would become Marvel's house style: He 
was a frequent cover artist and designed two of the 
company's most popular characters, the Punisher 
and Wolverine. 

John Buscema distinguished himself on The 
Silver Surfer and The Avengers in the late 1960s, 
then Fantastic Four and Conan the Barbarian in the 
1970s. His brother Sal was another Marvel main- 
stay, having illustrated, in a career spanning 
decades, virtually every title at the company. Gene 
Colan had served tours of duty at several comics 
publishers before landing at Marvel in the mid- 
1960s. His lengthy run on Daredevil is fondly 
remembered, as is his stint on Sub-Mariner in the 
late 1960s and his 1970s turn on Marvel's ground- 
breaking Tomb ofDracula series. A dependable pen- 
ciler on series like Sub-Mariner and a gifted car- 
toonist on the satire comic Not Brand Echh, Marie 
Severin was also Marvel's main colorist and cover 
designer for years, an essential yet largely unsung 
role that mirrored that of women in society at the 
time. Roy Thomas worked briefly as assistant editor 
to DCs Mort Weisinger in 1965 before jumping ship 
to Marvel, where he honed his writing and editing 
skills under Lee's tutelage. A Golden Age historian, 



Thomas at one time was Marvel's editor in chief, 
and is best known as the author of Marvel's The 
Avengers and Conan the Barbarian and DCs All-Star 
Squadron. In the 2000s he continues to edit and 
co-write his long-running fanzine Alter Ego. 

Artist Walter Simonson beamed in Steve Duin 
and Mike Richardson's Comics Between the Panels 
(1998): "His work was like unto a God for a lot of 
us." Simonson was referring to Wally Wood, an 
immeasurably versatile illustrator perfectly fluent with 
humor, science fiction, horror, and superhero comics. 
Rising to prominence in the 1950s on a host of E.C. 
Comics, Wood is venerated among comics fans for 
his superhero parodies in MAD magazine, his run on 
Marvel's Daredevil, and his T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for 
Tower Comics. In 1982 Wood, soured by failing 
health and embittered by being put out to pasture by 
younger artists, committed suicide. 

Other noteworthy Silver Age superhero cre- 
ators: Ramona Fradon, one of the few female illus- 
trators working during this period, who drew DCs 
Aquaman in Adventure Comics, as well as Metamor- 
pho the Element Man, Super Friends, and Plastic 
Man (she confessed, "I had serious difficulty relat- 
ing to superhero subject matter, the staple of the 
comic-book industry"); Joe Gill, a prolific but rarely 
recognized writer of hundreds of Charlton Comics 
series, from superhero to romance; writer/editor 
Robert Kanigher, who guided, among many 1960s 
series, DCs Wonder Woman and Metal Men, along 
with artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito; Kurt 
Schaffenberger, artist of Superman's Girl Friend 
Lois Lane and Supergirl in Action Comics; and Nick 
Cardy, whose drawings of striking women and serio- 
comic layouts made DCs Bat Lash, Teen Titans, 
and Aquaman fan favorites. 

COMICS' FIBST*ZOCK STABS" 

A pair of visionaries rocketed to acclaim in the 
late 1960s. There was Jim Steranko — deemed "the 
first 'rock star' artist of comics" on the History 
Channel's two-hour special Comic Book Super- 



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Superhero Creators 



heroes: Unmasked (2003) — who exploded onto the 
scene with his surrealistic style in Marvel's Nick 
Fury, Agent of S.H.I. E.L.D.; Captain America; and X- 
Men series. His work was the storytelling equiva- 
lent of pop art: impressionistic, cinematic, and fully 
alive. Artist Paul Gulacy commented in the book 
Comics Between the Panels (1998), "I look at Kirby 
as being the architect, Steranko building the frame- 
work, and the rest of us doing the finish work." Ster- 
anko's contributions to comics have been rare, but 
permanently imprinted onto the medium. He has 
authored two Steranko History of Comics volumes 
and painted dozens of paperback covers (including 
lauded covers for The Shadow). 

The other profoundly influential illustrator of 
the late 1960s was Neal Adams. He started as an 
ad-agency artist in his late teens, then illustrated 
the Ben Casey newspaper strip before segueing to 
DC Comics in 1967 — drawing, oddly enough, the 
company's licensed The Adventures of Jerry Lewis 
and The Adventures of Bob Hope books. The pow- 
ers-that-be at DC quickly recognized his talent, and 
Adams began to make his mark on the Deadman 
strip in Strange Adventures and on The Spectre with 
his photorealistic rendering style and his imagina- 
tive layouts that whisked the reader from panel to 
panel; "... when you look at the page as a whole ... 
it should never be a burden," he contended in Van- 
guard Productions' Neal Adams: The Sketch Book 
(1999). "What we're doing is telling stories." By the 
late 1960s Adams had lobbied to draw Batman in 
the team-up title The Brave and the Bold, where he 
visually transformed the character from campy 
caped crusader to mysterious creature of the night. 
Soon he was the hottest artist in comics, drawing 
Batman, Detective, and the award-winning Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow series. A staunch advocate for 
creators' rights, Adams helped lobby for the return 
of original artwork, royalties, and pensions for 
Superman creators Siegel and Shuster. Among 
comics artists, Adams is both revered and feared. 
His harsh critiques of artists' portfolios have 
encouraged some, and intimidated others. 



8Z0NZZ AGB OF COMICS 
CWO-1979) 

Superhero comic books grew up during the 
1970s, in content and in appearance. Adams con- 
tinued to trailblaze throughout the decade, forming 
his own company, Continuity Associates, with his 
inking partner, former editor, and friend Dick Gior- 
dano. "Dick's inking pretty much set the standard," 
Adams revealed in the biography Dick Giordano: 
Changing Comics, One Day at a Time (2003). Gior- 
dano quietly grew from assembly-line inking during 
his youth in the early 1950s to lauded editorial 
stints at Charlton and DC in the 1960s. An accom- 
plished solo illustrator (Batman, the Human Target 
in Action Comics, romance comics, and Wonder 
Woman), Giordano is best known as Adams' inker 
("The Lennon and McCartney of comics," noted 
Giordano biographer Michael Eury) and as DC 
Comics' editorial director during its decade of inno- 
vation, the 1980s. 

Adams and Giordano's Continuity Associates 
was the Mecca for comics artists of the 1970s. 
Continuity located work for seasoned professionals, 
but is best known for attracting young artistic 
wannabes. "People would sleep on the floor or even 
in the hall by the elevator," recalled Giordano. 
"Since so many people came and went, my policy 
became, 'if he's here a month from now I'll ask him 
what his name is.'" 

Some of the young associates of Continuity 
who blossomed into popularity during the 1970s 
and beyond include Howard Chaykin, who started on 
sword-and-sorcery comics before making his mark 
on random Batman stories and with the sexploita- 
tive sci-fi epic American Flaggl; Terry Austin, a Gior- 
dano protege who embarked upon a successful ink- 
ing career; Marshall Rogers, who, with writer Steve 
Englehart, produced a critically acclaimed sequence 
of Batman tales in Detective that helped reinvent 
the Joker; Michael Golden, who followed his innova- 
tive Batman work with science fiction (The Micro- 
nauts) and war (The 'Nam) comics; Klaus Janson, 



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renowned as Frank Miller's inker on Daredevil, who 
later enjoyed enduring success as a solo illustrator; 
Bill Sienkiewicz, who quickly abandoned a Neal 
Adams homage (on Marvel's Moon Knight) to chart 
new territory with his experimental rendering on The 
New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin; and Walt 
Simonson, yet another newcomer who garnered 
notice on Batman then blossomed in the 1980s on 
such strips as Thor and the Marvel/DC X-Men/New 
Teen Titans crossover. 

Batman transmogrified into darker territory 
throughout the 1970s, partially due to moody cov- 
ers by Bernie Wrightson (also known for Swamp 
Thing) and Michael Kaluta (who became a superstar 
by illustrating DCs The Shadow). No one was more 
influential in Batman's transformation than writer 
Denny O'Neil, who penned many of the character's 
1970s adventures as well as Superman, Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow, and other revolutionary 
efforts. After editing at Marvel in the late 1970s, 
O'Neil returned to DC in the 1980s and supervised 
the Batman franchise as its group editor and as a 
frequent writer. After the highly publicized — and con- 
troversial — "Death of Robin" storyline in 1989, 
O'Neil was verbally accosted in a New York City deli: 
"Hey, this is the guy that killed Robin!" yelled an 
employee, which made him realize the far-reaching 
importance of his job. In the television special 
Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked, O'Neil 
reflected that the Batman and Superman editors 
are "custodians of folklore." 

Other creative forces to ascend during the 
1970s: Jim Aparo, once a Charlton artist hired by 
Giordano to draw Aquaman at DC, then a dominant 
Batman artist for two decades; Archie Goodwin, a 
much-loved writer/editor for DC, Marvel, and Warren 
Publications; Barry Windsor-Smith, a British trans- 
plant who started in the United States on random 
Marvel superhero work before soaring to acclaim on 
Conan the Barbarian; Marv Wolfman, a popular 
writer (Tomb ofDracula, The New Teen Titans, Crisis 
on Infinite Earths) who served a stint as Marvel's 
editor in chief and also has worked in Hollywood; 



Len Wein, scripter of Batman, Swamp Thing, and X- 
Men, creator of Wolverine, and yet another former 
Marvel editor in chief; Dave Cockrum, fan-favorite 
artist of Superboy Starring the Legion of Super- 
Heroes and the 1975 revamp of X-Men; Mike Grell, 
who started as the Legion artist before growing into 
his own as the writer/artist of The Warlord, Jon 
Sable: Freelance, and Green Arrow: The Longbow 
Hunters; Jim Starlin, artist/writer who popularized 
Marvel's Captain Marvel, then killed the hero (of 
cancer); and George Perez, jumping from Fantastic 
Four to The Avengers in the late 1970s to Justice 
League of America and The New Teen Titans in the 
early 1980s. 

WB GBOWJNG STATUZB 
OFAZTISTS 

By the 1980s comics publishers realized the 
importance of their creative personnel. Superstar 
artists, and sometimes writers, were producing 
higher sales, and DC and Marvel bowed to pressure 
to accord top performers royalties for their efforts. 

Noteworthy superhero creators during the 
1980s include author Chris Claremont, whose 
lengthy run on X-Men is unparalleled; artist/writer 
John Byrne, who started in the 1970s on minor 
Charlton titles (like Wheelie and the Chopper 
Bunch) before illustrating Marvel titles (Marvel 
Team-Up, The Uncanny X-Men) and ultimately writing 
and illustrating a host of series (Fantastic Four, The 
Incredible Hulk, Superman, and The Sensational 
She-Hulk); Frank Miller, who grabbed readers by 
their throats with his gripping take on Daredevil, 
then followed with his magnum opus Batman: The 
Dark Knight Returns; Keith Giffen, who began as a 
penciler for random DC titles in the late 1970s 
before rising to prominence in the early 1980s as 
the artist of Legion of Super-Heroes, and becoming 
the driving force behind 1980s hits like Lobo and 
the revamped Justice League; Arthur Adams, who 
became a frequently imitated fan favorite from his 
illustrations on Longshot and X-Men; David Mazzuc- 



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Superhero Creators 



chelli, an accomplished stylist whose brief fling with 
mainstream comics included two eminent projects 
with writer Frank Miller, "Batman: Year One" and 
"Daredevil: Born Again"; Jerry Ordway, a triple-threat 
writer/penciler/inker whose art on The Adventures 
of Superman helped redefine the hero for the 
decade; and second-generation artists: Joe 
Kubert's sons Andy and Adam, and John Romita's 
son John Jr., who developed into talented illustra- 
tors in their own rights. 

Smaller "independent" publishers sprouted in 
the 1980s, some growing out of a mid-decade 
boom of black-and-white (B&W) comics, others dedi- 
cated to producing quality color work. From the 
throng of companies achieving some degree of 
prominence during the 1980s (Pacific Comics, 
Comico the Comic Company, First Comics, Now 
Comics, and others), only Dark Horse Comics, 
which started in 1986, remains an industry leader 
in the 2000s. Several immensely gifted talents got 
their starts at these companies, including artist 
Steve Rude, who rose to acclaim on Nexus and 
later illustrated more mainstream work including 
Superman and Batman in World's Finest; Matt Wag- 
ner, whose groundbreaking Grendel and Mage 
series later led to opportunities to write and draw 
Batman and other high-profile characters; Bill Will- 
ingham, creator of the provocative superteam comic 
Elementals; and Dave Stevens, whose lavishly ren- 
dered The Rocketeer became a live-action movie in 
1991. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird experienced 
the decade's most lucrative financial success: Their 
cheaply produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
B&W title took the marketplace by storm, spawning 
counterfeiters, copycats, and a cottage industry 
that has included a film franchise, TV cartoons, and 
action figures. 

During the 1980s, more female creators began 
to distinguish themselves in comics than in previ- 
ous decades. Historian and book author Trina Rob- 
bins dabbled in mainstream comics by drawing the 
1986 miniseries The Legend of Wonder Woman, 
which was also written, lettered, and colored by 



women (Lee Marrs, Lois Buhalis, and Shelley Eiber, 
respectively). Artists Colleen Doran and Jill Thomp- 
son gained prominence, as did Louise Jones Simon- 
son, X-Men editor and writer of Power Pack. Other 
women comics editors to emerge in the 1980s 
were Karen Berger, Diana Schutz, Barbara Kesel, 
and Bobbie Chase. 

American comics professionals were looking 
over their shoulders in the 1980s, many concerned 
that they would be squeezed out of the industry, as 
the British were coming, the British were coming! A 
wave of writers and artists from Britain penetrated 
the U.S. domestic comics market during the 1980s, 
mostly landing at DC. Foremost was Alan Moore, 
heralded by many as comics' greatest writer, who 
effortlessly leapt from Saga of the Swamp Thing to 
Superman stories, dazzling readers all the way. 
Other Brits to make an impression during the 
decade were artist Dave Gibbons, who followed a 
successful stint on Green Lantern by partnering 
with Moore on Watchmen, the twelve-issue series 
that redefined superheroes for a new, jaded genera- 
tion; Brian Bolland, artist of writer Mike W. Barr's 
Camelot 3000, who later illustrated (with author 
Moore) Batman: The Killing Joke and numerous DC 
Comics covers; and daring new writers like Peter 
Milligan, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman. Much of 
these creators' work bore an edgier voice than DCs 
traditional fare, and the publisher began a "mature 
readers" line that grew into its Vertigo imprint. One 
of those titles, Gaiman's award-winning Sandman, 
premiered in 1989. 

SPZCULATOZS ANP IMAGE 

In the early 1990s a speculation boom inflated 
comics' sales to figures unheard of since the Golden 
Age. Gimmick covers and multiple editions sold in the 
hundreds of thousands — and in a few cases, the mil- 
lions — enabling hot comics creators to flex their mus- 
cle. Artists Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, and Rob Liefeld 
were the first Marvel artists whose popularity allowed 
them to jettison their writers from their series and ulti- 



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mately tell their own stories. After reaping fortunes 
from relaunches of Spider-Man, X-Men, and X-Force 
that sold in huge numbers to speculators and fans, 
that trio, along with Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio, 
Erik Larsen, and Marc Silvestri, cut their apron strings 
from Marvel in 1992 and founded Image Comics, 
where they published their own material (McFarlane's 
Spawn, Lee's WildCAT.S, Liefeld's Youngblood, 
Larsen's The Savage Dragon, and others). 

In 1993 the market imploded when the specu- 
lator demand withered. Many artists and writers 
found themselves out of work. Marvel and DC court- 
ed in-demand creators with lucrative exclusive con- 
tracts and smaller companies tried to keep up, but 
the mid-1990s were a bleak period for the industry. 
There were artistic highpoints: Adam Hughes' gor- 
geous rendering on Ghost and his posteresque cov- 
ers for Wonder Woman; writer Kurt Busiek and 
painter Alex Ross' remarkable miniseries Marvels; 
Ross' follow-up, DCs Kingdom Come, with author 
Mark Waid; Scott Campbell's impressive Gen 13; 
Joe Quesada's stunning artwork on Ash and Dare- 
devil; and the prominence of painted portrait cov- 
ers, which have, in the 2000s, threatened to super- 
sede line-art drawings as the norm for cover art. 

THE FUTUZB OF 
SUPZZHeZO CZeATOZS 

In the late 1990s the comics business took a 
collective deep breath to rebound from the blow of 
the market collapse. Publishers began to put aside 
sales stunts and dedicated themselves to publish- 
ing quality material. Since that time, writers from 
other media — including screenwriters Kevin Smith 
and Jeph Loeb, television writer and Babylon 5 cre- 
ator J. Michael Straczynski, crime novelist Greg 
Rucka, and Judd Winnick, one of the original cast 
members from MTV's The Real World— have been 
lured to comics. The 2000s have, to date, been 
dominated by newer creators — Brian Michael 
Bendis, Joe Kelly, Gail Simone, Brian Azzarello, 
Amanda Conner, Ed McGuiness, Alex Maleev, 



Michael Allred, John Cassaday, and Scott McDaniel 
are just some of the writers and artists popular as 
of 2004 — while Gaiman, Byrne, Perez, Giffen, and 
Miller continue to command an audience of loyalists 
and newcomers. American superhero comic-book art 
as of 2004 is heavily influenced by Japanese manga 
and by the "animation" style popularized on such TV 
cartoons as Batman: The Animated Series, Super- 
man, and Justice League. As superhero comics con- 
tinue to morph to find their role in a fast-changing 
world, their creators will continue to strive for ways 
to create the next Man of Steel. — ME 

Superhero 
Headquarters 

"Beneath a harmless-looking Gotham City resi- 
dence, a unique cavern lies hidden from the world!" 
announced Detective Comics #205 in 1954. Bat- 
man and Robin's subterranean headquarters, locat- 
ed underneath alter ego Bruce Wayne's mansion, 
has become so ingrained in America's conscious- 
ness that one only has to say the word "Batcave" in 
order to conjure up images of this top-secret under- 
ground labyrinth. Although the Batcave's appear- 
ance has varied over the years according to comic- 
book artists' (and film and TV set designers') inter- 
pretations, some of its more well-known features 
include the crime lab, the crime-file room, a garage 
and repair shop for the Batmobile, a hangar for the 
Batplane and Batcopter, docking facilities for the 
Batboat, a Bat-costume vault, a trophy room, and a 
fully equipped workshop. Thanks to its portrayal in 
the Batman TV show (1966-1968) and the Batman 
live-action film franchise of the 1990s, the Batcave 
is an icon: Alternately accessible via a spiral stair- 
case, Batpole, and secret elevator from the Wayne 
mansion (depending upon the era of the story), Bat- 
man and Robin often retreat to their laboratory 
apparatus and crime-detection equipment in order 
to solve a mystery, referencing their "electronic data 



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analyzer" and "DNA Spectograph" in order to 
unearth information on Gotham's criminals. The 
Batcave also contains mementoes of some of Bat- 
man's previous cases, including a replica of a giant 
penny, a giant Joker playing card, and a statue of a 
T-Rex, all salutes to Batman stories from the 1940s 
and 1950s but visuals maintained in Batman 
comics in the 2000s. 

Sorry, that was then. Fast-forward to now, an era 
wherein only die-hard Batman fans know that the Bat- 
cave as much of America has come to know it no 
longer exists. The "New Batcave," constructed in the 
aftermath of the earthquake that demolished Gotham 
City in the lengthy "No Man's Land" serial that ran 
throughout the Batman titles in 1999, is a self-con- 
tained, eight-level, underground lair for the Dark 
Knight. This ultra-high-tech hideout boasts a state-of- 
the-art massive computer system and hologram pro- 
jector, as well as much-updated renditions of Bat- 
man's library, training facilities, forensics laboratory, 
and vehicle ramps, dockers, and hangars. Bedecked 
in cool steel structures with retractable walkway 
bridges, there is no mistaking the New Batcave for 
anything other than the ultimate superhero sanctuary. 

Another Gotham City resident, Oracle, sits 
perched in the city's Clocktower, ready to dispatch 
any one of her Birds of Prey "field operatives" upon 
the city's villainous. Working high above the crime- 
ridden streets, Oracle stays posted at her comput- 
er — actually, six Yale super-computers — acting as 
information broker to Gotham's heroes, including 
Batman, Nightwing, and the Justice League. With 
her genius-level intellect, photographic memory, and 
research and analytical skills, she is Batman's 
trusted confidante, a necessary part of the Dark 
Night's inner circle. Her secret hideaway — though 
difficult to reach for most — is, of course, wheelchair 
accessible for the heroine's special needs. 

In stark opposition to the Batcave, Superman's 
Fortress of Solitude lies inside a dimension of 
unlimited space. Though originally built "deep in the 
core of a mountainside in the desolate Arctic 
wastes," this location proved to be too vulnerable a 



hideout for the Man of Steel. It was here, according 
to Action Comics #241 (June 1958), that the Man 
of Steel conducted "incredible experiments," kept 
"strange trophies," and pursued "astounding hob- 
bies" — in addition to just putting his feet up. First 
mentioned by name in the comics in 1949, his 
secret sanctum was originally conceived as a hid- 
den repository for showcasing Krypton's culture and 
artifacts, and as such housed Superman's work- 
shop, trophy room, and super-laboratory, where 
Superman put in overtime in search of an antidote 
for kryptonite. In addition, the Fortress contained a 
gym; a bowling alley; an interplanetary zoo (housing 
wildlife from a variety of distant planets); a Hall of 
Interplanetary Monsters; the Bottle City of Kandor 
(a city of Superman's home planet, Krypton, which 
was reduced to microscopic size by the villain 
Brainiac); special "hyperspace radios" for communi- 
cating with various distant galaxies and alien 
dimensions (housed in a communications room 
that also included "hotline" channels to the United 
Nations, the White House, and the Metropolis 
Police Department); and a number of assorted 
weapons and scientific apparatus. 

In the Superman comics continuity of the 
2000s, the Fortress is a high-tech wonderworld 
bearing little resemblance to the version popular- 
ized during the Silver Age of comics (1956-1969). 
Though fans might find a Krypton memorial, it is in 
the form of twin holographic images of Superman's 
Kryptonian parents, Jor-EI and Lara. And though 
Kandor is still preserved, the crystalline diorama of 
Kandor's capital, Kryptonopolis, is more likely to 
catch visitors' eyes. Fans stumble upon Kryptonian 
power crystals; radiation-depleted chunks of Lex 
Luthor-contrived synthetic kryptonite; and a model 
of a Kryptonian skyship, a glider from ancient Kryp- 
ton. The Fortress also houses the Last Son of Kryp- 
ton's holographic archive, the holographic encyclo- 
pedic library that chronicles Superman's life; a Cen- 
tral Computer Nexus; the Phantom Zone Portal, 
which provides an entrance into that extradimen- 
sional space; and a Phantom Zone Control, which 



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monitors the energy sources and all movement 
inside and outside the Phantom Zone. In addition, 
the Fortress is home to Ned, the sole remaining 
Superman robot; Superman's faithful robotic ser- 
vant, Kelex; and Krypto, Superman's dog. 

Few heroes enjoy such elaborate bases of 
operations as Batman and Superman, although the 
X-Men headquarters is a site to be reckoned with. 
Marvel Comics' mutant band of superheroes spend 
most of their time at their mentor Professor X's 
mansion, located in Westchester County, New York. 
Xavier's estate houses the X-Men's training facility, 
the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, which fronts 
as an Ivy League-like school. It's here that the tele- 
pathically and telekinetically inclined fine-tune their 
intellectual skills and learn to strengthen their pow- 
ers. Some of the mansion's more interesting fea- 
tures include the Medi-Lab, an advanced medical 
facility that provides full-scale medical treatment for 
the mutants; the Cerebro computer system, an 
elaborate system of machines that Professor X 
designed to locate mutants by tracking their psionic 
energy; a subterranean Danger Room, where the X- 
Men hone their athletic and combat skills by pitting 
themselves against super-robots in combat-training 
classes; and a subterranean War Room, which 
houses computers that collect top-secret global 
information. The property boasts such extrava- 
gances as an underground hangar and runway, spe- 
cially designed for the X-Men's Blackbird jets; an 
ultra-fast monorail carries the X-Men from the man- 
sion to the hangar in only twenty seconds. Finally, 
all manner of internal and external high-tech securi- 
ty (courtesy of wealthy industrialist Tony Stark, 
a.k.a. Iron Man) protects the mansion from would- 
be intruders. 

Just a train-ride away from upstate Westchester 
lies New York City, home to many Marvel super- 
heroes. The Fantastic Four (FF) battle crime in the 
Big Apple from Four Freedoms Plaza, located in mid- 
town Manhattan. Just a stone's throw from the Unit- 
ed Nations headquarters, Four Freedoms Plaza was 
built on the former site of the Baxter Building, the 



Fantastic Four's previous headquarters before it was 
destroyed by the villainous Thunderbolts. Designed 
by FF leader Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic), 
Four Freedoms Plaza is a forty-five-story office build- 
ing topped off by the FF's four-story base of opera- 
tions — a self-sustaining, heavily armored barricade, 
containing both the superteam's meeting place and 
individual members' living quarters. Relying heavily 
on computers, guard robots, and other high-tech 
devices to maintain security, this ultra-cool com- 
mand post houses several major state-of-the-art 
research laboratories, complete with one-of-a-kind 
mechanisms permitting entry into the Negative Zone 
and a duplicate of Doctor Doom's time machine. 

Quarantining the FF headquarters from the rest 
of the building is a buffer zone of top-security equip- 
ment; if the Fantastic Four's HQ should come under 
attack, emergency security devices seal the head- 
quarters area off from the rest of the building. How- 
ever, most visitors prefer to enter via the more tradi- 
tional first floor, through elevators guarded by Mr. 
O'Hoolihan, the trusty doorman who serviced the 
superteam at the Baxter Building. Although permis- 
sion for entry is required from none other than the 
FF themselves, visitors who are admitted take an 
elevator up to the reception room, attended by 
Roberta, a robot receptionist that appears human 
from the waist up. 

The Avengers Mansion is one of the few hero 
hideouts to carry an exact street address — 890 5th 
Avenue — and comes complete with all the accou- 
trements hard-living heroes need to unwind at the 
end of a long day: an Olympic-sized pool, workout 
facilities, even a combat simulation room, though it 
doesn't benefit from the interstellar Shi'ar technolo- 
gy that creates virtual environments for the X-Men's 
Danger Room. The Teen Titans do business from 
the T-shaped Titans Tower. Still other heroes simply 
prefer to live life in the apartments of their alter 
egos: Peter Parker and Matt Murdock are content to 
hang out in their New York City brownstones when 
they aren't swinging and leaping from rooftops as 
Spider-Man and Daredevil, respectively (though 



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Superhero Movie Serials 



Spidey's alternate-universe daughter, Spider-Girl, 
has operated out of an abandoned historic meeting- 
hall refitted with high-tech equipment and 
renamed — what else? — the Web Site). 

Far away from New York City lies the moon- 
based headquarters of the Justice League of Ameri- 
ca. The Watchtower is the most advanced command 
post of DCs superteam, who have in days past con- 
vened in the mountain-top base of their "Secret 
Sanctuary" near Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, as well 
as in an underground "Bunker" in Detroit, Michigan. 
(Perhaps the team's longest-running redoubt was a 
satellite orbiting Earth, homaged in the 1990s and 
2000s by Honor Guard's hovering mobile command 
center in Astro City and the Five Swell Guys' own 
space satellite, "High Five," in Promethea.) The 
Watchtower, a high-tech solar station, boasts all the 
accoutrements of a five-star hotel, including living 
suites, a well-stocked kitchen, and training and work- 
out facilities. Of course, this is outer space, so all 
types of super-equipment make it possible for the 
team and its visitors to come, go, live, fight, and 
breathe: landing docks and entry ports; a teleport 
tube; an armory loaded with "last resort" weapons; 
a deep-bore ice miner; a deep water tank; and a 
hydroponic forest. — GM 

Superhero 
Movie Serrate 

Return to the days of yesteryear, long before televi- 
sion. Cinema fans who lived in cities with movie the- 
aters could thrill every week to motion picture serials. 
Along with newsreels and cartoons, serials were short 
action-adventure films that played prior to feature 
attractions. Often running ten to thirteen episodes, 
serials were told in chapter form. To keep the audi- 
ence hooked on returning to see the next chapter, the 
serial writers and directors ended each one with a 
"cliff-hanger"; the heroes or heroines of the story 



were often caught in dire peril, with no discernable 
means of escape. How did they survive? Viewers had 
to come back next week to find out. Hundreds of seri- 
als were produced during the film industry's silent era, 
beginning in 1912, but few have survived to today. 
Modern audiences generally think of 1930s-1940s 
serials, most of which have been preserved, and 
many of which featured superheroes, in addition to 
Western heroes, jungle heroes, and crime dramas. 

In 1936, Universal released the first Flash Gor- 
don serial, based on the science fiction comic strip, 
and in 1937, Republic issued Dick Tracy. Universal 
was one of the main companies in the serial busi- 
ness of that era; Republic and Columbia were oth- 
ers. While some Hollywood leading men and women 
appeared or got their start in serials — John Wayne 
did several before becoming a star — the majority of 
serial actors did a lot of serial work. And why not? 
Weeks of steady work and exposure on the big 
screen meant job security and the potential to move 
up in the Hollywood food chain. 

The first superhero serial was The Green Hor- 
net (Universal, November 1939). Based on a popu- 
lar 1936-1953 radio drama created by Fran Striker 
and George W. Trendle, the serial Green Hornet was 
played by Gordon Jones (radio alter ego Al Hodge 
provided Hornet's voice), while sidekick Kato was 
played by Keye Luke. In the thirteen chapters, Hor- 
net and Kato fought underworld crime boss the 
Leader, whose identity was kept secret until the 
final episode. A fifteen-part sequel, The Green Hor- 
net Strikes Again, was released in September 
1940, with Warren Hull taking over the title role. 
This time out, danger came in the form of under- 
world crime boss Crogan (Pierre Watkin) and his 
cronies. Both serials featured such Hornet staples 
as the theme music ("Flight of the Bumblebee" by 
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), the gas gun, and the 
buzzing car known as Black Beauty. 

Comic-strip and pulp characters also got their 
own serials in 1939: Mandrake the Magician (Colum- 
bia, 1939, twelve chapters) and The Shadow (Colum- 
bia, January 1940, fifteen chapters). But it was Faw- 



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cett Comics' red-and-gold-clad hero who became the 
first comic-book superhero to garner his own starring 
serial. Republic's twelve-chapter story, The Adventures 
of Captain Marvel, debuted in March 1941. Heroic 
leading man Tom Tyler was cast as Captain Marvel, 
with his radio announcer alter ego Billy Batson played 
by Frank Coghlan Jr. When not escaping deathtraps — 
or rescuing others from them — Captain Marvel did his 
best to stop the evil machinations of the Scorpion. 
With excellent flying effects and an engaging storyline, 
The Adventures of Captain Marvel remains one of ser- 
ial history's most popular adventures. 

A fellow Fawcett comic-book character got his 
own serial the following year. Spy Smasher (Repub- 
lic, April 1942, twelve chapters) starred Kane Rich- 
mond in the title role, helping to stop spies and 
saboteurs during World War II. This became a com- 
mon theme for serials during this time period. In 
Batman (Columbia, July 1943, fifteen chapters), 
lead actors Lewis Wilson as Batman and Douglas 
Croft as Robin fought the evil machinations of the 
villainous Japanese spy Dr. Daka (Caucasian actor 
J. Carroll Naish). Comic-book hero Captain America 
headlined his own serial (Republic, December 
1943, fifteen chapters), but instead of following his 
comic-book Nazi-fighting adventures, here Cap was 
secretly District Attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Pur- 
cell), who fought criminals — and the deadly 
Scarab — with a gun and his fists. 

Africa's purple-clad hero made his film debut in 
The Phantom (Columbia, December 1943, fifteen 
chapters), though no one could see that Tom Tyler 
was in purple because the serial was black and 
white. At least his costume was better than that of 
the Western comic-book hero in The Vigilante 
(Columbia, 1947, fifteen chapters), who hid his 
secret identity behind a neckerchief. Ralph Byrd por- 
trayed the Vigilante, fighting against the mysterious 
X-l in a plot to recover cursed "Tears of Blood" 
rubies. Fellow Action Comics adventure hero Congo 
Bill (Columbia, 1948, fifteen chapters) appeared 
the following year, starring Don McGuire in the title 
role as a jungle adventurer. 



The comics world's most famous superhero final- 
ly made his serial debut in Superman (Columbia, July 

1948, fifteen chapters). Handsome actor Kirk Alyn 
was in the lead, with young actress Noel Neill in the 
part of Lois Lane, and former Our Gang star Tommy 
Bond as Jimmy Olsen. Here, the Man of Steel had to 
use his powers to stop the "Queen of the Under- 
world," Spider Lady (Carol Forman), from gaining con- 
trol over the ultra-powerful Reducer Ray. A sequel, 
Atom Man vs. Superman (Columbia, June 1950, fif- 
teen chapters), introduced a hooded villain who was 
eventually revealed to be Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot). 

Fellow National/DC hero Batman also got a 
sequel with Batman and Robin (Columbia, May 

1949, fifteen chapters), but it was scraping the bot- 
tom of the budget-barrel, and fans weren't happy. 
Replacing the original heroes, Robert Lowery played 
Batman and John Duncan played Robin, while Jane 
Adams was a comely Vicki Vale and Leonard Penn 
was the villainous Wizard. 

By the 1950s, the popularity of serials was 
declining, and no more superheroes made the leap 
to weekly theater bookings. Although serials them- 
selves would last a few more years afterward, the 
final comic book-inspired one was Blackhawk (Colum- 
bia, 1952, fifteen chapters), starring ex-Superman 
star Kirk Alyn in the title role of the costumed pilot 
hero and once again pitting him against the evil plans 
of Carol Forman and others. And with Blackhawk's 
final chapter, the age of comic-book heroes in serial- 
ized form was relegated once again to the pages of 
comics and a newer medium: television. — AM 

Superhero 
Nicknames 

Some superheroes' nicknames are so ingrained in 
America's consciousness that hardcore fans and 
the general public alike often use the nickname to 
refer to the character. How many times has "The 



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Man of Steel" been used to describe Superman? Or 
"The Caped Crusader" for Batman? What about the 
Dynamic Duo (Batman and Robin)? Spider-Man is 
Spidey or the web-slinger to most, while few can 
instantly recall his other (less complimentary) 
name, Web-Head. Fewer still remember the World's 
Smallest Superhero (it's the Atom, of course). 
Some heroes' nicknames are so catchy they are 
reminiscent of fairy-tale ideals or popular advertis- 
ing campaigns (think the Hulk's sobriquet, Jolly 
Green Giant). But these are just a few examples of 
comic-book creators' ingenuity and of names both 
popular and long-forgotten that have served cos- 
tumed crime fighters well. 

Early comic-book references to DC Comics' 
ominous hero, Batman, have hailed him as the 
Masked Manhunter, Master of Darkness, the Dark 
Night, and the World's Greatest Detective. This last 
phrase comes from the fact that Batman is an inge- 
nious mystery-solver (a "supersleuth," if you will) 
and "ace criminologist." Indeed, Batman #14 
(December 1942) calls the hero "a stunt man ... an 
acrobat ... a superb athlete ... a lion-hearted fight- 
er — and a sleuth ... all rolled into one." As protector 
of one of America's most crime-ridden cities, he is 
the Guardian of Gotham. 

The other half of Batman for most of his fight- 
ing career, Robin, the Boy Wonder, was a wondrously 
dexterous ex-circus performer turned America's 
most popular sidekick — also described as Batman's 
"daredevil young aide" and a "young, laughing 
Robin Hood of today" in the early 1940s. Coming 
into his own as Nightwing, he fights crime in nearby 
Bludhaven — though time, not miles, has separated 
his counterpart character Batgirl from perhaps the 
most unforgettable (and unforgivable?) of superhero 
nicknames, straight from the camp-crazed 1960s: 
the Dominoed Dare-Doll. 

DC champion Superman is heralded as both 
the Man of Steel and the Man of Tomorrow — both 
fitting for a futuristic demigod who can bend steel in 
his bare hands and withstand being struck by steel 
girders. Mid-1950s issues of Action Comics called 



him the "champion of the underdog," "eternal foe 
of the underworld," and "the world's mightiest 
hero." The comics pages have also referred to him 
colloquially as a "colorfully-costumed, mighty- 
sinewed man of might," "mankind's foremost cru- 
sader for good," and "a fighting champion of jus- 
tice" who is "famous the world over." In the high- 
tech 1990s and 2000s he has sometimes been 
known, with apologies to IBM, as "Big Blue." Follow- 
ing in the footsteps of Superman's most popular 
nickname, Superboy is the Boy of Steel; Supergirl, 
the Girl (or Maid) of Steel. 

Sobriquets for other costumed heroes include 
Amazing Amazon, aptly embraced by DCs Wonder 
Woman, who has also enjoyed such honors as 
"Aphrodite's agent," "America's Guardian Angel," 
"disciple of peace and love," and "invincible enemy 
of injustice." Marvel Comics' Ant-Man is also known 
as the Ant-Size Avenger, and as Giant-Man has been 
referred to as High-Pockets. DCs Elongated Man 
was often called the Ductile Detective. DCs Aqua- 
man is none other than Marine Marvel or King of the 
Seven Seas. Marvel's undersea counterpart, the 
Sub-Mariner, is called the Prince of the Seas. Mar- 
vel's Captain America goes by Cap, the Star-Span- 
gled Avenger, or — are you ready for this? — Winghead 
(depending upon who is doing the name-calling). 

Marvel's blind superhero, Daredevil, is simply 
referred to as the Man without Fear — his supersen- 
sory powers enabling him to fight crime with a 
super-level of confidence. DCs favorite speedster, 
the Flash, has been termed (most appropriately) the 
Fastest Man Alive, the Scarlet Speedster, and the 
Sultan of Speed. DCs Green Arrow is simply the 
Emerald Archer; the Green Lantern is the Emerald 
Crusader or the Green Gladiator. Marvel's Doctor 
Strange is the Master of Mystic Arts. DCs birdlike 
hero Hawkman is dubbed the Winged Wonder or the 
Flying Fury. Marvel's Iron Man has fondly been 
called the Golden Avenger, the Golden Gladiator, 
Bullet Head, and Shell Head. DCs green-skinned 
Martian Manhunter prefers to be called either Man- 
hunter from Mars or Martian Marvel (no ego there!). 



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Marvel's ultra-cool Silver Surfer rides intergalactic 
waves as the Sentinel of the Spaceways. Marvel's 
Iron Fist has been called the Living Weapon. Finally, 
who could forget Marvel's Norse God of Thunder, 
the mighty Thor — who has been called both the Son 
of Odin and the less immortalizing Goldilocks? 

Teams don't escape nicknaming either. Marvel's 
superteam, the Avengers, has been called Earth's 
Mightiest Heroes. DCs superteam, the Justice League 
of America, is named the World's Greatest Super- 
Heroes. Marvel's mutant X-Men are, most appropriate- 
ly, the World's Strangest Superheroes. — GM 

Superhero 
Radio Series 

Riding on the coattails of the ever-popular Shadow 
and Lone Ranger radio shows that were aired sever- 
al times weekly beginning in 1932 and 1933 
respectively, superhero radio series made their way 
into the hearts of an audience enamored of the 
medium and its melodrama. Loaded with sound 
effects, distinctive introductions, and memorable 
musical ditties, radio series drew their inspiration 
from comic strips and comic books, and before long 
Doc Savage, the Green Hornet, Superman, Batman, 
the Blue Beetle, and Mandrake the Magician all had 
a presence on radio. One character, Captain Mid- 
night, first appeared on radio before successfully 
parlaying himself into his own comic book. 

"Radio heroes, like most champions in Ameri- 
can popular culture, were symbols of truth, justice, 
honor, and other bourgeois values," observed J. 
Fred MacDonald in Don't Touch That Dial! (1979), a 
survey of radio programming from 1920 to 1960. 
As such, these heroes were loved, especially by chil- 
dren, who voraciously absorbed their programs in 
the after-school hours, in the early weekday 
evenings, and on Saturday mornings. Many were 
action-adventure serials, a fifteen-minute program 



that ran three, sometimes five, days per week. The 
popularity of the radio programs fed the sales of 
the print material, giving comic books a boost. 

One of the first comic-book hero shows to air, 
Doc Savage engaged listeners in a short-lived 1934 
radio drama, from which little solid information 
remains. No cast list or recordings exist, just Doc 
Savage pulp writer Lester Dent's personal carbon 
copies of the scripts of twenty-six episodes. An 
entirely different Doc — the magic-hooded superhero 
version of the character that was portrayed in the 
post-August 1941 Street & Smith Doc Savage 
Comics — was the star of a 1943 radio series. 

The Green Hornet's signature introduction was 
the buzzing of a hornet and the sound of the hero's 
supercar, Black Beauty, racing away. The Green Hor- 
net debuted in January 1936 on local Detroit sta- 
tion WXYZ before moving to the Mutual radio net- 
work for national broadcasting. Fran Striker, a writer 
of The Lone Ranger, wrote all of the scripts for The 
Green Hornet until April 1944, after which several 
other writers scripted the show. In the beginning, 
the shows typically ran thirty minutes twice a week; 
they were later broadcast once a week. Britt Reid, 
newspaper publisher of the Daily Sentinel by day 
and the masked crime fighter Green Hornet by 
night, was voiced by Al Hodge for about half of the 
show's run, which ended in 1953. 

Announcer Don Gordon signaled the start of a 
mysterious aviator's show with the tolling of a bell, 
the roar of a plane, and his signature "Captainnnnn 
Midnight!" prelude. Captain Midnight debuted in 
1938 as a regional, fifteen-minute serial sponsored 
by Skelly Oil. Captain Midnight (a code name for 
young Air Corps officer Captain Red Albright) flew off 
to adventures around the world with his ward, 
Chuck Ramsey, and young aviatrix Patsy Donovan. 
Ripe for adventure, Captain Midnight (voiced by Bill 
Bouchey) buttoned up his black bodysuit and 
donned his aviator's cap and goggles to pursue 
international criminal Ivan Shark. In 1940, the show 
was sponsored by Ovaltine and broadcast nationally 
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Captain Midnight (now voiced by Ed Prentiss) was 
recruited to head the Secret Squadron, a top-secret 
government organization created to fight espionage 
and sabotage. Listeners were invited to join the 
Secret Squadron by sending in Ovaltine labels, at 
which point they would receive a Code-O-Graph to 
decipher Secret Squadron Signal Session mes- 
sages at the end of each show, giving code-break- 
ers a clue about the next show's escapades. 

Probably the most well-known and best received 
superhero to be broadcast was Superman, who hit 
the airwaves in February 1940, and was broadcast 
three times a week in fifteen-minute time slots. By 
1942, The Adventures of Superman was being 
broadcast every day of the week. Only a handful of 
diehard Superman fans know that Jimmy Olsen 
(voiced by Jackie Kelk) was created as a device to 
replace the missing "thought balloons" so prevalent 
in print. Whenever Superman (voiced by Bud Collyer) 
needed to explain something "off panel," he confid- 
ed in Olsen on-air. The Superman radio show also 
added kryptonite, which, along with Olsen, made its 
way into comic-book stories. Batman and Robin's 
radio escapades, which took place in 1945, were 
part of the Superman radio series. The Dynamic Duo 
never received their own radio show. 

In the wake of Superman's success, The Blue 
Beetle radio show ran twice weekly for forty-eight 
episodes, from May through September 1940. For the 
first thirteen episodes actor Frank Lovejoy voiced Blue 
Beetle; later episodes are uncredited. Running first at 
thirty, then at fifteen, minutes long, this "thrilling 
drama of the avenging gang smasher," conjured up 
intrigue and adventure for listeners both young and 
old. Similarly, stage magician/crime fighter Mandrake 
the Magician (voiced by Edward Johnson), who used 
his superpowers to fight crime, starred in his own 
show on Mutual between November 1940 and Febru- 
ary 1942. Begun as a thrice-weekly serial, Mandrake 
the Magician soon moved to daily air time in 1941. 

Superman left radio in March 1951, but arrived 
on television the following year. With America's 
growing fascination with the new medium, many 



radio series lost the support of their sponsors or 
audience or both, and began to disappear. While 
experiments with superheroes on the airwaves have 
appeared sporadically since the Golden Age of radio 
(the mid-1970s saw the short-lived Marvel Comics 
Radio Series, for example), none have had the kind 
of longevity or appeal of the programs of the 1930s 
and 1940s. — GM 

Superhero Role- 
Maying Games 

Fantasy role-playing games — mostly tabletop 
wargame-variants in which three or more players 
take on the personalities of characters they have 
developed for use in fantasy combat or treasure- 
hunting situations — can trace their origins to the 
advent of Dungeons and Dragons (1974, TSR 
Games). An individual Dungeons and Dragons 
(D&D) game session, generally a part of a larger 
game cycle known as a campaign, is moderated by 
a dungeonmaster (or gamemaster), who designs 
the game milieu — the castle to be stormed, the 
dragon's hoard to be raided, and the monsters to 
be fought. The players bring into the game charac- 
ters whose basic abilities (numerically quantifiable 
traits such as strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexter- 
ity, constitution, and charisma) are determined by 
means of random die throws. Polyhedral dice, 
whose sides can number anywhere from 4 to 20, 
generate the random numbers that govern the out- 
come of the game's many variables, including the 
number of points of damage sustained or inflicted 
during combat, the efficacy of magic spell-casting or 
weaponry, the chance that a character's actions will 
attract an enemy or activate a booby trap, and even 
character mortality. 

Building on the fantasy worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien 
and others, D&D spawned a vast role-playing game 
(RPG) industry, which supports many competing 



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gaming systems. Some RPGs have complex rule sys- 
tems that emphasize realism and control nearly 
every conceivable game variable, while others place 
a higher premium on ease of play, storytelling val- 
ues, and character evolution. During the 1970s and 
1980s, RPGs were devised for a wide variety of 
story backdrops and storytelling genres, including 
space-opera science fiction, postapocalyptic science 
fiction, international espionage, Lovecraftian horror, 
the Western — and comic-book superheroes. 

During the early 1980s, three RPGs came to 
dominate the superhero gaming audience: Champi- 
ons (Hero Games; Gold Rush Games), Superworld 
(Chaosium), and Villains and Vigilantes (Fantasy 
Games Unlimited). Not surprisingly, each game sys- 
tem had its own distinctive approach to superhero 
gaming, with unique strengths and weaknesses. 

Designed to closely simulate the world of a 
mainstream, four-color superhero universe, Champi- 
ons boasted a flexible character-generation system 
that allowed players to build their superheroes' abil- 
ities around a theme (say, "insect powers") rather 
than forcing them to rely too heavily on the random 
results of die-rolls. Combat was typically "kinder 
and gentler" than in D&D; though characters were 
often knocked unconscious during the game's com- 
bat simulations, death was an uncommon occur- 
rence, reflecting the superhero comics of the time. 
The Superworld RPG was written as part of a short- 
lived multigenre gaming system called Worlds of 
Wonder, whose rules encompassed not only super- 
heroes but also Tolkienesque fantasy and space- 
borne science fiction; Superworlcfs game mechan- 
ics worked particularly well for simulating the estab- 
lished heroes of the Marvel and DC universes. 
Another popular early 1980s game, Villains and Vig- 
ilantes, also had an authentically "comic-booky" 
feel, thanks in large part to the interior artwork of 
Jeff Dee; some players have observed, however, 
that V&Vs character-generation rules were more 
dice-based — and therefore less flexible — than the 
other systems. Because of the game's reliance on 
die-generated character traits, it was far too easy to 



create groups of characters whose power levels 
weren't a good fit (imagine the difficulties inherent 
in forcing DCs Batgirl and Marvel's world-devouring 
Galactus to share an adventure). The game was 
also plagued by large numbers of rules errata, 
which the publisher corrected by inserting update 
sheets into the rulebooks. Bits and pieces of the 
worlds and rules of Superworld, Champions, and 
Villains and Vigilantes made their way into a suc- 
cessor game titled Havoc (1984, Reality Storm: 
When Worlds Collide), a superhero RPG that 
remains in print today. 

It was only a matter of time before superhero 
RPGs, which owed their existence to superhero 
comics, begat some comics of their own. Champi- 
ons' signature superteam (the Guardians) became 
the basis for two Champions comics series 
(Eclipse, 1986-1987; Hero, 1987-1989). Two Vil- 
lains and Vigilantes "game modules" (game scenar- 
ios published for use by gamemasters in RPG play) 
by Bill Willingham inspired the artist's compelling 
superhero team comics series, The Elementals 
(Comico, 1984-1989; 1989-1994; 1995), which 
borrowed the villainous Destroyers directly from the 
game. Eclipse Comics also produced a four-issue 
miniseries (1986-1987) based upon a V&l/game 
module titled Crisis at Crusaders Citadel, created 
by the game's originators writer Jack Herman and 
illustrator Jeff Dee. Several of the superheroes 
developed by award-winning science-fiction writer 
George R. R. Martin and others for the Wild Cards 
paperback fiction anthologies (some of which Mar- 
vel began adapting into comics in 1990) grew out of 
campaigns played within these three game sys- 
tems. Clearly, the superheroes of the games and 
those of comics and prose literature have had pow- 
erful mutual influences. 

As the networks of comics-oriented and gam- 
ing-oriented specialty shops expanded throughout 
the 1980s, several more superhero-oriented RPGs 
followed the original three, including Palladium 
Games' Heroes Unlimited, which debuted in 1984 
for use with the generic (and still extant) RIFS fan- 



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tasy gaming system; a version of Heroes Unlimited 
remains in print today. Palladium followed this with 
an RPG based upon Kevin Eastman's and Peter 
Laird's popular and durable superhero/martial arts 
parody comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 
Following on the heels of these successful games 
were several also-rans, such as Justifiers and 
Guardians (StarChilde Publications), both of which 
were plagued by confusing rules, a flaw mitigated 
somewhat by the games' cheap purchase prices 
and their "comic-book format" presentation. 

By the late 1980s, the major comics publish- 
ers had taken note of the burgeoning superhero 
RPG market; to satisfy the rising demand for game 
systems based upon their characters, Marvel 
Comics and DC Comics sold RPG licenses, each of 
which resulted in well-crafted, slickly-produced, and 
generally well-received game rulebooks and mod- 
ules. By the end of the decade, Mayfair Games was 
publishing the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game and 
the Batman Role-Playing Game, while TSR (of D&D 
fame) was producing Marvel Super Heroes as well 
as a line of small lead figures intended for use as 
game tokens (a la the war games that preceded the 
emergence of the first true RPG). Both of these 
gaming systems were widely praised for their well- 
described, carefully quantified characters, their 
ease of play, and their usefulness as reference 
tools for the comic books themselves. 

As is true in the comics industry, the RPG mar- 
ket is a volatile one; publishers come and go, or 
end up mergered out of existence. Specific RPG 
properties either vanish forever, or evolve into 
something new. Despite a surfeit of competing mod- 
ern pastimes — i.e., electronic media such as the 
Gameboy, the X-Box, or MMORPGs (Massive Multi- 
player Online Role-Playing Games, campaigns con- 
ducted over the Internet by dozens or hundreds of 
players) — a small but enthusiastic audience for tra- 
ditional tabletop pencil-and-paper superhero RPGs 
still existed in the late 1990s and persists today. 
Steve Jackson Games' GURPS (General Universal 
Role-Playing System) Supers appeared in the early 



1990s and remains in print. This game system's 
emphasis on combat realism — inasmuch as the 
concept makes sense in a superhero milieu — 
places players' characters at considerable risk of 
injury or death. 1995 saw the release of Cosmic 
Enforcers (Myrmidon Press), an RPG in which super- 
humans protect the Earth from invading arachnoid 
aliens. A revised, simplified version of Champions — 
including much improved interior artwork — 
appeared in 1998, and remains in print today; 
some of the changes made to the game proved 
unpopular, thus prompting a re-release of the origi- 
nal rulebook. Also in 1998, Mayfair lost the license 
to produce DC Heroes, which moved to Task Force 
Games. At roughly the same time, UNI Games 
issued Living Legends, a superhero RPG based 
upon the venerable Villains and Vigilantes game. 

While few of the many superhero RPGs intro- 
duced over the past three decades have proved as 
durable as the mass-marketed Dungeons and Drag- 
ons — which is still going strong today as both Dun- 
geons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and 
Dragons, both under the aegis of Wizards of the 
Coast — several still have substantial followings 
today. The recent profusion of superhero RPGs, 
most of which are available only through specialty 
vendors, includes such attractively-packaged entries 
as: the light-hearted Superbabes (1997, TriCity 
Games), which emphasizes the pulchritudinous pow- 
erhouses of Bill Black's AC Comics line; Nemesis: A 
Perfect World (2001, Maximum CNG), which blends 
superheroics with postapocalyptic science fiction; 
Mutants and Masterminds (2002, Green Ronin Pub- 
lishing) a game system set in the appropriately hero- 
ic-sounding "Freedom City"; Silver Age Sentinels: 
The Ultimate Superhero RPG (2002, Guardians of 
Order, Inc.), a game supported by a line of miniature 
tabletop figurines and whose slick, detailed rulebook 
is reminiscent of that of Advanced D&D; Godlike 
(2002, Hobgoblynn Press), which chronicles the 
clash between the superheroes of the Allies and the 
Axis in an alternate World War II; Heroes by Gaslight 
(2002, Web of Horrors/Web of Heroes), which 



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Superhero Slogans 



places superheroes in the Victorian Age; Judge 
Dredd (2002, Mongoose Publishing), a game cen- 
tered on Britain's over-the-top protector of Megacity 
One; Cartoon Action Hour (2003, Z-Man Games, 
Inc.), which delivers superheroic action in the mold 
of such 1980s animated kid-vid as G.I. Joe, Thun- 
dercats, Transformers, and Masters of the Universe; 
the DC Universe Roleplaying Game (1999, 2002, 
West End Games); and the Marvel Universe RPG 
(Marvel Comics, 2003). This abundance suggests 
that the market for superhero RPGs is as healthy 
today as it has ever been. — MAM 

Superhero Slogans 

Superhero slogans, catchphrases, words of wis- 
dom, and general declarations and utterances have 
flooded the popular consciousness since the dawn 
of comic books. Delivered via word balloons, actors' 
mouths, or radio and television voice-overs, one 
cannot deny the power of superhero speech. 

Although Superman first appeared in Action 
Comics #1 in 1938, much of the mythology of the 
hero originated in his radio escapades. On his radio 
show, which premiered in February 1940, DC 
Comics' press agent Allen Ducovny and Robert 
Joffe Maxwell, a former pulp fiction author, scripted 
the opening of the show that would be recited — and 
varied — countless times: "Faster than an airplane, 
more powerful than a locomotive, impervious to bul- 
lets! Up in the sky — look! It's a giant bird! It's a 
plane! It's SUPERMAN!" The actor hired to portray 
both Superman and Clark Kent on-air, Bud Collyer, 
gave super-oomph to phrases like "Up, Up, and 
Awaaay!" and "This looks like a job for Superman!" 
The Man of Steel left the radio airwaves in 1951, 
quickly moving into a live-action television show 
starring George Reeves. It's here that Superman 
became "Faster than a speeding bullet! More pow- 
erful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in 
a single bound!" In a continuing variation on the 
opening lines from the show's radio counterpart, a 



baritone voice announced, "Yes, it's Superman — 
strange visitor from another planet who came to 
Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of 
mortal men. Superman! Who can change the 
course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare 
hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-man- 
nered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, 
fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and 
the American Way!" 

Though the comic-book pages are filled with 
such wholesome Superman phrases as "Great 
Guns!" and "Great Scott!" it's Superman's first 
words on the printed page that perhaps best set 
the tone for years of adventures to come: Living in 
Smallville with his adopted parents, the Kents, 
Superman's first words are, "Try again, Doc!" 
uttered when a physician tries to give him a shot 
from hypodermic needles that keep breaking on his 
impervious skin (Action Comics #1, 1938). In the 
television show The Adventures of Superman 
(1953-1957) actor George Reeves came up with 
many pointed lines as both alter ego Clark Kent and 
the Man of Steel. In the 1955 episode "The Big 
Freeze," for example, Kent admonishes citizens to 
get out and vote for the city's next mayor, rather 
than rely on Superman to step in and "save the 
election" from a gangster crook who is running for 
office: "Sometimes, Lois, it's not wise for the peo- 
ple to depend on Superman to keep their own 
house in order." 

As the "Master of darkness" and "foe of all 
evil" Batman's expressions are always of the seri- 
ous, contemplative sort. The hero dissects compli- 
cated mathematical formulas with as much finesse 
as he quotes multiple poetic stanzas. But it is Bat- 
man's original pun-loving sidekick Robin who is the 
better remembered of the two for his nimble- 
tongued epithets, often sending super-criminals like 
the Joker to near defeat. "Put me in jail ... anyplace 
... so I won't have to listen to Robin's puns any- 
more," the Joker bemoans in a 1947 issue of Bat- 
man. Indeed, Robin's expressions received ample 
airplay in the Batman TV show (1966-1968), with 



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actor Burt Ward reciting such lines as "Holy Long 
John Silver!" and "This Brassy Bird has us Buffalo-d" 
with deadpan delivery. Producer William Dozier 
delivered the pompous narration, coining such 
phrases as, "Same Bat time, same Bat station," to 
invite viewers to tune in to the second half of the 
weekly aired cliff-hangers. Superimposed over the 
show's fight scenes were words like "Pow!" 
"Thwack!" and "Pop!," themselves becoming as 
iconic as the shows' lead characters. 

Other heroes' expressions may not be as well 
known as those of the Boy Wonder, yet merit men- 
tioning. In comics' Golden Age (1938-1954), Faw- 
cett Publishing's young newsboy Billy Batson simply 
recited the name "Shazam!" and he became the 
grown-up Captain Marvel, embarking on adventures 
in the pages of Whiz Comics with the wisdom of 
Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of 
Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, 
and the speed of Mercury. So well known is this 
catchphrase (in part made popular by the mid- 
1970s live-action TV show of the same name) that 
people often mistake "Shazam" for the hero's 
name. A Silver Age (1956-1969) favorite, the Green 
Lantern, recited an oath every time he recharged 
his ring, persevering through several comic-book 
writers and editors: "In brightest day, in blackest 
night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who 
worship evil's might, beware my power — Green 
Lantern's light!" Oaths, magical spells, and super- 
incantations flooded Golden Age comic-book sto- 
ries, including those of Doctor Fate, Ibis the Invinci- 
ble, and Wonder Woman, whose Amazon Code 
("Govern yourselves with love, kindness, and ser- 
vice to others") and "Aphrodite's Law" are used to 
signify the set of carefully defined moral and reli- 
gious tenets that govern Wonder Woman's and her 
fellow Amazons' behavior. 

Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' creative impetus dur- 
ing comics' Silver Age, was influenced by Shake- 
speare and the Bible when he wrote for the Mighty 
Thor, dousing the strip with "Whither goest thou?" 
and similar phrases. With Silver Age star Dr. 



Strange, Lee blended magical incantations and 
oaths, the most oft-used being "by the hoary hosts 
of Hoggoth," which preceded every serious Dr. 
Strange sentiment. Lee's moralizing Silver Surfer 
became, as comic-book historian Mike Benton calls 
him, "the voice of conscience for a 1960s genera- 
tion," as Lee spoke to his readers about war and 
peace, politics and environmentalism, through his 
silver-skinned space hero's soliloquies. Other Silver 
and Bronze Age heroes with super-epithets include 
the monosyllabic Hulk ("Hulk Smash!"); the ever- 
enthusiastic Avengers ("Avengers Assemble!"); the 
gruff Thing ("It's Clobberin' Time!") and hotshot 
Human Torch ("Flame On!") from the Fantastic Four; 
and the super-rhyming Isis. 

Certain heroes, however, really own their 
words, even developing mottos. Spider-Man's mes- 
sage to readers — to act responsibly and be 
accountable for your actions — comes straight out of 
his origin story in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962): 
"With great power, there must also come — great 
responsibility!" — GM 

Superhero 
sfolnevabflHjes 

Without adversity or weakness — or the "supreme 
ordeal," as myth-master Joseph Campbell contends 
in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) — a hero 
cannot truly be challenged. 

"Kryptonite! Oh ... getting weak ... (Gasp!)" 
murmurs the Man of Steel as his routine rescue of 
a collapsed train trestle is upended by "vengeful 
criminals" who drop a glowing green meteor on him 
in Superman #123 (1958). This is just one of the 
hero's numerous encounters with kryptonite, 
radioactive fragments from the hero's home planet 
Krypton. Over the years Superman has writhed in 
pain from kryptonite exposure, turned tail and run 
from kryptonite meteor showers (actually, he flew), 



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Superhero Vulnerabilities 



and shielded himself from it with lead, the only sub- 
stance that can impede kryptonite radiation. 

Superman is also vulnerable to magic, and 
foes like the mischievous Mr. Myxzptlk have used 
incantations and sorcery to plague the Man of 
Steel. Kryptonian technology and otherworldly sci- 
ence have harmed Superman: The supervillain 
Brainiac's shrinking ray made the hero a tiny titan, 
and weapons from Darkseid's planet of Apokolips 
have pummeled and even enslaved him. Alien dis- 
eases, particularly the Kryptonian Virus X, can kill 
Superman: In Superman #156 (1962), the hero 
thinks he has contracted the illness, but on his 
death bed his pal Jimmy Olsen discovers a tiny 
speck of kryptonite is actually the culprit for his 
malady. When Superman actually does contract 
Virus X, in a serialized tale in Action Comics 
#363-#366 (1968), his skin turns green and mum- 
mifies. Fortunately, his funeral pyre, the sun, is his 
salvation, as its radiation kills the virus. A later 
exposure to a meteor-borne Kryptonian fungus 
almost does the Man of Steel in again in DC 
Comics Presents #85 (1985), before the plant-sen- 
sitive Swamp Thing is able to defeat the source of 
Superman's sickness. The rays of Earth's yellow 
sun feed Superman's powers, and once he ventures 
from this energy source he weakens. In Superman 
#164 (1963), his arch nemesis Lex Luthor goads 
the Man of Steel into hand-to-hand combat on a 
world with a red sun, where Superman is mortal. In 
the revision of Superman's mythos beginning with 
the miniseries The Man of Steel (1986), Superman, 
slightly de-powered from previous decades, requires 
a breathing apparatus when flying through space. 

Superman's greatest weakness is also his 
most admirable virtue: his compassion. The Man of 
Steel's enemies have captured his beloved Lois 
Lane, his foster parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, 
and his friends Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry 
White to lure the hero into traps. 

While a lifesaver when blocking kryptonite rays, 
lead exposes a frailty of Superman's: His X-ray 
vision cannot see through it. This weakness is 



minor when compared to Mon-EI's reaction to lead. 
This member of DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes 
becomes deathly ill when exposed to the ore. Mon- 
El spent one thousand years in ghostly exile to pro- 
tect himself from the common substance, until 
Legionnaire Brainiac 5 created an antidote for Mon- 
EI's vulnerability. Another member of the Legion, 
Ultra Boy, has a peculiar weakness: He possesses 
ultra-strength, ultra-vision, ultra-speed, and invulner- 
ability, but can only use one power at a time. 

Wonder Woman commands two amazing super- 
weapons: her magic lasso, which forces captives to 
tell the truth, and her bracelets, with which she 
repels bullets. Those weapons can work against 
her: Wonder Woman can be bound by her own 
lasso, and she is robbed of her Amazonian strength 
if her bracelets are linked by chains. Green 
Lantern's miraculous power ring can fly him through 
space, protect him from harm, and create anything 
its wearer can imagine, but it has one major imper- 
fection: It is ineffective against anything made of 
the color yellow. In Justice League of America #21 
(1963), supervillain Chronos stops "GL" merely by 
spraying him with a "golden mist." The power ring 
wielded by the original Green Lantern, who 
appeared during comics' Golden Age (1938-1954), 
had an equally unusual flaw: It wouldn't work 
against wood. The Justice League's Martian Man- 
hunter is vulnerable to fire, while the Flash's weak- 
ness with food extends far beyond the waistline 
woes of the average person: His hyper-fast metabo- 
lism burns calories so quickly, Flash must eat fre- 
quently to maintain his energy. 

Aquaman, DCs Sea King, can only breathe out 
of water for an hour. On the cover of Aquaman #44 
(1969), the hero is tied to a pier by gangsters, who 
sneer that the tide will be up "in about an hour!" 
Wide-eyed Aquaman shrieks, "But ... but if I don't 
have water ... / die in two minutesU" This Sea King 
is not the only superhero who is a sixty-minute man: 
Witness the Golden Age hero Hourman, whose Mira- 
clo Pill imbued him with enhanced strength and sta- 
mina — but only for an hour, as his name suggests. 



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Billy Batson transforms into Captain Marvel at 
his mere utterance of the magic word "Shazam!" 
Once his foe Dr. Sivana realizes this, however, he 
frequently binds and gags young Batson, thereby 
keeping the World's Mightiest Mortal from material- 
izing. In the Golden Age, Captain Marvel was often 
joined in action by Captain Marvel Jr. (later called 
CM3) and Mary Marvel— the Marvel Family— with 
each superhero relatively equal in power. Since 
being revamped by writer Jerry Ordway in DCs The 
Power of Shazam! series (1995-1999), Junior and 
Mary now borrow superpowers from Cap when they 
say their magic words, making teamwork more 
important given their diminished abilities. 

Batman is, like many superheroes, mortal — a 
serious vulnerability for a superhero constantly in 
the line of fire. His flesh is a mass of scar tissue, 
from years of gunshots, stab wounds, and burns 
sustained in the line of duty. This Dark Knight has 
been preoccupied with justice since his childhood 
after witnessing the murder of his parents. This 
obsession has often embittered him, straining his 
relationship with his inner circle (his protege 
Nightwing, his sidekick Robin, and his butler Alfred). 
Still, he is vehemently opposed to using guns, 
which constantly endangers him as he swoops into 
action on Gotham City's mean streets. 

Many superheroes in the Marvel universe wres- 
tle with a variety of vulnerabilities. Daredevil is blind, 
but the Man without Fear does not regard this as a 
handicap. He is gifted with a "radar sense" that 
enables him to "see" objects around him. Spider- 
Man's "spider sense" affords him a warning of 
impending danger, but it isn't infallible: In The Amaz- 
ing Spider-Man #39 (1966), the villainous Green 
Goblin penetrates Spidey's line of defense when a 
common cold blunts the hero's unique perceptive 
power. The arrogant Sub-Mariner has been van- 
quished by fire, and the Human Torch's flame-based 
powers can be snuffed out with water or a lack of 
oxygen. The stretching ability of the Torch's team- 
mate, Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic of the Fan- 
tastic Four, has its limits, as does the resiliency of 



his pliable body. Richards' wife, the Invisible Woman, 
can project force fields, a defense mechanism that 
cannot endure repeated or enormous blasts. The 
Incredible Hulk's gamma-spawned strength increas- 
es with his rage, and the destruction caused by his 
rampages often torment his alter ego, Bruce Banner. 
Iron Man is plagued by his weakened heart, which 
requires energizing from his armor. His alter ego, 
industrialist Tony Stark, once struggled with another 
weakness: alcoholism. After excessive drinking led 
Stark to several mishaps while in armor, he confront- 
ed his problem in the classic tale "Demon in a Bot- 
tle" in Iron Man #128 (1979). 

The uncanny X-Men may be the world's mighti- 
est mutants, but they are not without their vulnera- 
bilities. Cyclops' optic blasts are so formidable he 
cannot control them without his ruby quartz visor. 
Rogue can siphon the abilities and memories of 
those she touches, denying her human contact with 
her loved ones, and Iceman is endangered by heat. 
Wolverine's feral impulses must be tempered with 
self-control so that he does not kill his opponents, 
but maintaining this focus sometimes lessens his 
effectiveness in combat. Wrote Les Daniels in Mar- 
vel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest 
Comics (1991): "(Wolverine) must walk forever on a 
razor's edge." 

A common weakness among superheroes is 
electricity — Spider-Man has been zapped by Electro 
and the Shocker, and the Electrocutioner has tried 
to fry Batman. Archie Comics' Jaguar, who commu- 
nicates telepathically with wildlife and appropriates 
their attributes, can be stunned by a serious jolt of 
electricity. Cybernetic heroes like the Teen Titans' 
Cyborg and Marvel's Deathlok can be short-circuit- 
ed, and they and armored characters including Iron 
Man, the X-Men member Colossus, and Steel are in 
danger during encounters with villains with magnet- 
ic powers like Magneto and Dr. Polaris. 

A familiar vulnerability among many super- 
heroes, particularly Marvel's, is self-absorption. Con- 
templating his personal problems — from his Aunt 
May's failing health to family financial difficulties — 



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Superheroes and Celebrities 



has often impeded Peter Parker in his battles as Spi- 
der-Man. Reed Richards boasts remarkable intellect, 
and an ego to match, which is his greatest weak- 
ness: In Fantastic Four #500 (2003), it impedes the 
master scientist from learning the magic spells 
needed to free his teammates. Elektra may be the 
world's deadliest assassin, but her love for Matt 
(Daredevil) Murdock has softened her edge. While 
their superpowers and motivations make super- 
heroes awe-inspiring, their jealousies, animosities, 
and other foibles make them human. — ME 

Superheroes 
and Celebrities 

There are few people who don't wish they could 
either have superpowers or be a celebrity. But 
comics history is speckled with occasional combi- 
nations of the two which remind everyone to be 
careful what they wish for. 

These uncommon meetings between real peo- 
ple and mythic characters are always hard for 
comics fans to forget, while often being the only 
comics the general public even hears about. Among 
such books, the all-time champion, fittingly, involves 
a hero of the boxing ring: DC Comics' much-publi- 
cized 1978 one-shot, Superman vs. Muhammad AIL 

Though nowadays white America has caught up 
with black America in seeing Ali as an icon of defi- 
ant individualism, back then fewer people could see 
through his personal promotion to his political sig- 
nificance, and the book was viewed by many as a 
crass new low for the medium (along with Marvel 
Comics' licensing of KISS, another now-respected 
group of celebrities who were then considered the 
end of civilization as we know it). In any case, there 
was something Space Jam-ishly weird about seeing 
the ubiquitous real-life champ and the definitive 
two-dimensional titan interact. This mismatch was 
mirrored by the combination of beautiful imagery 



from one of comics' most phenomenal innovators, 
artist Neal Adams, with an off-the-rack space-opera 
storyline involving some sort of intergalactic boxing 
tournament, giving the effect of an Ed Wood flick 
with George Lucas production values. 

But while the Ali-Superman bout may be the 
most unlikely celebrity-superhero pairing, it is by no 
means the most bizarre. That title may go to the 
several-issue appearance of insult comedian Don 
Rickles and his fictional, even evilertwin, "Goody," 
during Jack Kirby's early 1970s run on Superman's 
Pal Jimmy Olsen (issues #139-#141, 1971). That 
meeting was itself a bit surprising — Kirby is 
acknowledged as the king of superheroic spectacle, 
and the bland super-supporting-character was a 
strange choice of subject matter — but the "Goody" 
Rickles story topped it, inexplicably immortalizing 
the abrasive talk-show staple (though, yes, Super- 
man himself figures into this storyline, too). 

In fact, Superman finds his way into many of 
the most-remembered celebrity-superhero summits, 
a term that can be taken literally in the case of the 
notorious mid-1960s comic which has become a 
kitsch classic and a high-priced flea-market fixture: 
the issue (Superman #170, 1964) in which the 
Man of Steel promotes President Kennedy's physi- 
cal fitness program (produced before the presi- 
dent's assassination, abruptly pulled, and then 
sheepishly published a bit later, reportedly at Lyn- 
don Johnson's request). 

DCs celebrity team-ups tended toward main- 
stream icons like the martyred leader; an early 
1970s Robin story, "The King From Canarsie" (Bat- 
man #252, 1973), features a thinly veiled variant of 
beloved entertainer Danny Kaye. The more-rebel- 
lious Marvel tended toward the underground, with 
appearances like that of Rolling Stone founder Jan 
Wenner in the hundredth issue of Daredevil (1973), 
for reasons that seemed obscure even at the time 
(though scripter Steve Gerber, who also wrote the 
first KISS comic, had a longstanding interest in rais- 
ing comics' hipness with references to the then-rev- 
olutionary realm of rock). 



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Superheroes and the Popular Culture 



Continuing this partnership with edgy pop-cul- 
ture pioneers who are now institutions, an issue of 
Marvel Team-Up (#74, 1978) had Spider-Man meet- 
ing the John Belushi-era Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time 
Players, while a 1984 issue of The Avengers (#239) 
starred David Letterman. (Letterman fared better 
there than in Frank Miller's classic dystopian Bat- 
man series The Dark Knight Returns, in which the 
Joker ensures ratings supremacy by mass-murder- 
ing the host and his audience on live TV — though to 
be fair, he does seem to spare Paul.) As if to offer 
belated equal time, a tiresome "team-up" between 
Spider-Man and Jay Leno was serialized in the back 
pages of many Marvel comics in mid-2002. 

Also in the 2000s, both Freddie Prinze Jr. and 
Shannon Elizabeth have had less-than-flattering 
walk-ons rubbing elbows with the celebrity super- 
heroes of Marvel's The Ultimates (2002-present), 
who have been seen sitting around speculating on 
who could play them in a movie (while it's no con- 
test with team leader Nick Fury — a reworking of the 
classic Marvel superspy — who in this incarnation is 
a dead ringer for Samuel L. Jackson). 

That book also belongs to an emerging sub- 
genre of George W. Bush cameos, which range from 
the surprisingly positive (he's seen as a blunt but 
savvy horse-trading pragmatist in Black Panther's 
"Enemy of the State II" story arc, issues #43-#45, 
2002), to the mildly caricatured (he's the hapless 
frontier mayor in the 2003 Rawhide Kid minis- 
eries — not a superhero comic, but a widely publi- 
cized one), to somewhere in-between (the vigorous 
if unreflective cheerleader-in-chief of The Ultimates 
and The Order [2002], also from Marvel). 

On-target, warts-and-all portrayals of presidents 
Jimmy Carter, Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton appear in 
Marvel's Supreme Power (2003), a reality-oriented 
superhero saga written by a celebrity in his own 
right, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski — 
with a nod to the writer's Hollywood roots from a 



character (Dr. Spectrum) explicitly modeled on 
Robert Redford. Also crossing the genre barrier by 
getting more notice in the rock press than in comics 
fandom, Mike Allred's miniseries Red Rocket 7 
(Dark Horse Comics, 1997-1998), concerning a 
messianic alien musician, features affectionate 
cameos from a number of rock legends, including 
(for obvious reasons) David Bowie. 

But perhaps the most high-profile 
celebrity/superhero meet-and-greet of recent years 
is, paradoxically, one that didn't end up happening. 
The entertainment media was abuzz when Marvel 
announced that its book X-Statix (formerly X-Force), 
itself a media satire of super-celebrities drawn by 
Allred and written by the iconoclastic Peter Milligan, 
would run a story arc featuring a resurrected Lady 
Di in combat with a murderous royal family. Images 
were widely circulated, as were legal threats, and a 
censored (if still hilarious) version, with Di renamed 
and stuck in a black wig, ran in late 2003. 

Only Hollywood can make you a star, and only 
the comics can make you super. The co-production 
of the two has met with mixed success, but you can 
bet it's far from over. — AMC 

Superheroes 

and the 

Popular Culture 

Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster had unwa- 
vering faith in their Superman creation, even when 
newspaper syndicates of the mid-1930s balked at 
their outlandish concept. Despite their confidence, 
Siegel and Shuster could not, in their wildest 
dreams, have imagined that one day, kids and con- 
sumers would be eating Superman peanut butter, 



Opposite: From Captain America #113 © 1969 Marvel Comics, art by jim steranko. 



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Superheroes and the Popular Culture 



wearing Superman underwear, and playing Super- 
man video games. 

But such is the public's fascination with the 
superhero. Beginning with the arresting image of 
Superman hoisting a sedan over his head on the 
cover of Action Comics #1 (1938), the superhero 
has captured the attention of the masses, earning 
a position of permanence in the social psyche. 

TH£ 1940S: 

OUT OF WB COMICS AMP 

INTO WB WOBLP AT LA2GB 

Action was an instant success, prompting pub- 
lisher DC Comics to open a floodgate of merchan- 
dising bearing Superman's likeness, from the 
expected (figurines, bubble-gum cards, and the like) 
to the atypical (a table-top lighter for cigarette 
smokers). Superman quickly flew into cultural 
omnipresence. The first public "sighting" of the 
Man of Steel took place in 1939, when Broadway 
actor Ray Middleton impersonated the hero at the 
New York World's Fair. That very year, the "Super- 
men of America" fan club was launched, extolling 
the virtues of "Strength, Courage, and Justice," and 
a Superman newspaper strip began a decades-long 
run. The hero was soon the star of a dramatic radio 
program, theatrical cartoons, a paperback novel, 
and, at the close of the 1940s, two live-action 
movie serials. 

Of course, the burgeoning comic-book industry 
consisted of other superheroes — Plastic Man, the 
Human Torch, the Black Terror, Cat-Man, and count- 
less other masked adventurers were among their 
colorful legion — and some were translated to the 
big screen via live-action movie serials, including 
Spy Smasher (1942), Batman (1943), Captain 
America (1944), and Congo 6/7/(1948). Outside of 
Superman, however, few were licensed into other 
areas. A handful of Captain Marvel retail items 
(including a paper glider, a tin car, and figures) were 
produced. Captain America endorsed a fan club 
that not only promoted his Marvel (then known as 



Timely) comic but American patriotism itself: the 
Sentinels of Liberty, with members receiving a tin 
badge. "Apart from the Sentinels of Liberty badge," 
wrote Bill Bruegman in his book, Superhero Col- 
lectibles: A Pictorial Price Guide (1996), a youth- 
sized Captain America costume produced in the 
mid-1940s "is the only known child's product made 
from a Timely character." 

Sales of superhero comics nose-dived in 
post-World War II America and titles rapidly disap- 
peared from the stands. At the end of the 1940s, 
one might have suspected that superheroes were 
merely a flash in the pan born of the Great Depres- 
sion and the war's thirst for inspirational figures. 
Only a few survived. 

W£ 1950S: We AUTHORITY 
FIGU2Z OF STZZL 

During the 1950s, the frigid fingers of the com- 
munist threat gripped the United States in a cold 
war, and the Man of Steel helped break the ice. 
Superman became a national symbol of the Ameri- 
can Way, most notably in the wildly successful live- 
action television series The Adventures of Super- 
man (1953-1957), starring George Reeves. Reeves 
made numerous personal appearances as the Man 
of Steel, and also played Superman in a short film 
promoting U.S. Savings Bonds, in a commercial for 
Kellogg's Grape Nuts cereal, and in a fondly remem- 
bered episode of / Love Lucy. As evidence of the 
Man of Steel's impact upon popular culture, a 1953 
Superman newspaper sequence guest-starred 
bespectacled television personality Steve Allen, 
with a storyline addressing Allen's physical resem- 
blance to Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent. 

Superman was perhaps the only ray of hope in 
the world of superheroes of the 1950s. The comics 
business altered its content to address changing 
tastes, and many titles, particularly horror and 
crime series, became outrageously graphic. Comics 
transformed into what some historians have 
deemed boys' "dirty little secret," taboo material 



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Superheroes and the Popular Culture 



read with flashlights under bedcovers. The comics 
industry fell under denunciation in the mid-1950s at 
a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing that foisted 
upon publishers a censorship board called the 
Comics Code Authority (CCA), a crippling move 
putting many players out of business. The History 
Channel documentary Comic Book Superheroes: 
Unmasked (2003) reported that the industry suf- 
fered a 50 percent drop in sales between 1954 and 
1956, due to the budding prominence of television, 
as well as rock and roll music, "the new teen thing." 

To portray to skeptical parents the wholesome- 
ness of its product, DC Comics published in its titles 
one-page public-service announcements (PSAs) in 
comic-book form, featuring Superman (and occasion- 
ally other DC characters like Batman and Robin) in 
mini morality plays. In a Superman PSA called "Safe- 
ty First," for example, the Man of Steel spouts traf- 
fic-accident statistics to a careless jaywalker 
("32,300 people were killed and 1,150,000 injured 
in traffic accidents in a single year!"). 

THB 1960S: 
"POP" GO THB SUP£J2H£POeS 

In the 1960s, the superhero commandeered 
popular culture, and did so with a "Pow!" The 
decade started as did the two prior, with Superman 
as the superhero big cheese. Marvel, which had 
abandoned superheroes in the 1950s, introduced 
its "heroes with problems," offbeat, self-absorbed 
characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk, and 
the X-Men. By the mid-1960s, the Hulk and Spider- 
Man were counterculture icons, appearing along- 
side real-world civil-rights crusader Malcolm X on 
lists of figures most admired by college students. 

Batman (1966-1968), a campy live-action tele- 
vision series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as 
Batman and Robin, became an overnight ratings 
smash. Mere months after the show's premiere, a 
quickly produced Batman movie was filmed ("I 
worked just over 30 days," recalled West in an inter- 
view on the film's 2001 DVD edition), promoted with 



a trailer featuring Ward as Robin buoyantly beam- 
ing, "Soon, very soon, Batman and I will be bata- 
pulting right out of your TV sets and onto your the- 
ater screens!" An ensuing wave of "Batmania" 
slapped the Dynamic Duo's faces, both pho- 
tographed and illustrated, on almost every product 
conceivable, including knife-and-fork sets, bubble- 
bath dispensers, apparel galore, model kits, and 
lunchboxes. "Batman makes a mighty leap into 
national popularity" announced the cover of the 
March 11, 1966 edition of Life magazine. Recording 
artists Jan and Dean released a Jan and Dean 
Meet Batman album, and Neal Hefti's surfing- 
inspired "Batman" TV theme became stamped onto 
the public's musical mind. Batman's fight-scene 
graphics — boisterous comic-esque sound effects 
like "Crunch!" and "Zowie!" — became part of the 
American vernacular to such a degree that in the 
twenty-first century, many journalists employ these 
exclamations when referencing contemporary 
comics-related material. 

Batman's popularity sparked a superhero boom 
of unprecedented proportions. 1940s superheroes 
like Captain America and Plastic Man bounced back 
to life, and TV networks raced to create their own 
superheroes, live-action and animated, including 
Captain Nice, Space Ghost, and Mr. Terrific. Super- 
hero parodies flourished, from MAD magazine's 
Captain Klutz to the animated series Underdog. 
Several licensors' characters (Batman, Spider-Man, 
and the Green Hornet, among others) were tunneled 
into Ideal's Captain Action toy line, featuring a host 
figure that "transformed" into other heroes by don- 
ning their uniforms (each sold separately). Super- 
man enjoyed a surge in popularity, spinning off into 
an animated TV show and a Broadway musical, It's 
a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman. 

The superhero continued to serve as a super- 
pitchman. Superman endorsed New Jersey's Pal- 
isades (amusement) Park in comic-book ads that 
included a ticket for a free ride on the Batman 
slide. ABC-TV commissioned a promotional comic 
book to plug its Saturday fare: America's Best TV 



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Superheroes and the Popular Culture 



Comics (1967) was an eighty-page giant with the 
Jack Kirby-drawn Mr. Fantastic (of the Fantastic 
Four) on the cover, along with Spider-Man, Casper 
the Friendly Ghost, and other cartoon stars. Mar- 
vel's comic books hyped a line of peripherals like 
inflatable Spider-Man pillows and Fantastic Four 
sweatshirts. The short-lived TV series The Green 
Hornet (1966-1967) inspired a brief but impressive 
spate of merchandising, including playing cards, a 
kite, a paint-by-number set, and walkie talkies. 

Real-life painter Roy Lichtenstein interpreted 
comic-book panels into a series of "pop-art" por- 
traits incorporating word balloons, primary colors, 
and Ben-Day dots, mimicking the primitive four-color 
printing techniques of the day. Lichtenstein's comics- 
inspired works helped legitimize comics as an art 
form and remain popular in the twenty-first century. 

THB 1970S ANP BZYONP: 

supezHzzoes, 
supezHzzoes, evezwHezei 

As an entertainment force and a licensing vehi- 
cle, the superhero soared to new heights in the 
1970s. After decades of increasing media satura- 
tion, Superman had grown into an icon, immortal- 
ized in music (Jim Croce warned, "You don't tug on 
Superman's cape" in his hit "You Don't Mess 
around with Jim" [1973], and Barbra Streisand 
released an album titled Superman [1977]), in poli- 
tics (a popular poster released in 1971, during the 
height of the Vietnam War, depicted Superman 
flashing the "peace sign"), and even in junk food 
(Superman Pretzels and Superman Peanut Butter). 
And the Man of Steel wasn't alone in such impact: 
The coveted cover shot for the inaugural issue of 
Ms. Magazine in 1972 was won by Wonder Woman. 

A blitz of products bearing the likenesses of 
Marvel and DC superheroes inundated retail mar- 
kets, and their characters continued to pitch other 
products, including a fondly remembered but rather 
odd mid-1970s campaign by baker Hostess selling 



its wares to comic-book readers through one-page 
illustrated adventures (an example: a Shazam! 
installment in which Captain Marvel investigates 
the "strange disappearance of cup cakes around 
the world"). Superheroes flourished on TV, from new 
creations like Isis and ElectraWoman, to DCs kid- 
friendly Super Friends cartoon, to primetime dramas 
starring the Hulk, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man. 
The box-office muscle of the live-action Superman: 
The Movie (1978) elevated the superhero to multi- 
million-dollar blockbuster status, and the then- 
emerging video-game industry ushered the Man of 
Steel (and later, many other comics heroes) into 
this exciting new world. 

These merchandising trends continued through- 
out the 1980s, and the phenomenal success of 
director Tim Burton's Batman (1989) only cemented 
the superhero's role as a mass-media force (and as 
a cash cow). By the 1990s, generations of con- 
sumers had been exposed to superheroes through 
film, TV, cartoons, video and computer games, action 
figures, apparel, snack and breakfast food, fast-food 
kids' toys, and even amusement parks (various 
theme parks feature rides based on Batman, Super- 
man, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men, with 
actors wearing superhero costumes intermingling 
with park-goers). As confirmation of his iconic sta- 
tus, an animated Superman teamed with comedian 
Jerry Seinfeld in a 1998 television commercial for 
American Express. Seinfeld, not the Man of Steel, is 
the commercial's real hero, coming to Lois Lane's 
aid when she finds herself trying to buy groceries 
without any cash. The licensing of superheroes has 
become big business for comic-book publishers; so 
big, in fact, that revenues generated by merchandis- 
ing far exceed profits earned by the comic books 
themselves, posing the ultimate irony: The popularity 
of superheroes through competing media has 
adversely affected the appeal of the superhero's 
source material, the comics. 

While comics publishers of the 2000s explore 
new methods of attracting readers, vintage comic 
books, particularly those of the Golden Age 



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Superheroes in Prose 



(1938-1954) and Silver Age (1956-1969), are 
becoming increasingly rare — the better the condi- 
tion (or grade), the higher their value. In "Big Bucks 
in Collectible Comics," an August 4, 2003 CBS 
News.com report, investor Bob Storms revealed 
that in 2002 he sold a copy of Marvel's Amazing 
Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spider-Man) 
for $32,500 — a comic he bought four years earlier 
for $20,000. Baltimore, Maryland, businessman 
Steve Geppi, President and CEO of Diamond Comic 
Distributors, issued an October 31, 2003 press 
release announcing, "I'll pay at least $25,000 for 
an unrestored, complete copy in good condition, 
and up to $1 million for a genuine, 'near mint' con- 
dition copy of Action Comics #1." 

Profits aside, comics collecting often inspires 
mockery from the masses: The nebbish "Comic 
Book Guy" is a recurring character on Fox's animat- 
ed series The Simpsons (1989-present), and the 
September 29, 2003 episode of the CBS sitcom 
Yes, Dear categorized guest star Tim Conway's new- 
found hobby of comic-book collecting as a peculiari- 
ty. Similarly, a young girl fascinated by the Marvel 
superhero Thor received some ribbing in the movie 
Adventures in Babysitting (1987), as did a 
preschooler who always wears a Flash costume in 
the Eddie Murphy comedy Daddy Day Care (2003). 

But thousands of superhero (and comic-book) 
fans remain undaunted by the taunts. The San 
Diego Comic-Con, an international Mecca for mat- 
ters fantastic, attracts tens of thousands of atten- 
dees each year and has become so important that 
major Hollywood stars now make appearances to 
promote their superhero and action films (included 
among the guests of the 2003 show were actors 
Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Quentin 
Tarantino, and Alfred Molina). Grade-school kids 
have superheroes all their own, like the star of Dav 
Pilkey's Captain Underpants books, and preschool- 
ers are amazed by Sesame Street's Super Graver. 
And lest one regard superheroes and comics as 
juvenile pap, Michael Chabon's 2000 novel, The 
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (loosely 



based on the lives of the Golden Age's classic team 
of comics creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby), won 
a Pulitzer Prize and is being adapted into a motion 
picture. Noting the cultural importance of super- 
heroes, former Batman editor and writer Dennis 
O'Neil remarked, on the Comic Book Superheroes: 
Unmasked program, that the editors of Batman and 
Superman comic books have become "custodians 
of folklore." Their venues may be forever changing, 
but superheroes are here to stay. — ME 

Superheroes 
in Prose 

The adaptation of superheroes into prose fiction 
goes back to the very genesis of the superhero 
genre. Indeed, Philip Wylie's 1930 science-fiction 
novel Gladiator— the tale of an invincible superpow- 
ered man who lives among normal humans — pre- 
dates the advent of Jerome Siegel's and Joe Shus- 
ter's Superman by eight years. Just four years after 
debuting in 1938's Action Comics #1, and two 
years after gaining national prominence via the 
Superman radio program, the last son of Krypton 
starred in his first novel: The Adventures of Super- 
man by George Lowther (1942), a book that intro- 
duces the current spelling for the name of Super- 
man's Kryptonian father Jor-EI (as opposed to Jor-L). 
A steady stream of pictureless superhero text narra- 
tives followed over the ensuing decades, almost all 
of them based upon heroes that originated in the 
comics. Superman and other high-profile DC 
Comics heroes, such as Batman and Wonder 
Woman, and flagship Marvel Comics characters like 
Spider-Man and the Hulk, all became prose protago- 
nists, often due to the efforts of comic-book writers. 

Among the more memorable superhero novels 
were a pair of Bantam releases from the 1960s: 
1967 's The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker by 
science-fiction writer Otto Binder (Binder also wrote 



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Superheroes in Prose 



scores of Captain Marvel stories for Fawcett during 
the 1940s and 1950s) and Captain America: The 
Great Gold Steal by Ted White (1968). Armed with 
the editorial expertise of Len Wein (co-creator of 
DCs Swamp Thing and Marvel's "new" X-Men) and 
Marv Wolfman (co-creator of DCs New Teen Titans 
and Marvel's Blade the Vampire Slayer), Pocket 
Books picked up the Marvel license in the late 
1970s, releasing a short fiction anthology (Stan 
Lee Presents the Marvel Superheroes, featuring the 
Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, and Daredevil, 
1979) and a raft of short novels, all of which are 
long out of print. 

Among these out-of-print gems are: The Amaz- 
ing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan by Len Wein 
and Marv Wolfman (1978); The Incredible Hulk: 
Stalker from the Stars by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, 
and Joseph Silva (1978); The Incredible Hulk: Cry of 
the Beastby Richard S. Meyers (1979); Captain 
America: Holocaust for Hire by Joseph Silva (1979); 
The Fantastic Four: Doomsday by Marv Wolfman 
(1979); Iron Man: And Call My Killer... Modok! by 
well-regarded science-fiction author William Rotsler 
(1979); Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts: 
Nightmare, also by Rotsler (1979); The Amazing 
Spider-Man: Crime Campaign by comics writer Paul 
Kupperberg (1979); The Avengers: The Man Who 
Stole Tomorrow by Avengers and Iron Man writer 
David Michelinie (1979); and The Hulk and Spider- 
Man: Murdermoon by Paul Kupperberg (1979). 
Meanwhile, DCs stable of heroes was also begin- 
ning to make inroads into text-only storytelling with 
Superman: Last Son of Krypton, a novelization of 
the 1978 Superman motion picture by Superman 
comics writer Elliot S. Maggin (1978). Maggin fol- 
lowed this up with Superman: Miracle Monday 
(1981), a novel set in the far future, when mankind 
has colonized the entire solar system — but still 
sets aside a day to commemorate the life and 
achievements of Earth's mightiest hero. Maggin 
also penned Starwinds Howl (1997), a novella 
about Superman's boyhood pet, the Kryptonian 
super-dog Krypto, who had been "retconned" out of 



existence (removed from the Superman mythos by 
means of "retroactive continuity") in 1986 (Action 
Comics #583). 

Also in 1986, Marvel and role-playing game 
(RPG) manufacturer TSR collaborated on the Marvel 
Adventure Gamebooks, a series of short paperback 
novels that straddled the worlds of prose fiction and 
RPGs. In titles such as Jeff Grubb's Amazing Spider- 
Man: City in Darkness and Jerry Epperson and 
James M. Ward's Wolverine: Night of the Wolverine, 
the reader could "steer" Spider-Man through various 
story scenarios, keeping tabs on the protagonists' 
power levels and fighting ability by means of custom 
"stat cards" bound into the books. DCs heroes 
began ramping up their literary appearances by the 
decade's end, with novelizations of the 1989 Warner 
Bros. Batman film and Batman Returns (1992), both 
by Craig Shaw Gardner. 

Buoyed by the success of these films and their 
merchandising, the Caped Crusader and members 
of his supporting cast soon starred in several origi- 
nal Warner Books novels, including: The Batman 
Murders by Craig Shaw Gardner (1990); Batman: To 
Stalk a Specter by Simon Hawke (1991); Batman: 
Captured by the Engines by award-winning horror 
novelist Joe R. Lansdale (1991); and Catwoman: 
Tiger Hunt by fantasists Lynn Abbey and Robert 
Asprin (1992). Several anthologies of short fiction 
dedicated to DCs highest-profile superheroes and 
villains, all edited by Martin H. Greenberg, also 
appeared during this period, including: The Further 
Adventures of Batman (1989); The Further Adven- 
tures of the Joker (1990); The Further Adventures 
of Batman Volume 2: Featuring the Penguin (1992); 
The Further Adventures of Batman Volume 3: Fea- 
turing Catwoman (1993); The Further Adventures of 
Superman: All-New Adventures of the Man of Steel 
(1993); and The Further Adventures of Wonder 
Woman (1993). 

In the late 1980s, superheroes with no prior 
experience on the comics page were being intro- 
duced in "shared world" prose novels. Wild Cards 
was a series of "mosaic novels," assembled by a 



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large group of writers working in tandem. The series 
began publication in 1986 with Wild Cards, a tale 
that presented superheroes originally conceived for 
use in superhero role-playing games by a group of 
distinguished science-fiction authors spearheaded 
by George R. R. Martin (the series' editor) and 
Melinda M. Snodgrass (the assistant editor since 
the sixth volume), with stories contributed by 
Edward W. Bryant, Pat Cadigan, Michael Cassutt, 
Chris Claremont, Arthur Byron Cover, Leanne C. 
Harper, Stephen Leigh, Victor Milan, Gail Gerstner- 
Miller, John J. Miller, Laura J. Mixon, Kevin Andrew 
Murphy, Lewis Shiner, Walton Simons, Howard Wal- 
drop, Sage Walker, Walter Jon Williams, William F. 
Wu, and Roger Zelazny. 

The central conceit of Wild Cards is that an 
alien organism (the Wild Card virus) is released over 
New York in 1946, randomly killing 90 percent of the 
city's population; those who died are said to have 
drawn the Black Queen from the Wild Card virus' 
genetic deck. Of the 10 percent who survive the 
infection, 90 percent of these become horribly 
mutated and disfigured — genetic "Jokers." The virus 
bestows comic-book-style superhuman powers upon 
the small remainder, who are known thereafter as 
"Aces," and also gives fantastic abilities to some of 
the Jokers. The Aces and Jokers quickly sort them- 
selves out into bands of heroes, like the super- 
strong Golden Boy, the thunder-throwing Black Eagle, 
Fortunato the Tantric magician, the body-switching 
Sleeper, and the Great and Powerful Turtle, or 
become villains like the mind-enslaving Puppetman, 
the lethal-handed Demise, the bloodthirsty Carnifex, 
or the brain-eating Deadhead. The term "Joker" is 
considered pejorative, and those who have never 
been exposed to the virus (the vast majority of the 
human species) are known as "Nats." 

The story spans several decades as the Aces 
and Jokers face the McCarthyism of the 1950s, 
endure the social upheavals of the Vietnam period, 
and fight the good fight against renegade Jokers dur- 
ing the Reagan-Bush years and into the 1990s. The 
first Wild Cards novel series ran twelve volumes, fin- 



ishing up in 1993. Marvel produced comics based 
upon the Wild Cards novels in 1990 and 1991, and 
a second cycle of Wild Cards novels (whose first vol- 
ume was titled Card Sharks) began in 1993. 

American superhero comics made an enormous 
impression on English writer Neil Gaiman (best 
known as the creator of the DC/Vertigo comics 
series Sandman), inspiring him to co-create and co- 
edit the prose-based Temps series (with co-creator, 
co-editor, and contributor Alex Stewart). Temps 
(1991) and Euro Temps (1992) set up the saga of 
the British League of Superheroes and the villains 
who bedevil them, presenting the familiar-yet-alien 
history that results from the presence of superhu- 
mans in the United Kingdom and in Europe. Like the 
Wild Cards volumes, the Temps books occur in a 
shared world, a literary quilt created from the short 
fiction of such science-fiction writers as Christopher 
Amies, Tina Anghelatos, Molly Brown, David V. Bar- 
rett, Storm Constantine, Anne Gay, Colin Greenland, 
Graham Higgins, Liz Holliday, Jenny Jones, Graham 
Joyce, Roz Kaveney, David Langford, Marcus L. Row- 
land, Brian Stableford, and Jack Yeovil. 

Back in the States, Superman grabbed interna- 
tional headlines by dying at the hands of the ultra- 
powerful villain Doomsday (Superman vol. 2 #75, 
1993). Fortunately, the Man of Steel's demise 
proved only temporary, and dovetailed with a hard- 
cover novel titled The Death and Life of Superman 
by Superman comics writer Roger Stern (1993). Not 
to be outdone, Batman sustained and overcame 
grievous injuries in a 1993-1994 DC Comics story 
arc titled "Knightfall," which inspired the hardcover 
novel Batman: Knightfall by veteran Batman comics 
writer Dennis O'Neil (1994). 

Marvel's superheroes experienced what was 
arguably their greatest prose renaissance from 
1994 until 1999, during the joint publishing program 
of the now-defunct Byron Preiss Multimedia Compa- 
ny and Berkley Boulevard Books, a team-up that was 
initially under the direction of editor and writer Keith 
R. A. DeCandido. This prolific alliance yielded forty- 
five novels and seven short fiction anthologies, cov- 



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Superheroes with Disabilities 



ering a wide pallet of Marvel heroes ranging from the 
X-Men to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Among the most memorable titles were: Iron 
Man: The Armor Trap (1995) by Greg Cox, who is per- 
haps best known as a Star Trek novelist; The Incredi- 
ble Hulk: What Savage Beast (1995), an immensely 
popular hardcover novel by Peter David, who has 
written Hulk's comics adventures longer than anyone 
else, and has established critical backstory for the 
Hulk and his supporting cast (in the novel and in the 
comics) that is now considered as canonical as the 
original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby material from the early 
1960s; The Ultimate Super-Villains (1996), a short- 
fiction anthology edited by Marvel pioneer Stan Lee; 
X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors by eluki bes shahar 
(1997), a tale that successfully evokes the best 
Uncanny X-Men comics work Chris Claremont and 
John Romita Jr. did in the 1980s; The Incredible 
Hulk: Abominations (1997) by Jason Henderson, 
one of the most dramatic, character-driven, and 
action-packed Hulk/Abomination clashes ever exe- 
cuted in any medium; Untold Tales of Spider-Man, a 
short-fiction anthology edited by Stan Lee and Kurt 
Busiek (1997); The Fantastic Four: Countdown to 
Chaos by Pierce Askegren (1998); The Fantastic 
Four: Redemption of the Silver Surfer by Michael Jan 
Friedman (1998); Spider-Man: Venom's Wrath, a 
suspenseful police procedural tale by Keith R. A. 
DeCandido and Jose R. Nieto (1998); Generation X: 
Crossroads by J. Steven York (1998); The Ultimate 
Silver Surfer, a short-fiction anthology edited by Stan 
Lee (1999); and science-fiction writer Adam-Troy 
Castro's critically-acclaimed trilogy of Spider-Man 
novels, The Gathering of the Sinister Six (1999), The 
Revenge of the Sinister Six (2000), and The Secret 
of the Sinister Six (2002). 

Because of legal disputes between the publishing 
partners and Marvel's bankruptcy woes, this line of 
books was temporarily shut down in 1999, though 
Berkley Books picked up the reigns solo and issued 
the remaining titles between 2000 and 2002. Marvel's 
mutants even teamed up with the crew of the U.S.S. 
Enterprise-D in Michael Jan Friedman's Star Trek: The 



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Next Generation and the X-Men: Planet X (1998), a 
novel that grew out of a superhero-Star Trek crossover 
in Marvel's then-current Star Trek comics line. 

During the 1990s, DCs superpowered pantheon 
maintained its visibility in the world of letters by grac- 
ing the pages of several more hardcover novels. Bat- 
man turned his attention to the horrific crime of 
pedophilia in Batman: The Ultimate Evil, penned by 
crime writer, children's advocate, and attorney Andrew 
Vachss (1995). Kingdom Come by Elliot S. Maggin 
(1998) engages a graying Justice League of America 
from an alternate future in a final apocalyptic battle, 
based on DCs Kingdom Come comics miniseries 
(1996). Batman: No Man's Land, by Detective Comics 
story sensation Greg Rucka (2000), adapts into prose 
a 1999-2000 DC Comics story arc in which Gotham 
City sustains horrendous earthquake damage, 
prompting Batman to embark on a mission of mercy. 
DC has further added to fans' bookshelves in the 
2000s with a series of paperback novels on individual 
Justice League members from Pocket Books. 

The crowning literary achievement for the comic- 
book hero is doubtless Michael Chabon's original 
novel, The Amazing Adventures ofKavalier& Clay 
(2000). This story of two young Jewish boys coming 
of age during the gritty Great Depression years and 
finding success in the fledgling comics business with 
their escape-artist superhero creation ("the Escapist, 
Master of Elusion, whom no chains could hold nor 
walls imprison") won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 
2001 — and went a long way toward making comic- 
book superheroes respectable in the jaundiced eyes 
of the bluenosed literary orthodoxy. — MAM 

Superheroes wtih 
Qisabmes 

In the time it will take to read this entry, real-life 
superheroics will occur. A blind woman will safely 
cross the street. A teenage boy whose body is crip- 

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Superheroes with Disabilities 



pled with cerebral palsy will rise unassisted from a 
chair. Physically and mentally challenged individuals 
who refuse to be handicapped by their conditions 
overcome adversity in virtually every facet of their 
lives. Superheroes do exist. 

Some fictional superheroes face impediments 
that make their feats of bravery even more Her- 
culean. Daredevil, Marvel Comics' "Man without 
Fear," leaps fearlessly off of metropolitan rooftops 
in pursuit of criminals, and pounces into armies of 
heavily armed gangsters — awe-inspiring actions that 
truly flabbergast when one considers the hero's 
blindness. The accident that robbed his alter ego, 
lawyer Matt Murdock, of his vision — exposure to a 
radioactive isotope — heightens his other senses 
and imbues him with a "radar sense" that allows 
him to perceive nearby objects, helping compensate 
for his lack of sight. 

Daredevil may be the most recognized blind 
superhero, but others preceded him. The Black Bat, 
a hero originating in 1934 in the pulp magazines — 
periodicals published on inexpensive "pulp" paper 
and featuring prose adventure stories — loses his 
vision when, in his true identity of district attorney 
Terry Quinn, acid is splashed in his eyes by criminals 
attempting to destroy evidence. Quinn receives a 
transplant from an eye donor, and emerges, strange- 
ly, with the capacity to see in the dark. He conceals 
this enhancement from the world, maintaining a 
blind fagade as Quinn, but taking to the streets at 
night as the crime-crushing Black Bat. The comic- 
book hero called the Mask (not to be confused with 
the offbeat Dark Horse Comics character portrayed 
by actor Jim Carrey in the 1994 blockbuster film of 
same name) is a district attorney who loses his 
sight, then regains it and becomes a costumed vigi- 
lante. It's interesting to note that he, the Black Bat, 
and Daredevil all share the same vocation — law — 
and all are blind. The original Mask debuted in Bet- 
ter Publications' Exciting Comics #1 (1940). 

In DC Comics' Ail-American Comics #25 
(1941), readers first encountered surgeon Charles 
McNider, who is blinded in a mishap but discovers 



that he possesses perfect night vision. Accompa- 
nied by Hooty, an owl, he becomes the nocturnal 
superhero Dr. Mid-Nite, later joining the Justice 
Society of America (JSA). The hero was succeeded 
in the guise in 1985 by Beth Chapel, an African 
American medical student who also was robbed of 
her ability to see. She became Dr. Midnight (differ- 
ent spelling), and served with Infinity, Inc. before 
dying in a battle against the lord of darkness, Eclip- 
so. In 1999, yet another physician, Pieter Cross, 
was engaged in unorthodox medical experiments 
that cost him his sight, adopting the name (and 
original spelling) of the first Dr. Mid-Nite. This ver- 
sion of the hero is among the roster of the 2000s 
incarnation of the JSA. Other vision-challenged 
heroes include the X-Men's Psylocke, who lost her 
eyesight but received cybernetic eyes, and Marvel's 
Shroud, a dark-clad vigilante who willingly allowed 
himself to be blinded to receive the "gift" of 
extrasensory perception from the goddess Kali. 

A few superheroes are vertically challenged — or, 
in less politically correct terminology, short. In Ail- 
American Comics #19 (1940), Al Pratt, long ridiculed 
for his five-foot stature, undergoes physical training 
to become the pint-sized pummeling powerhouse, 
DCs original Atom. "Shorty" Wilson, a former football 
player of diminutive height, wears a cloak and fedora 
and tackles criminals as the Shadow homage called 
the Black Dwarf in publisher Harry "A" Chesler's Red 
Seal Comics #14 (1945). Rackman, bowing in 1947 
in Hillman Periodicals' Clue #12, is a little person 
who walks on stilts when fighting crime. Tom Thumb 
is a purple-and-green-dressed tiny titan in Marvel 
Comics' Squadron Supreme, and Eugene Milton 
Judd — barely three feet tall — is a beefy former night- 
club bouncer who is better known as Puck of Mar- 
vel's Canadian superteam Alpha Flight. 

Some superheroes have overcome amputations. 
DCs Aquaman lost a hand in a 1994 conflict, replac- 
ing it with a hook. In 2001, his hand regenerated — 
but as living water, not flesh — due to a spell from the 
mystical Lady of the Lake. Most of Victor Stone's 
body was destroyed in an accident and replaced with 



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Superheroes with Disabilities 



cybernetics. As Cyborg, he has used his artificial sub- 
stitutions, including interchangeable hands with dif- 
ferent combative functions, as one of the Teen 
Titans. Originally resentful of his plight, Stone accept- 
ed the change and became an aide to children with 
disabilities after meeting a young boy with a prosthet- 
ic arm in the landmark tale "A Day in the Life" in DC 
Comics' The New Teen Titans #8 (1981). 

Sensory impairment has affected, but not 
stopped, a few superheroes. Cyborg's Teen Titans 
teammate Joseph Wilson (Jericho) was mute. The son 
of the Titans' arch nemesis Deathstroke the Termina- 
tor, Jericho had the ability to possess others' bodies, 
and communicated with his friends via hand signals, 
but ultimately died at the hand of his father. Assassin 
David Cain taught his daughter Cassandra only one 
language: violence. The mute teen, trained to follow in 
her father's footsteps, was shown guidance by Gotham 
City's heroes Batman and Oracle, and became the new 
Batgirl. Batgirl has since developed verbal communica- 
tive abilities thanks to her support network. Hawkeye, 
the ace archer of Marvel's mightiest heroes, the 
Avengers, sustained a profound hearing loss in an 
accident and is dependent upon digital hearing aids. 

Mental illness bears a stigma in modern soci- 
ety, yet some superheroes have fought crime 
despite psychological problems. The schizophrenic 
Badger, appearing in print in the 1980s, brutally tar- 
geted ne'er-do-wells who harmed animals and spat 
on sidewalks. In DCs six-issue Rose & Thorn minis- 
eries (2003-2004), Rhosyn Forrest's psyche is sev- 
ered by rage after her father's murder, creating two 
wholly separate personalities: the docile Rose and 
the vengeful superheroine Thorn. Rose & Thorn 
updated the split-personality crime fighter who 
debuted in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #105 
(1970). In 2000, DC Comics published Realworlds: 
Batman, a poignant tale about a mildly retarded 
young man who believes he is Batman, and tackles 
street punks dressed in a makeshift superhero cos- 
tume, nearly dying in the process. 

There are superheroes whose alter egos lack 
the ability to walk unassisted. Both Freddy Freeman 



and Dr. Don Blake were "lame," requiring a single 
crutch or cane to walk. Yet they became ambulato- 
ry — and superpowerful! — after transforming into 
their amazing identities of Captain Marvel Jr. and 
the mighty Thor. Similarly, war journalist John Mann, 
a former soldier who lost his right leg in combat, 
was first seen in Charlton Comics' Mysteries of 
Unexplored Worlds #46 (1965). While standing 
amid the ruins of a Roman temple, he shrieks to 
the heavens, lamenting the bloodshed of human 
conflict, and is transported by a bolt of lightning to 
Olympus, where the gods transform him into the 
superstrong Son of Vulcan. Freemind, the premier 
superhero from the 2002 startup publisher Future 
Comics, is "a brilliant man in a useless body," a 
quadriplegic who transfers his mind into a super- 
heroic form (a concept previously seen in Marvel's 
It, the Living Colossus, a stone giant possessed by 
a wheelchair-bound master). Silhouette, a crippled 
member of Marvel's teen team the New Warriors, 
has used crutches in combat. 

Marvel's Human Fly is an unnamed man who is 
injured in an automobile accident and informed that 
his legs are now useless in The Human Fly#l 
(1977). He beats the odds through rehabilitation 
and determination, not only regaining the ability to 
walk but also perfecting his body. In a red-and-white 
suit and cowl, with magnetic-grip gloves and boots, 
he raises awareness and money for the handi- 
capped as the Human Fly. His adventures ran for 
nineteen issues. 

Perhaps the most famous disabled hero is 
Charles Xavier, or Professor X, founder of the 
mutant assemblage the X-Men. An accident robbed 
him of the use of his legs and permanently placed 
him in a wheelchair, but thanks to his uncanny tele- 
kinetic powers and his proven leadership qualities, 
his authority is never questioned. Niles Caulder, the 
"Chief" of the Doom Patrol, also directs DC Comics' 
"world's strangest heroes" from a wheelchair. 

Barbara Gordon, who once fought alongside 
Batman and Robin as Batgirl, became a paraplegic 
after being shot by the Joker. Initially despondent 



$50 



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over her paralysis, she later channeled her energies 
into the cultivation of a vast computer network, 
secretly becoming Oracle, the information broker for 
numerous DC superheroes. Batman, Robin, 
Nightwing, and the Suicide Squad are among those 
who have relied upon her ability to ferret out valu- 
able data, and she works closely with heroines 
Black Canary and the Huntress as the point person 
of the covert team Birds of Prey. Oracle has proven 
to herself, and to others, that she need not walk to 
be an asset to justice. "Barbara is stronger than 
she knows, and this is, perhaps, her only great 
weakness," wrote DC Comics scribe Devin Grayson 
in Wizard magazine's 1998 Batman special edition. 
"Hyper-defensive about her disability, she has, if 
anything, over-compensated. However, her very 
determination to remain self-reliant, though 
admirable and inspiring, has made her less willing 
than ever to accept support or aid of any kind." 

The disabilities experienced by most of the 
aforementioned superheroes have largely been gim- 
micks — the "blind" hero, the "short" hero — or 
shunted aside after a magical transformation (i.e., 
crippled Freddy Freeman converts, with a bolt of 
magic lightning, into the superboy Captain Marvel 
Jr.). And their handicaps were preexisting, as in the 
case of Professor X (he was in his wheelchair when 
readers first met him in X-Men #1 [1963]), or intro- 
duced as part of their origins (Matt Murdock lost 
his sight in Daredevil #1 [1964]). As Oracle, howev- 
er, Gordon stands tall as the most empowering dis- 
abled superhero. Readers witnessed her tragedy, 
and watched her rise above it. 

Arguably, two other heroes with disabilities are 
equally empowering, if not more so. "Never under- 
estimate the powers of the handicapped" asserted 
Damon Wayans' Handi-Man, the physically chal- 
lenged superhero seen on Fox-TV's In Living Color 
(1990-1994). While played for laughs, Handi-Man, 
and his diminutive sidekick the Tiny Avenger, cru- 
saded for the rights of the disabled. And actor 
Christopher Reeve, who catapulted to fame starring 
as the Man of Steel in the franchise of four live- 



action Superman movies between 1978 and 1987, 
was seriously hurt in a 1995 horse-riding accident, 
becoming a paraplegic. In the years since his injury, 
Reeve has advocated for severed spinal-cord 
research, raising money, awareness, and hope for 
the cause. He is more a superman in actuality than 
he ever was on screen. — ME 



Svpevhevohies 

Superheroes, no matter their media of presentation, 
have always held a mirror to society and offered a 
reflection of cultural attitudes. No better example of 
this can be found than with super/iero/nes. 

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were teen nebbish- 
es when they created Superman, and their brazen 
Man of Steel clearly embodied the male adolescent 
power fantasy: He was handsome, self-assured, in 
control, and robust, attributes most insecure 
teenage boys can only covet. Little did Siegel and 
Shuster realize that they were paving a societal 
super-highway with their character. Following Super- 
man's phenomenally lucrative 1938 debut, a heroic 
brotherhood quickly appeared: Batman, Captain Mar- 
vel, Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, Captain America. 
Even the teenage sidekicks, like Robin the Boy Won- 
der and Bucky, were high-spirited males. The bur- 
geoning business of superhero comics was the pub- 
lishing equivalent of the "He-Man Woman Hater's 
Club" from the Little Rascals film shorts. When 
women did appear in comics, they were damsels in 
distress. It's no wonder that girls found this new 
genre of comic books unattractive. 

we FTZST 

FBMAie supezHezoes 

Comics publishers of this era tried to attract a 
female audience — they just didn't try very hard. Four 
significant female heroines, although not super- 
heroines in the strictest sense, all showed up in 



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1940. First came Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the 
Jungle, an unabashed attempt to milk the success 
of The Phantom and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. 
Bowing in Fiction House's Jungle Comics #2 (Febru- 
ary 1940), Fantomah wore no mask, but instead 
transformed her appearance from a beautiful blonde 
to a skull-faced monstress (keeping her flowing gold- 
en locks in the process), using her supernatural 
powers to combat evil. During her four-year career, 
she was confined to Jungle Comics' backup strips, 
almost as if Fiction House was ashamed of her. On 
his Toonopedia website, Don Markstein observed, 
"From beginning to end, Fantomah was obscure 
almost to the point of vanishing." 

The Woman in Red, the first costumed hero- 
ine, originally donned her disguise in Standard 
Comics' Thrilling Comics #2 (March 1940). She 
was actually police officer Peggy Allen, but by 
night she sported a crimson hood, mask, and 
cloak — as well as a revolver — to mop up crime 
without the judicial restraints that tied her hands 
in her day job. Fighting gangsters and thugs until 
1945, the Woman in Red fared slightly better than 
Fantomah: While she was never cover-featured on 
Thrilling, her headshot was squeezed onto the 
covers of America's Best Comics #1 and #2 
(1942). Largely unknown other than for her histor- 
ical significance, the Woman in Red managed to 
resurface in 2001 in an homage by Alan Moore in 
the pages of ABC's Tom Strong (and in a related 
2003 miniseries, Terra Obscura), and appears 
among AC Comics' vast stable of reclaimed char- 
acters from comics history. 

On the heels of the Woman in Red came Lady 
Luck, first seen in the June 2, 1940, newspaper 
comic-book supplement, The Spirit. Lady Luck was 
the feminine answer to the Green Hornet — she 
even had her own "Kato," a chauffeur named Pee- 
colo. She was actually a bored socialite, Brenda 
Banks, who at night concealed her identity with a 
green veil and caught criminals for kicks. Like the 
Hornet, Lady Luck was wanted by the law, complicat- 
ing Banks' relationship with the police chief. 



In November 1940 readers were introduced to 
the first cross-dressing superhero: Red Tornado. 
Strictly played for laughs, Red Tornado was actually 
Ma Hunkle, a stout matron who dressed up in red 
long Johns and a cooking pot for a helmet in the 
Scribbly series appearing in DC Comics' All Ameri- 
can Comics, starting with issue #20. 

The first supervillainess also premiered in 
1940. In the pages of Batman #1, Batman and 
Robin encountered a natty cat burglar slinking 
about in a form-fitting green dress. Batman was 
smitten by this kitten calling herself "The Cat," but 
before long she would be renamed Catwoman, and 
would begin a lengthy career as a sometime-thief, 
sometime-heroine. 

As evidenced by the low profile afforded Fan- 
tomah and the Woman in Red, comic-book publish- 
ers weren't convinced that a superheroine could 
sell a comic. Newspaper syndicates were more 
courageous, and in April 1941 a vivacious cos- 
tumed heroine dressed in a skintight leopard suit 
began fighting crime in a Sunday newspaper comic 
strip. This was Miss Fury, a character whose series 
"combined intelligently written mysteries with cine- 
matic action sequences shown from multiple view- 
points," according to superheroine historian Trina 
Robbins in her book The Great Women Superheroes 
(1996). Miss Fury feared no man, slapping and 
scolding bad guys, even whipping them with her tail. 
Her adventures were written and drawn by a real-life 
woman of wonder: Tarpe Mills, one of the first suc- 
cessful female creators to render superheroines for 
the printed page. Mills was, like her character, glam- 
orous. Miss Fury was a popular strip, enjoyed by 
both sexes, and Mills basked in the glow of celebri- 
ty its acclaim brought her. 

Com\c-book publishers impressed with Miss 
Fury's success tested the waters with more super- 
heroines, but cautiously stuck only one toe in. The 
Black Cat, dressed in a black swimsuit and a pointy- 
topped eye mask, started her career in Harvey 
Comics' Pocket Comics #1. She was secretly movie 
star/stuntwoman Linda Turner, who used the tricks 



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of her trade and gimmicks from movie sets as "Hol- 
lywood's Glamorous Crime Fighter," solving myster- 
ies in Tinseltown. The Phantom Lady's adventures 
transpired on the opposite coast, in Washington, 
D.C. Premiering in Quality Comics' Police Comics 
#1, Phantom Lady, decked out in a bathing suit and 
cape, thwarted political assassinations and other 
crimes with her blackout-ray projector, which she 
wore as a bracelet. Probably the first superheroine 
to bring together the holy trinity of costume, secret 
identity, and superpowers to the comic-book page 
was Bulletgirl, the elixir-powered, airborne compan- 
ion of Fawcett Comic's Bulletman; Bulletgirl's first 
appearance (in early 1941) predates those of Won- 
der Woman, Mary Marvel, and even the Black Cat, 
though her sidekick status seems to prevent this 
from being often recognized. 

SUPRZMA STARTS A TRZN1? 

Dr. William Moulton Marston, eminent psycholo- 
gist and inventor of the lie detector, created for DC 
Comics the most famous of all superheroines: 
"Suprema, the Wonder Woman." Marston's concept 
underwent obvious name-doctoring, and Wonder 
Woman, the beautiful red-white-and-blue-clad Amazon 
who fearlessly deflected bullets with her bracelets, 
first saw print in All Star Comics #8 (December 
1941-January 1942)— just as the bombing of Pearl 
Harbor dragged the United States into World War II. 
DC had more faith in this superheroine than its com- 
petitors did in theirs. Wonder Woman busted onto 
the cover of Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942), 
and by that summer she was also awarded her own 
title. Wonder Woman embodied feminine and mascu- 
line traits: She was a compassionate feminist who 
would fight when necessary. A favorite of girls, Won- 
der Woman also sold to boys during the war, as the 
heroine epitomized patriotism — and had a great pair 
of legs (comics have never been shy about the sexu- 
al exploitation of the feminine form). 

World War II empowered American women. 
While men were overseas, their wives, sisters, and 



mothers took over back home. They worked in the 
factories and played professional baseball, all while 
raising the children. A nation of wonder women. 

This gender strengthening augmented the sta- 
tus of comics superheroines, and the stands were 
soon filled with them. In addition to Bulletgirl, Faw- 
cett Comics had Mary Marvel, the supergirl sibling 
of Captain Marvel, who, like her brother, said "Shaz- 
am!" to gain her mighty powers. DC Comics intro- 
duced the streetwise Black Canary, the battling 
blonde in fishnets who became a valuable member 
of the Justice Society of America; Hawkgirl, the 
feathered fury who flew into action with her com- 
panion, Hawkman; the adventurous freedom fighter 
named Liberty Belle; and the assiduous Merry, Girl 
of a Thousand Gimmicks. Even Superman's girl- 
friend, the intrepid reporter Lois Lane, was a super- 
heroine in her own right: She fearlessly scaled sky- 
scraper ledges and infiltrated mobs, all for a news- 
paper story. 

Marvel (then Timely) Comics published Miss 
America, a character historian Mike Benton called 
"a fair sex Captain America," who punched bad 
guys and bad girls alike ("Sorry, sister! Hate to do 
this, but you invited it!" she once said while kayoing 
a woman) and eventually made her way into the All 
Winners Squad with Captain America, Sub-Mariner, 
and the Human Torch. Another Marvel superheroine 
who turned heads was the Blonde Phantom, a yel- 
low-haired detective in a shimmering crimson gown 
and black mask. 

Superheroines appeared from other publishers 
as well. Kitten was the flirtatious sidekick to Cat- 
Man, Quality's diminutive Doll Girl fought crime with 
Doll Man, and Fox's web-swinging Spider Queen 
employed a "spider-web fluid" two decades before 
Spider-Man. Commandette was an actress/stunt- 
woman heroine (and a ripoff of the Black Cat), mak- 
ing only one appearance in 1945, while Pat Parker, 
War Nurse, teamed with the Girl Commandos. 
Some superheroines were ace pilots, cut from the 
same cloth as real-life aviatrix Amelia Earhart: The 
Black Angel feigned weakness in her real identity of 



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Superheroines 



Sylvia Lawton but protected her native England from 
the "Nazi cobra of the skies, Baroness Blood," and 
Black Venus was a physical therapist by day, cos- 
tumed air fighter by night. 

Some ladies skirted the supernatural realm, 
like the original Black Widow (whose real name was 
Claire Voyant), Lady Satan, and Ghost Woman. 
There were masked mysterywomen and flag-waving 
Nazi-busters galore, too many to chronicle in full 
detail, but Pat Patriot, Yankee Girl, the Silver Scorpi- 
on, USA ("The Spirit of Old Glory"), Flame Girl, Miss 
Masque, Golden Girl, Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, 
Rocketgirl, Owl Girl, Atoma, Moon Girl, Lady Fairplay, 
and Miss Victory were among their number. Wonder 
Woman, Mary Marvel, and a few others aside, these 
superheroines were featured in anthology titles, 
were partners to a male superhero, or were tucked 
away in backup series. Publishers still lacked faith 
in superheroines as cover-featured stars. 

HBAPLI&HTS ANP 
HZAZTTHZO&S 

Superheroines, like their male counterparts, 
fell out of fashion after World War II. Comic-book 
sales dropped, publishers folded, and genres like 
crime, funny animals, and Westerns supplanted 
superhero material. In the real world, men returned 
home from the war and resumed their jobs, displac- 
ing the women who had so ably filled their shoes. 
Some women willingly reverted to domestic roles, 
some did so unwillingly. 

As circulations spiraled downward in the mid- 
to late 1940s, the comic-book industry adopted 
extreme measures to make superheroines appeal- 
ing to its male readership. Superheroines were 
often depicted in titillating pin-up poses, sometimes 
in bondage, with an abundance of cleavage 
exposed — Matt Baker's "Good Girl art" Phantom 
Lady covers of the 1940s are highly prized collec- 
tors' items in the 2000s — in an exploitive trend 
called "headlights." In 1948 Marvel ambitiously 
tried a line of superheroine comics targeted specifi- 



cally at young girls — The Blonde Phantom being 
joined by Venus, Namora, and Sun Girl— but these 
books were canceled after short runs. By the mid- 
1950s only Wonder Woman survived, and only bare- 
ly at that. Girls were now reading romance comics, 
a genre started in 1947 by legendary creators Joe 
Simon and Jack Kirby with Young Romance #1, fea- 
turing tales (written and drawn by males) centered 
on immature, sighing women fawning over Mr. Right 
(and sometimes Mr. Wrong). Superheroines had 
hung up their capes and donned aprons. 

THE NZW SUPZZHeZOINBS 
OF TH£ 1960S 

DC Comics introduced Batwoman in Detective 
Comics #233 (1956). She appeared not as an 
attempt to attract a female readership, but to 
counter allegations by psychiatrist Dr. Fredric 
Wertham that Batman and Robin were homosexu- 
als. Batwoman was actually Kathy Kane, an heiress 
who dated millionaire Bruce Wayne (Batman's alter 
ego). Garbed in a garish red-and-yellow batsuit, Bat- 
woman fought boredom by fighting crime, but never 
developed a personality beyond giddiness. By 1964 
she and her sidekick Bat-Girl (a love interest for 
Robin) were retired. 

In Action Comics #252 (1959) DC introduced 
Supergirl, the teenage cousin to Superman. Super- 
girl, who also survived the destruction of the Man of 
Steel's homeworld Krypton, packed power like her 
relative, but was innocent and genial. When Super- 
man introduced her to the world in 1962, he com- 
mented, "Physically, she's the mightiest female of 
all time! But at heart, she's as gentle and sweet 
and as quick to tears — as any ordinary girl!" Super- 
girl's adventures accompanied Superman's in 
Action throughout the 1960s. Readers both female 
and male watched her mature as a heroine and a 
woman. For the first time in a generation, young 
girls had a new superheroine to emulate. Yet Super- 
girl's appeal wore thin over time. Attempts to 
expand her personality beyond her original naivete 



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failed, and she died — valiantly, at least, while saving 
the world — in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985). 

History repeated itself in the 1960s. Super- 
heroes were hot properties and by mid-decade com- 
mandeered popular culture. Marvel Comics was fun- 
damental in reinventing the concept of super- 
heroes — "heroes with problems" — but its initial 
wave of superheroines still preserved the concept 
of women in roles shaped by patriarchal standards. 
The Invisible Girl premiered in Fantastic Four#l 
(1961), and was shy and often endangered. The 
telekinetic Marvel Girl (a.k.a. Jean Grey), first seen 
in X-Men #1 (1963), was mostly a love interest for 
X-Man Cyclops, and the self-absorbed Wasp, the 
only woman in Marvel's Avengers, was an affluent 
fashion plate who loved to shop. 

Other superheroines emerged during the 
1960s: A sampling includes Wonder Woman's 
apprentice Wonder Girl, who go-go danced with her 
fellow Teen Titans; Fly Girl, the clinging partner of 
Archie Comics' Fly Man; Elasti-Girl of the Doom 
Patrol, who could expand her body to humongous 
proportions but could not grow beyond her restric- 
tive domestic role; Mera.the wife of Aquaman and 
mother of Aquababy; Marvel's magical Scarlet 
Witch, who was persuaded to join the Brotherhood 
of Evil Mutants before exerting her own free will to 
become a heroine; Platinum (a.k.a. Tina) of the 
Metal Men, a lady robot whose faulty "responso- 
meter" caused her to go ga-ga over the human sci- 
entist who created her; and the all-new Batgirl, a 
high-kicking 1967 addition to both the Batman 
comics and TV show, who allowed a run in her tights 
to distract her from helping Batman and Robin. 
These characters may have put females back in 
action roles, but their dependent and/or indecisive 
personalities rooted them in stereotyped behavior. 

S(4P£ZH£ZOTN£S GET SAUCY 

It took a Brit to help wedge American super- 
heroines from this trap of tradition. In the early 
1960s actress Diana Rigg played Mrs. Emma Peel 



on the popular English television series The 
Avengers (not to be confused with the Marvel 
superteam title). Mrs. Peel was an intellectual well 
trained in physical combat. Leggy Rigg often wore 
skin-tight catsuits in the role, and her balance of 
beauty and brawn made Peel a bold new type of 
superheroine. Peel caught the American eye in 
1966 once The Avengers was imported to the Unit- 
ed States, where the character made her imprint 
upon superhero creators. DCs Catwoman, although 
a villain, went the Peel catsuit route, especially 
through fetching Julie Newmar's coquettish portray- 
al of the character on TV's live-action Batman series 
(1966-1968). The sultry Russian spy Natasha 
Romanoff, premiering in the Iron Man feature in 
Tales of Suspense #52 (1964), was one of Marvel's 
first female characters to exhibit a forceful person- 
ality — but she was playing on the wrong team! 
Soon, however, she defected to the United States, 
donned a form-fitting costume, and disabled villains 
with her "Widow's Bite" blasts as the superheroine 
Black Widow. 

In 1968 DC Comics borrowed heavily from TV's 
Emma Peel and reinvented its Amazon Princess. 
Wonder Woman was stripped of her superpowers 
and had to rely upon her newly acquired martial-arts 
training to survive. Wearing white jumpsuits, Diana 
Prince (alter ego of Wonder Woman) embarked upon 
globe-spanning exploits involving international 
thieves and assassins. This transformation was 
criticized by women's rights activist Gloria Steinem, 
who complained that DC had de-powered its princi- 
pal superwoman. Other feminists joined Steinem's 
chorus. Dennis O'Neil, writer of Wonder Woman dur- 
ing this period, confessed in 2003, "Years later, I 
absolutely see what they were talking about." 

In the real world, the sexual revolution of the 
1960s enabled women to exert themselves physi- 
cally, and the burgeoning women's rights movement 
afforded them political and cultural might. Women's 
liberation swept America: Bra burnings, sit-ins, walk- 
outs, and demonstrations transpired to free 
females from societal shackles. 



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THE SWINGING SEVENTIES 

In the 1970s women became bolder, reflected 
on TV with female-centric sitcoms like the work- 
place heroine Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler 
Moore Show and the boisterous, opinionated title 
character in the All in the Family spinoff Maude. 
Comics followed suit: Marvel gave the Invisible Girl 
more confidence and introduced a sisterhood of 
new superheroines. The iron maiden Valkyrie 
debuted as a sword-wielding feminist who became 
a member of the Defenders; two women creators — 
writer Linda Fite and artist Marie Severin — pro- 
duced a short-lived series called The Cat, a crime- 
fighting alternative to DCs villainous Catwoman; 
and Black Widow took over half of Amazing Adven- 
tures (an anthology title shared with stories about 
the sexually egalitarian Inhumans), then co-starred 
in the pages of Daredevil. 

When Marvel launched the all-new X-Men in 
1975, among its cast of mutants was Storm, an 
ethereally beautiful African woman with long white 
hair. Storm was a survivor, an orphan who once sup- 
ported herself with thievery. This weather manipula- 
tor became one of the X-Men's most popular mem- 
bers, and remains a favorite in the 2000s, particu- 
larly through actress Halle Berry's portrayal of the 
character in the live-action films X-Men (2000) and 
X2: X-Men United (2003). 

In the 1970s Marvel cranked out clones of its 
best-selling characters — Spider-Woman and She- 
Hulk, as well as Red Sonja, the female counterpart 
to Conan the Barbarian — and fashioned new super- 
heroines like the disco-spawned Dazzler. DC gave 
Supergirl her own series, published Rima the Jungle 
Girl, unveiled the mysterious Black Orchid in Adven- 
ture Comics, introduced "Earth-Two" (alternate reali- 
ty) versions of Supergirl and Batgirl in the busty 
Power Girl and the brooding Huntress, and pro- 
duced a comic book based on the popular Saturday- 
morning show Isis (1975-1977). ElectraWoman 
and DynaGirl were TV superheroines during the 
1976 season of The Kroft Supershow, and Charlie's 



Angels (1976-1981), The Bionic Woman 
(1976-1978), and Police Woman (1974-1978) 
were successful primetime TV series starring 
female heroes. And then there was Wonder Woman. 

Lynda Carter, a stunningly gorgeous, five-feet- 
ten-inch tall former Miss World USA, rocketed to 
instant stardom on TV's live-action series Wonder 
Woman (1976-1979). This hour-long action-drama 
was originally set in the 1940s, with Wonder 
Woman battling Nazis and extraterrestrials, then 
shifted to the present day with the 1977 season, at 
which point Wonder Woman's alter ego Diana Prince 
sported the grooviest pantsuits and fashions of the 
era. For the second half of the 1970s, Wonder 
Woman was TV's number-one superhero, and a 
spate of Wonder Woman merchandising flooded the 
marketplace. Girls adored the Amazon Princess, 
and college boys and men tuned in to admire 
Carter's attributes. 

The 1970s was the decade of the liberated 
superheroine. Despite this cultural step forward, 
these superheroines were characterized with frail- 
ties, be they emotional attachment to boyfriends, 
husbands, children, jobs, or even their hair. That 
would soon change. 

SUPZRHeZOINZS G£T TOUGH 

The first new superheroine of the 1980s had no 
such "weaknesses." She was Elektra, an assassin 
for hire wielding three-pronged daggers (called sai), 
first seen in Marvel's Daredevil #168 (1981). Elek- 
tra Natchios, like many fictional characters, survived 
the death (in her case, the political assassination) of 
a parent, her father, a Greek ambassador, and redi- 
rected her life as a result. Instead of fighting crime, 
as Batman did once his parents were killed, Elektra 
chose execution, a reaction catering perfectly to 
what historian Robbins called America's "get tough 
on crime mood" of the 1980s. As a paid killer, she 
sought out and eliminated the worst of the worst, 
and while her marks were generally criminals, her 
methods were decidedly anti-heroic. She captivated 



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the audience of the early 1980s, and has command- 
ed a steady presence in comics ever since. 

Actress Jennifer Garner was cast as Elektra in 
the live-action movie Daredevil (2003), and is 
pegged to star in a proposed Elektra solo film. Gar- 
ner's physical prowess, honed pre-Elektra by her 
acrobatics on her television series Alias (2001-pre- 
sent), impressed her Daredevil costars: "She did 
this stunt where she kicks off the wall and does 
this split, and I was ready to marry that woman right 
there," gushed actor Michael Clarke Duncan to TV 
Guide in 2003. 

Comics publishers didn't realize at the time 
that the emergence of Elektra signaled the end of 
cheerier, more colorful superheroines. DCs 
Amethyst, Princess ofGemworld, part-superhero, 
part-Alice in Wonderland, enjoyed an initial blip of 
success, then cascaded to cancellation. (Syndicated 
TV's animated She-Ra: Princess of Power 
[1985-1988] experienced a similar fate.) Marvel's 
pre-teen supergroup Power Pack also contained two 
girls in its cast. Like Amethyst, Power Pack was criti- 
cally embraced, but did not connect commercially 
with an audience large enough to sustain its publica- 
tion (though it hung on for seven years, an impres- 
sive feat in an increasingly depressed market). 

Conversely, superheroines with a darker edge 
netted higher returns. Marvel's Dagger, of the team 
Cloak and Dagger, attacked evildoers with piercing 
shards of light. Spider-Man soon cavorted with the 
Black Cat (not the original Harvey character), a 
naughty but vivacious thief, and the Invisible Girl 
was liberated to the Invisible Woman, and temporar- 
ily became a supervillainess named Malice. While 
Marvel's 1980s superheroines got tougher, so did 
women in the real world: Self-defense classes were 
the rage. 

During the 1980s some fans accused DC 
Comics of misogyny due to its treatment of its super- 
heroines. Supergirl was killed (beaten to death, inci- 
dentally), Wonder Woman was erased from existence 
in 1986 (but was resurrected the next year), Black 



Canary was criminally assaulted in Green Arrow: The 
Longbow Hunters (1987), and Batgirl was debased 
and crippled by the psychotic villain the Joker in Bat- 
man: The Killing Joke (1988). Other DC super- 
heroines became decoration, like Fire and Ice in the 
pages of Justice League America, important more for 
sex appeal than story substance. 

GOOP GIBLS GO BAP 

In 1992 Michelle Pfeiffer's mesmerizing turn 
as Catwoman in director Tim Burton's Batman 
Returns popularized the concept of a "bad girl" 
heroine. Pfeiffer's Catwoman was fundamentally a 
villainess, but while her motivations were anti-hero- 
ic, her plight was sympathetic. Deep down she had 
a soft spot, questioning her actions against Batman 
as she fell for his true identity of Bruce Wayne. Her 
alter ego Selina Kyle was battered and abused, but 
as the sultry Catwoman she took charge, letting no 
man interfere with her goal — revenge against her 
male tormentor. Pfeiffer's pulchritude made Cat- 
woman the sexiest screen character of the year. As 
Catwoman she carried the torch lit by Elektra and 
helped transform the superheroine: Superwomen 
could now have looks that kill, and the power to kill. 

Post-Batman Returns, the comic-book busi- 
ness — which once avoided superheroines in star- 
ring roles — has produced dozens of titles with sexu- 
ally exaggerated women in the lead (a survey of DC 
and Marvel comic-book titles published in Septem- 
ber 2003 included a remarkable sixteen titles [not 
including superteams] starring women). Many have 
shamelessly parroted Elektra, even equipping their 
characters with knives, swords, and mystical 
gauntlets: Avengelyne, Glory, Cyblade, Witchblade, 
and Shi. Other such characters have fortified them- 
selves with an arsenal: Ghost, Tank Girl, Shotgun 
Mary, Barb Wire, and Silver Sable. Still others use 
supernatural powers to stop or eradicate their foes: 
Lady Death, Darkchylde, and Vampirella (a main- 
stream-comics revival of the extraterrestrial blood- 
sucker from Warren Comics' legendary 1970s line 



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of magazine-sized, ostensibly mature nonsuperhero 
titles). Not all contemporary superheroines kill, but 
some of them come dangerously close. Even Won- 
der Woman has developed a warrior's edge. 

Beautiful "bad girl" protagonists with martial- 
arts mastery have transcended comics into mass- 
media omnipresence. Video games are filled with 
them, most notably Lara Croft of Tomb Raiderlame. 
Sexy "action heroines" have replaced the Arnold 
Schwarzenegger/Bruce Willis action hero archetype 
in 2000s cinema. These action heroines are not 
superheroines in the strictest sense of the word, 
but — thanks to wires and special-effects wizardry — 
they display spellbinding feats of superheroics: Wit- 
ness Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu 
in the Charlie's Angels movies; Angelina Jolie in the 
Tomb Raider film franchise; Carrie-Anne Moss as 
Trinity in The Matrix series; Uma Thurman as a 
vengeful bride in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 
(2004); and Halle Berry, stepping beyond her Storm 
role to upstage James Bond as Jinx in Die Another 
Day (2002) and succeeding Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat- 
woman (2004). Numerous live-action television 
series have featured "chicks who kick," like Buffy 
the Vampire Slayer, Xena Warrior Princess, Dark 
Angel, and the comics-based Birds of Prey and 
Witchblade. Aggressive superheroines have also 
invaded the world of children's pop culture, particu- 
larly in the case of the Cartoon Network's Powerpuff 
Girls, who usually level the city of Townsville in their 
violent efforts to "save" it. 

Since the latter decades of the twentieth cen- 
tury, men (enlightened men, that is) have grown 
less threatened by the concept of powerful women. 
In the case of superheroines, titillation has been 
employed as an incentive to attract the support of 
males. Some comic-book covers featuring super- 
heroines border on softcore pornography, with 
impossibly proportioned women in pin-up poses. "It 
has been said that the comics industry has given 
nothing to girls but misogynist sewage from the 
underdeveloped noggins of pig-eyed little men 
whose idea of a strong woman is 'She Who Can 



Bear the Weight of Her Enormous Boobs'," wrote 
Amazons! editor Jessica Amanda Salmonson in her 
introduction to Robbins' The Great Women Super- 
heroes. Indeed, a subculture has developed that 
regards the superheroine as a sex object, attested 
to by a host of websites featuring photos of partially 
clad actresses in costumes. 

Those extremes aside, superheroines have, like 
real-life women, clawed their way from subservience 
to prominence. Should future cultural climes alter 
the societal position of women, the characterization 
of superheroines will naturally follow. — ME 

Superman 

Superman is widely regarded as the first superhero. 
That's not entirely true: The Shadow, the Phantom, 
Doc Savage, the Spider, and a handful of others pre- 
ceded him in the mid-1980s. Those costumed or 
superpowered crime fighters may have beaten Super- 
man out of the gate, but not to the punch. This "Man 
of Steel" and his astounding abilities caught an 
unsuspecting readership by surprise in 1938. Gener- 
ations later, Superman has become indelibly etched 
into the annals of American folklore. Today, most his- 
torians call Superman the first superhero because he 
defined a distinct hero type, clearly breaking away 
from the masked adventurers who preceded him. 

Superman's origin is nearly as recognizable as 
the hero himself. Moments before the planet Kryp- 
ton explodes, its chief scientist rockets his infant 
son to safety. The baby's spaceship lands on Earth 
and is discovered by the Kents, a childless couple 
that adopt the tiny extraterrestrial. The boy exhibits 
astonishing powers, and the Kents teach the lad, 
whom they name Clark, to use his abilities to 
"assist humanity." Upon adulthood (and the death 
of his Earth parents), Clark Kent dons a caped uni- 
form as Superman, "champion of the oppressed." 

This tale was first revealed in Action Comics #1 
(June 1938), published while the United States was 



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in the stranglehold of the Great Depression. In his 
earliest outings, Superman was enormously brazen 
as he caved in walls, slapped dictators, and spanked 
sharp-tongued heiresses. By stark contrast, his alter 
ego, the bespectacled Kent, was outrageously diffi- 
dent, and on this dichotomy hinged the hero's audi- 
ence appeal: Kent was the downtrodden "everyman," 
while Superman personified physical power. Super- 
man was an unabashed intimidatoryou could cheer 
for, a figure of hope when many Americans felt hope- 
less. Readers found in Superman a hero who repre- 
sented "truth, justice, and the American way," and his 
colorful escapades, told in the vibrant new medium 
of comic books, captured their imaginations. Super- 
man not only initiated his own career with Action #1, 
but single-handedly launched a new industry — comic- 
book publishers sprouted instantly, and scores of 
new superheroes followed, truly exemplifying the 
"American way" (capitalism). 

And to think, Superman started on the wrong 
side of the law. Throughout the early 1930s, his cre- 
ators, author Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster, 
high-school chums from Cleveland, Ohio, were habit- 
ually rejected by professional publishers. So they 
started their own mimeographed fanzine, Science 
Fiction, in which they printed Siegel's prose story 
"The Reign of the Superman," about a misshapen 
human who acquires superpowers and turns evil. 
Siegel and Shuster later modified the concept into a 
proposal for a newspaper strip featuring a caped 
Superman with an "S" on his massive chest who 
uses his powers — augmented strength and stamina, 
bulletproof skin, and the ability to leap an eighth of a 
mile — for good. They ambitiously marketed their cre- 
ation as "The Smash Hit Strip of 1936," but the syn- 
dicates balked. Maintaining unwavering faith in their 
concept, the persevering pair submitted their Super- 
man idea to comic-book publisher Detective Comics, 
Inc. (DC), who took a chance on the property for 
their start-up title, Action. Siegel and Shuster sold 
DC the rights to Superman for a reported pittance of 
$130, but they didn't mind — it was a gig, and, most 
importantly, their hero was in print. 




m THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DAP.IN& \ 
i EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY \ 



Superman #1 © 1939 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JOE SHUSTER. 



Action Comics starring Superman sold phe- 
nomenally well, and DC Comics wasted no time in 
exploiting the character. In January 1939, Siegel 
and Shuster realized their earlier dream by produc- 
ing a Superman syndicated newspaper strip. Dis- 
tributed by the McClure Syndicate, the feature ran 
successfully through the 1940s. Siegel and Shuster 
(before turning the reigns over to writer/artist 
Wayne Boring in 1940) expanded the hero's origin 
by giving the baby a Kryptonian name (Kal-L, later 
Kal-EI), and by naming his biological parents (Jor-L 
and Lora, later Jor-EI and Lara). The Man of Steel 
was awarded his own title with Superman #1 (Sum- 
mer 1939), and soon began appearing in World's 
Best (later World's Finest) Comics. In a few short 
years, Superman rocketed into ubiquity. DC intro- 
duced a "Supermen of America" fan club and 



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Superman 



licensed the character's likeness to manufacturers 
of toys, puzzles, novels, coloring books, bubble 
gum — almost every product imaginable. The Man of 
Steel burst into radio in 1940 in the long-running 
The Adventures of Superman program, with actor 
Bud Collyer lending voice to the hero, and into 
movie theaters in 1941, in a celebrated series of 
seventeen animated shorts from the Fleischer Stu- 
dios. Superman became big business. Some joked 
that the "S" emblazoned across his chest should 
be changed to a "$." 

Superman's superpowers grew with his 
acclaim: Soon he was flying instead of leaping, he 
became invulnerable, and supersenses like X-ray 
vision and superhearing were added. Of course, 
every hero needs a weakness, and Superman's was 
kryptonite, radioactive meteorites from his home- 
world, a story element that first appeared on his 
radio program. He quickly developed a rogues' 
gallery including Lex Luthor, the Ultra-Humanite, and 
the Prankster. Upon the advent of World War II, 
Superman was anointed as DC Comics' standard- 
bearer of patriotism, and on several occasions even 
took on the Axis forces. 

Superman's Kent identity was Siegel and Shus- 
ter's in-joke. As a reporter for the Daily Planet (origi- 
nally the Daily Star) in the city of Metropolis, Kent 
frequently winked at his readers to acknowledge 
that they were in on the gag (the first comic-book 
hero to do this, by the way): that the people around 
him couldn't see through his flimsy disguise of eye- 
glasses and a business suit. His spunky colleague 
Lois Lane wasn't fooled for long, however. Suspi- 
cious over Kent's disappearances during Super- 
man's feats, she spent decades unsuccessfully try- 
ing to prove that Kent and Superman were one and 
the same. Kent's association with the newspaper 
placed him on the ground floor of breaking events in 
which Superman's presence might be required — 
and often that meant rescuing the daring Lane from 
danger. Kent's boss in the earliest tales was 
George Taylor, who soon morphed into crusty man- 
aging editor Perry White, a cigar-chomping, old- 



school newshound often agitated by the antics of 
his staff. Jimmy Olsen, a copy boy (and later "cub 
reporter") whose enthusiasm frequently got him 
into trouble, became famous as Superman's pal. 

Most superheroes withered from view after 
World War II, but the Man of Steel kept going 
strong. In 1945, DC amended its continuity with the 
creation of Superboy, "The Adventures of Superman 
When He Was a Boy." His wholesome adventures 
took place in Smallville, a geographical slice of 
America's heartland, where young Kent lived with 
his parents, Jonathan and Martha. Neighbor Lana 
Lang was introduced as the teenage equivalent of 
Lois Lane. Meanwhile actor Kirk Alyn brought Super- 
boy's adult counterpart to life in a pair of live-action 
movie serials, Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. 
Superman (1950), the latter of which adapted 
Luthor to the big screen. During this period of 
super-profit, Siegel and Shuster lost a legal battle 
to regain the rights to their creation. 

In the 1950s, as Americans enjoyed postwar 
prosperity and pride, Superman was redefined from 
the burly bully of comics' Golden Age (1938-1954) 
into a helpful scoutmaster, instilling virtues into the 
childish Lane and Olsen — and the readers. Actor 
George Reeves, who portrayed the Man of Steel in 
the live-action theatrical release Superman and the 
Mole Men (1951), starred in the movie's syndicated 
television spinoff The Adventures of Superman 
(1953-1957). Reeves became beloved in the role: 
He pitched Kellogg's Corn Flakes as Superman and 
appeared on / Love Lucy as the Man of Steel (Who 
could forget the episode in which he flies in to save 
Lucy from her high-rise window-ledge shenani- 
gans?). A Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen comics title 
was launched in 1954, followed by Superman's Girl 
Friend Lois Lane in 1958, and Superman and Bat- 
man formed a regular partnership in World's Finest. 
Superman was developing a family. Enter the family 
superdog, Krypto, another survivor of the hero's 
homeworld. The Man of Steel was DC Comics' best- 
selling and flagship character, so important to the 
publisher that it changed its company logo to 



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"Superman-DC Comics." As the decade closed, the 
atomic age zapped science fiction into a place of 
prominence in Superman's comics: Luthor flour- 
ished high-tech weapons against the Man of Steel; 
new villains like the android Brainiac were estab- 
lished; the time-traveling Legion of Super-Heroes 
joined the supporting cast; and Superman's cousin, 
Supergirl, showed up in a Kryptonian spaceship. 

The 1960s were a turbulent decade of escalat- 
ing global tension, civil unrest, a bloody and unpop- 
ular war, and social disorder — and for much of the 
decade, Superman turned a blind eye to it all (tough 
to do with his super-vision). Mort Wesinger, editor of 
the Superman comics, continued to expand the 
Man of Steel's family: Joining the already cumber- 
some cast were mermaid Lori Lemaris; loopy inven- 
tor Professor Potter; superpets Beppo the Super- 
monkey, Streaky the Supercat, and Comet the 
Superhorse; Superman's biological parents Jor-EI 
and Lara (via frequent flashbacks and time-travel 
tales); Kryptonian survivors in the Phantom Zone 
and in the miniaturized Bottle City of Kandor; and a 
whole world of wacky Superman mutates called 
Bizarros. Traces of the real world occasionally crept 
into his comics — President John F. Kennedy's 
assassination was too big for even Weisinger's 
Super-sanitized Man of Steel to ignore — but mostly, 
the Superman titles offered an escape from, not an 
exploration of, matters political. And no one 
seemed to mind: Superman's fame reached global 
status, as translations of his comic books were 
being gobbled up in numerous countries. He was 
the king of all media long before Howard Stern, 
appearing on television (through reruns of Reeves' 
1950s series and an animated cartoon in 1966), in 
toy stores, in popular song (Donovan's trippy 1966 
release "Sunshine Superman"), and even on Broad- 
way in a musical comedy, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's 
Superman (1966). 

By the mid-1960s, Curt Swan's crisp penciling 
style helped him emerge from a pack of talented 
illustrators as "the" Superman artist, a title Swan 
held until the 1980s. Superman's comics may have 



looked good, but they didn't read well: The burgeon- 
ing ensemble of superpeople and superanimals 
was neutering the hero's individuality. Weisinger and 
his writers were running out of ideas, resorting to 
gimmicks rather than characterization for Super- 
man's adventures. "Imaginary" stories — tales 
appearing outside of the regular continuity — 
became commonplace, allowing Superman to die, 
to marry, and to have offspring, but return to the 
status quo with the next adventure. His superpow- 
ers intensified to an inane level: Superman gained 
microscopic vision, heat vision (previously he had 
melted objects with the heat from his X-ray vision), 
and even superi/enfri/oqu/sm! As Superman's facul- 
ties increased, his enemies simply could not pose a 
credible threat, and his stories lost dramatic inten- 
sity. Only the energy-siphoning Parasite, the cre- 
ation of writer Jim Shooter, gave Superman a run for 
his money, but he surfaced too late to stop the hero 
who was "more powerful than a locomotive" from 
derailing: By the end of the decade, Superman's 
adventures had grown stale and his titles' reader- 
ship had dwindled. Similarly, the Superman newspa- 
per strip was canceled in 1967. 

Carmine Infantino, former artist of The Flash 
and Batman, had recently been appointed DCs edito- 
rial director and was revitalizing the company's line. 
The Man of Steel was slated for an overhaul, with edi- 
tor Julius Schwartz, who had successfully resuscitat- 
ed the Batman titles from near-cancellation in 1964, 
assigned to helm the revisions. In 1970, DC house 
ads trumpeted an impending change: "There's a New 
Kind of Superman Coming!" Superman #233 (Janu- 
ary 1971) was where it began: Kent, now bolder and 
hipper, became a television news reporter, kryptonite 
was eliminated, and Superman's powers were weak- 
ened. Pioneering young writers like Denny O'Neil, 
Elliot S! Maggin, and Cary Bates invigorated the tales 
with realism and new villains. None of this mattered 
to the world at large, however, where Superman's sta- 
tus was now iconic: His "S" insignia was appropriat- 
ed by the lead character (a Christ allegory) in the rock 
opera Godspell (1971); singer Jim Croce immortal- 



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ized the Man of Steel as a tough guy in his 1973 hit, 
"You Don't Mess around with Jim" (with the recurring 
line, "You don't tug on Superman's cape"); and 
Superman was featured as one of television's ani- 
mated Super Friends (1973). 

Halfway through the 1970s, two major events 
occurred: DC joined forces with competitor Marvel 
Comics to co-publish a best-selling crossover, 
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man; and film 
producers Alexander and llya Salkind signed a deal 
to produce a big-budget movie (and a sequel) star- 
ring the Man of Steel. The impending film and its 
promise of profit inspired Neal Adams, superstar 
illustrator and advocate for artists' rights, to lobby 
DC to provide financial restitution to Superman's 
architects Siegel and Shuster, both of whom 
teetered on the brink of destitution. DC and parent 
company Warner Bros, obliged, bowing to media 
pressure, and established pensions for both and 
inserted their names into all Superman comics as 
the creators of the character. In 1977, as part of a 
promotional campaign for the upcoming motion pic- 
ture, the Superman newspaper strip was revived, 
beginning a sixteen-year run. The Salkinds' Super- 
man: The Movie was the blockbuster film of 1978: 
It made actor Christopher Reeve a megastar and 
raised the special effects bar by several notches. 

As with any successful film, sequels followed, 
and the first half of the 1980s for Superman was 
demarcated by Reeve's interpretation of the hero — 
the Man of Steel as a "friend," a sincere Boy Scout 
who never told a lie, earning his merit badge by sav- 
ing the world. Editor Schwartz's Superman comics 
suffered during this period. The radical changes he 
implemented in the early and mid-1970s had been 
jettisoned, and the resulting stories were reminis- 
cent of the material he'd been hired to eliminate. 
Superman needed a shot in the arm. 

As DC Comics reinvented itself in the mid-1980s 
with its continuity-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths 
series (in which Supergirl died valiantly), Marvel 
Comics writer/artist John Byrne was hired to recreate 
the hero. Byrne's opening volley was The Man of Steel 



(1986), a six-issue, biweekly miniseries that cleaned 
the slate for the character while preserving the best 
aspects from previous incarnations (mostly the 
movies). Superboy was no more, Krypton was antisep- 
tic, and Luthor became the 1980s version of evil 
incarnate: a corporate CEO. Byrne's Reeve-like Super- 
man would kick ass when necessary. There were also 
significant changes involving Kent's personal life, per- 
haps the biggest being that his parents, Jonathan and 
Martha, were now still alive, lending compassionate 
support to their adult super-son. 

Since Superman's 1986 reintroduction, an 
army of writers, artists, and editors have expanded 
upon the revised mythology, reintroducing classic 
concepts and characters (with new twists) and intro- 
ducing potentially lethal menaces to imperil the 
Man of Steel, usually in lengthy and sometimes 
inaccessible story arcs. Three highly publicized 
events affected the character in the 1990s: his Jan- 
uary 1993 death (at the hands of a brutish behe- 
moth appropriately called Doomsday) in Superman 
#75 and subsequent resurrection (surprise!); his 
controversial transformation into a pure energy 
being with a different costume than the bankable 
classic (another headline-grabbing but short-lived 
innovation); and Kent's 1996 marriage to Lois Lane 
in Superman: The Wedding Album #1. 

Since The Man of Steel, Superman has main- 
tained a consistent television presence: in two ani- 
mated Superman cartoons (in 1988 and 1996) and 
on the Cartoon Network's Justice League (2001-pre- 
sent); in the live-action programs Superboy 
(1988-1992), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of 
Superman (1993-1997), and the teen-oriented 
Smallville (2001-present); and as a regular topic of 
discussion among the characters of the 1990s sit- 
com Seinfeld. His movie prospects haven't fared as 
well since the failure of Reeve's Superman IV: The 
Quest for Peace (1987). The revival of the Super- 
man movie franchise has passed through multiple 
hands, with a script by screenwriter Jeffrey Abrams 
still in development in 2004. His theatrical woes 
aside, Superman ranked in second place on VHl's 



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2003 list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons," 
with only Oprah Winfrey besting the Man of Steel. 

In 1999, a legal ruling granted the heirs of 
Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel 50 percent of the 
Superman copyright. Since Joe Shuster died with 
no heirs, DC Comics retained his half of the copy- 
right, and owns the Superman trademark in full. 
The long-range effects of this decision, if any, 
remain to be seen. 

Thus far in the twenty-first century, Superman 
comic books have reflected contemporary cultural 
trends, with a Japanese manga-influenced art style 
being in vogue as of 2004. It is inevitable that 
future market and societal shifts will spark further 
alterations in the Superman canon. No matter 
what's in store, the Man of Steel will endure as a 
symbol of hope and inspiration. He is Superman, 
after all! —ME 

Superman 
in the Media 

Look, up on the screen! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's 
Superman! Since his creation in 1938, Superman 
has traveled into the heart of generation upon gen- 
eration of readers, moviegoers, and television fans. 
In the last sixty-plus years, Superman has been the 
star of movie serials, live-action and animated TV 
shows, radio programs, and several movies. Rocket- 
ed to Earth from a dying planet, Kal-EI may be the 
last son of Krypton, but Clark Kent and Superman 
have been portrayed by more than a dozen actors, 
and the Man of Steel has appeared in more media 
interpretations that any other superhero. 

TH£ 1940S: 
CARTOONS ANP SZZIALS 

Although Republic Studios had bid against 
them, Paramount gained the rights to bring National 



Comic's best-selling hero to life in an animated 
Superman cartoon series in 1941. Fleischer Studios, 
noted for their popular Popeye and Betty Boop car- 
toons, planned the series with an astonishing atten- 
tion to detail, utilizing Superman co-creator Joe Shus- 
ter's powerful character designs along with incredible 
special effects and vibrant colors. A process known 
as "rotoscoping" — tracing the animation over live- 
action models — gave the art a startling realism. 

The seventeen original Superman cartoons 
were shown regularly at movie theaters, from Sep- 
tember 9, 1941 to July 30, 1943. Even today, the 
cartoons are considered classic animation; Super- 
man and Lois Lane looked as if they had literally 
walked off of the comic-book page and into a three- 
dimensional world. The late Clayton "Bud" Collyer 
was the voice of Clark Kent, whose voice dropped a 
few octaves whenever he became Superman. Colly- 
er was also portraying the Man of Steel in the popu- 
lar Mutual Network Superman radio show 
(1940-1951). There, he originated the phrase "Up, 
Up, and Away" because listeners could not see 
their hero flying off. In the cartoons, Superman 
fought mechanical monsters, mummies, spies, 
robots, and "Japoteurs." 

Although they publicly announced (twice) that 
they were bringing Superman to live-action, Republic 
Studios was outbid again, in 1947, by Columbia Pic- 
tures. Serials were 15- to 30-minute mini-movies with 
cliff-hanger endings; theaters ran a new chapter each 
week. Republic was the serial king, but Columbia was 
noted for its other comic adaptations, including 
National characters such as Batman (1943, 1949) 
and Vigilante (1943). Under the auspices of low-bud- 
get producer Sam Katzman, production began on the 
Superman serial in late 1947, with handsome lead- 
ing man Kirk Alyn in the lead, young actress Noel 
Neill in the part of Lois Lane, and former Our Gang 
star Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen. 

The debut Superman serial (1948) contained 
fifteen chapters, with the opening showing the first 
media-related origin sequence on Krypton. Although 
the young Clark Kent was raised in the serials by 



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Eben and Sarah Kent (rather than the more familiar 
"Jonathan and Martha"), the adult Clark Kent still 
worked as a reporter in Metropolis. As Superman, 
he kept the dreaded "Queen of the Underworld," Spi- 
der Lady (Carol Forman), from gaining control over 
the ultra-powerful Reducer Ray. Acting in the serials 
was strong, but the special-effects flying sequences 
were inadequate; to fly, Alyn would leap over the 
camera, and suddenly become an animated figure! 

Superman became the most popular — and 
profitable — serial ever done. A second serial, Atom 
Man vs. Superman (1950), was soon underway, fea- 
turing the same heroic cast, but a new villain. The 
Atom Man was a hooded menace who terrified 
Metropolis and Superman with his synthetic kryp- 
tonite, a flying saucer, a torpedo, and the dreaded 
sonic vibrator. Superman eventually unmasked the 
Atom Man, only to find his arch nemesis, Lex Luthor 
(Lyle Talbot in a bald skull-cap). Atom Man vs. 
Superman was not as successful as its predeces- 
sor, despite live flying sequences, but it brought 
enough money in for talk of a third serial. But the 
days of the great movie serial were coming to an 
end with the dawning of a new era of entertain- 
ment: television. 

THE 1950S AMP 1960S-. MOVIES, 
TBieVISION, AMP STAGE 

In 1951, production began on Superman and 
the Mole Men, the Kryptonian hero's first full-length 
motion picture. After Kirk Alyn turned down the role, 
producers Tommy Carr (who had directed parts of 
the first Superman serial) and Robert Maxwell 
chose leading man George Reeves (best known at 
that time for his role of Stuart Tarleton in Gone with 
the Wind) to play Superman. Lois Lane was also 
recast, with budding screen actress Phyllis Coates 
taking over the role. Filming began on July 30, 
1951, on an RKO lot, the new crew little knowing 
that their work would have implications for many 
generations to come, and eventual shattering con- 
sequences for their new Superman. 



The story in Superman and the Mole Men con- 
cerned a small mining town whose drilling broke 
through the earth's crust into an underground civi- 
lization, bringing forth a race of glowing midgets. 
Superman defends the "Mole Men" against the 
fearful mob, who want to kill the strange beings. 
Despite the fact that America was in the grip of 
McCarthyism, with the "Red Scare" finding a Com- 
munist under every bush, Superman and the Mole 
Men held an unlikely but powerful message for tol- 
erance of the unknown, and a peaceful co-existence 
with the other inhabitants of the planet. 

With theaters packed, producer Maxwell had 
already begun filming episodes for a new television 
series called The Adventures of Superman. Reeves 
and Coates returned, supported by young actor Jack 
Larson as Jimmy Olsen, John Hamilton as Daily 
Planet editor Perry White, and the newly created 
Police Inspector Henderson role played by Robert 
Shayne. The actors worked hard and fast — six days 
a week, averaging four episodes in ten days — shoot- 
ing most scenes in one take! Although twenty-six 
episodes of The Adventures of Superman were 
filmed in 1951, release was delayed by Superman's 
owner, National; however, when Kellogg's decided to 
sponsor the show in 1953, the debut was set. The 
Adventures of Superman premiered on ABC on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1953, and soared in the ratings. 

New Superman episodes were commissioned, 
but changes were mandated. First, Bob Maxwell, 
whose episodes were deemed too violent, was 
replaced as producer by the gentler Whitney 
Ellsworth. Second, the budget had to be strictly 
adhered to. And third, Coates had found other work 
and could not reprise her role as Lois Lane. Recast- 
ing the role seemed simple, and the serial Lois, Noel 
Neill, was brought back. As the show moved on, other 
problems popped up; most important was Reeves' 
growing dissatisfaction with the slowness of produc- 
tion (initially, only thirteen episodes were scheduled 
to shoot over four years' time) and the typecasting 
he was feeling from the popular role. Still, with a pay 
raise, he chose not to hang up his cape. 



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In 1954, the series converted to color, requir- 
ing new sets, makeup, and costumes; in addition, 
action sequences were trimmed to a minimum, 
mainly due to budgetary constraints. The show wob- 
bled in format, but stayed popular until its end — 
after 104 episodes and a guest spot for Superman 
on / Love Lucy—'m 1957. Reeves himself directed 
the 102nd through 104th episodes, his first direct- 
ing assignments. Syndication began immediately. 

On June 16, 1959, Reeves was found dead in 
his bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. 
Although suicide was ruled the cause, and newspa- 
per headlines shouted "Superman Kills Self," the 
death has been seen as suspicious and remains 
one of Hollywood's dark mysteries to this day. 
National had been talking to a typecast and 
despondent Reeves about returning for more Super- 
man episodes, but now they began to develop other 
spin-off properties. A Jimmy Olsen show was talked 
about, with footage mixed in from the previous 
Superman shows, but Jack Larson refused to con- 
sider the project. Whitney Ellsworth filmed a 1960 
live-action pilot called Superpup, starring a super- 
powered dog who masqueraded as Bark Bent and a 
cast made up of midgets, who roamed around a 
miniaturized set. Ellsworth also produced a pilot 
episode of The Adventures ofSuperboy, but neither 
project was ever aired. 

Superman next appeared in a Broadway musi- 
cal-comedy titled It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Super- 
man. With music by Charles Strauss and lyrics by 
Lee Adams, the script was written by David Newman 
and Robert Benton, who would later do the same for 
the first modern Superman film. The original cast 
included Bob Holiday as Superman, and pre-Mce 
Linda Lavin as Lois Lane. The 1966 musical was 
later filmed by ABC-TV, and shown in 1975, with 
David Wilson as Superman. Two decades later, in 
1997, Michael Daugherty would release a full-scale 
orchestral work known as Metropolis Symphony. 

CBS aired Filmation's animated The New 
Adventures of Superman from September 10, 1966 
to September 2, 1967, when it became the Super- 



man-Aquaman Hour. The series consisted of two 
short Superman stories and one Superboy story per 
half-hour, and included comic-book villains such as 
Luthor and Brainiac. In September 1968, the series 
became the Batman-Superman Hour, and ran until 
September 6, 1969. Bud Collyer reprised his role 
from both the radio shows and the earlier cartoons 
as the voice of Superman, as did Joan Alexander as 
Lois Lane. 

TH£ 1970S ANP 1930S: 
CA8T00SIS ANP MOVIES 

Superman did not have any new television 
adventures on his own for quite some time, but 
after a 1972 guest-shot on ABC's The Brady Kids 
cartoon, he showed up as the main member of 
Hanna-Barbera and ABC's Super Friends series on 
September 8, 1973. Teamed with Batman, Robin, 
Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, Superman fought 
aliens and an occasional supervillain. Superman's 
voice was now provided by Danny Dark, since 
Collyer had died in 1969. 

Super Friends evolved almost yearly, changing 
titles and formats as it went. It became The All-New 
Super Friends Hour (1977-1978), The Challenge of 
the Super Friends (1978-1979), The World's Great- 
est Super Friends (1979-1980), The Super Friends 
Hour (1980-1981), The Super Friends 
(1981-1984), Super Friends— The Legendary Super 
Powers Show (1984-1985), and, finally, The Super 
Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985-1986). 
Many Superman concepts made it onto the small 
screen, including Mr. Mxyzptlk, Lex Luthor, the Phan- 
tom Zone, Brainiac, and kryptonite. 

"You'll Believe a Man Can Fly" was the tag-line 
on teaser ads for the Warner Bros, live-action 
Superman: The Movie, and since the audiences 
were still reeling from the impact of the blockbuster 
hit Star Wars, the movie had to impress. Filmmak- 
ers had worked on the film for two years before its 
premiere on December 15, 1978. Although several 
major stars such as Robert Redford, Bruce Jenner, 



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Superman in the Media 



and Arnold Schwarzenegger were considered for the 
lead role, relatively unknown stage actor Christo- 
pher Reeve was cast instead. Other parts were 
soon cast: Marlon Brando was Jor-EI, Gene Hack- 
man was Lex Luthor, Jackie Cooper was Perry 
White, Margot Kidder was Lois Lane, Marc McClure 
was Jimmy Olsen, Ned Beatty was Luthor's bum- 
bling henchman Otis, and Valerie Perrine was 
Luthor's consort, Miss Eve Teschmacher. Even Kirk 
Alyn and Noel Neill made a cameo appearance as 
the parents of the young Lois Lane. 

Superman: The Movie was a success on 
almost all levels. The story, by Mario Puzo, David 
Newman, and Robert Benton, stuck closely to the 
original Superman legend. The special effects were 
Academy Award-winning, and theater-goers did 
believe that a man could fly. John Williams provided 
the lush soundtrack and score, earning a 1979 
Academy Award nomination for his work. Director 
Richard Donner, working with producers llya Salkind 
and Pierre Spengler, created what in many viewers' 
eyes was the definitive Superman film, largely 
because the cast played the film straight. No camp 
or winks to the audience; this Superman was real. 
Superman: The Movie was a top-grosser at the box 
office, and the sequel was already in production. 

The filmmakers had filmed a large portion of 
footage for Superman II concurrently with Super- 
man, but much of Donner's footage was reshot by 
new director Richard Lester. The plot contained a 
super-confrontation between Superman and three 
survivors from the Phantom Zone (Terrence Stamp, 
Sarah Douglas, and Jack O'Halloran). It also fea- 
tured a dramatic resolution of sorts to the Clark 
Kent-Lois Lane-Superman love triangle that had 
been present for over forty years, when Lane discov- 
ers Kent's identity, and their night of passion has 
disastrous consequences. Superman //debuted in 
1981 and was another success; critics would call 
the first and second Superman films the best exam- 
ples of the superhero genre. 



Lester, producers Alexander and llya Salkind, 
and scripters David and Leslie Newman developed a 
plot for Superman III (1983), which dealt with a mad 
computer genius (Robert Vaughn) and his super-com- 
puters, and co-starred comedian Richard Pryor. The 
regular supporting cast was gone, with Superman vis- 
iting Smallville where he was reunited with old girl- 
friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole). The film was 
played too much for laughs, and it bombed in the- 
aters. Christopher Reeve made a public announce- 
ment that he would never play Superman again. 

On November 23, 1984, Warner expanded its 
franchise with the first Supergirl movie, llya Salkind 
returned to produce, with Jeannot Szwarc directing. 
The part of Kara Zor-EI/Supergirl went to young 
unknown, Helen Slater, while the supporting cast 
was peppered with more seasoned performers: 
Faye Dunaway and Brenda Vaccaro as the villainess- 
es, and Peter O'Toole and Mia Farrow as Zor-EI's 
parents. Marc McClure was brought in as Jimmy 
Olsen, providing a bridge between the two movie 
series. Despite Slater's appealing performance and 
some excellent flying sequences, Supergirl failed at 
the box office, and no sequels followed. 

With Superman's fiftieth anniversary in 1988, 
Warner wanted a new Superman film. In 1986, 
Christopher Reeve agreed to return after being 
granted script approval and a much higher salary, 
and other main cast members also returned: Kid- 
der, Hackman, Cooper, and McClure. Reeve worked 
with Larry Konner and Mark Rosenthal on a script 
that concerned Superman dealing with a young 
schoolboy's question: If Superman is so powerful, 
why doesn't he get rid of all of the nuclear weapons 
on the earth? Unfortunately, production company 
Cannon Films didn't have the budget that the 
Salkinds had worked with, and the script morphed 
into Superman battling a pair of Luthor's two solar- 
powered super-creations. Special effects were sub- 
par, and stock footage from the previous three 



Opposite: Christopher Reeve stars as the Man of Steel in Superman: The Movie. 



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movies was used for some flying sequences. When 
a preview audience panned the film in early 1987, 
director Sidney Furie edited the two-hour-plus film to 
ninety minutes, muddling the story completely. 
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released in 
1987 with little promotion, and with disappointing — 
and disappointed — audiences. Cannon Films 
announced plans for Superman V, due out in the 
summer of 1989, but the movie never took flight. 

THB 1930S ANP 1990S: 
BACK TO TUeVTSTON 

Superman celebrated his fiftieth birthday Febru- 
ary 29, 1988, in the middle of Warner's and DCs 
media push. NBC aired a primetime Superman's 
50th Birthday Special, produced and directed by Sat- 
urday Night Live producer Lome Michaels. The campy 
special included cast members from the serials and 
television shows in cameo roles, but also Jan Hooks 
as a woman who had birthed Superman's "love 
child," and Dana Carvey as the villainous Brainwave. 

Warner also worked with Ruby-Spears on a new 
animated Superman show, which premiered on CBS 
on September 17, 1988. Famed comic writer Marv 
Wolfman — at that time the scripter of the Adventures 
of Superman comic — became story editor, in charge 
of developing the show, and writing the series bible. 
He hired other comic-book writers to work on the 
series, as well as veteran artist Gil Kane to design 
the show. Each episode contained an eighteen- 
minute action-oriented Superman lead story, and a 
four-minute backup feature entitled Superman's Fam- 
ily Album, detailing Clark Kent's years from Smallville 
baby to his first appearance in costume in Metropo- 
lis. Villains included Lex Luthor, the Prankster, Gener- 
al Zod, and Wild Sharkk, and heroine Wonder Woman 
guest-starred in one episode. Animation on the show 
was strong, and the John Williams' film theme was 
modified for musical use, but the series was retired 
after thirteen episodes. 

After Cannon gave up the live-action rights to 
the Superman family, Alexander and llya Salkind 



produced a half-hour syndicated series for Viacom, 
featuring Superman as a teen. Superboy premiered 
the week of October 8, 1988. In 1990's third sea- 
son, the series was renamed The Adventures of 
Superboy, and it lasted two more seasons, ending 
in 1992. Following Superboy, the Salkinds wanted 
to start production on Superman: The New Movie, 
for a Christmas 1991 release, with a Superman ver- 
sus Brainiac script by comic writer Cary Bates. The 
film project lost steam, however, and died in 1993. 

That same year, Lorimar and ABC worked out a 
deal for an all-new live-action Superman TV series 
titled Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Super- 
man. Deborah Joy Levine developed the series, which 
balanced lighthearted romance with superheroic 
action. Dean Cain was cast as Superman, with sex- 
pot Teri Hatcher grabbing the role of Lois Lane. 
Michael Landes was cast as Jimmy Olsen, but he 
was replaced after the first season by Justin Whalen. 
Eddie Jones and K Callan played an earthy and elder- 
ly Jonathan and Martha Kent, while Lane Smith had 
the perfect bluster as Perry White. John Shea came 
onboard as the villainous-but-charming Lex Luthor. 

Lois & Clark debuted on September 12, 1993, 
and was a hit with audiences. It lasted four sea- 
sons, bringing in a handful of comic-book and previ- 
ous TV concepts, including kryptonite, Metallo 
(Scott Valentine), Inspector Henderson (Richard 
Belzer), Jor-EI (David Warner), the Prankster (Bran- 
son Pinchot), the Toyman (Sherman Hemsley, Grant 
Shaud), Mr. Mxyzptlk (Howie Mandel), and Lana 
Lang (Emily Procter). The final two seasons played 
around too much with a will-they-marry-or-not? story 
between Lois and Clark, and fans began to desert 
the show. Lois & Clark finished in 1997, after eighty- 
eight episodes had aired. 

TURN OF THB CBNTUZYi 
MOVIES, CARTOONS, ANP TV 

Even as Lois & Clark was winding down, the 
WB was planning a companion show to its popular 
Batman: The Animated Series. Utilizing most of the 



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Superman Villains 



same team that had made that series a success, 
Warner commissioned Superman. Debuting on Sep- 
tember 6, 1996, with a three-part origin story, the 
animated show lasted four seasons. On Superman, 
Timothy Daly voiced the title character, while Dana 
Delaney voiced Lois Lane, David Kaufman was 
Jimmy Olsen, and Clancy Brown was Lex Luthor. 

Extremely faithful to its comic-book origins, 
Superman included such villains as Lex Luthor, the 
Parasite, Bizarro, Darkseid, Lobo, Maxima, Toyman, 
Livewire, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and others. It also debuted a 
newly styled Supergirl, and saw guest-appearances 
from Batman, Robin, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, 
Aquaman, Flash, Steel, the New Gods, Dr. Fate, and 
the Demon. One popular third-season episode even 
saw members of the Legion of Super-Heroes com- 
ing back in time, marking their first and only appear- 
ance on television. Superman was combined with 
episodes of Batman in 1997 under the title The 
New Batman/Superman Adventures, and new 
episodes aired until February 2000. 

New adventures of Superman as a team mem- 
ber are seen weekly on the Cartoon Network's ani- 
mated Justice League series, from the same crew 
that worked on the Batman and Superman shows. 
Justice League debuted on November 17, 2001, 
and new episodes continue to air in 2004. George 
Newbern provides Superman's voice. 

The Kryptonian adventures have not ceased in 
live-action, however. The WB airs Warner's Small- 
ville, which began on October 16, 2001. The popu- 
lar one-hour drama series focuses on the adven- 
tures of teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and 
slightly older Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), but 
the producers have promised "no tights, no flight," 
saying that Kent will never fly on the series, nor 
wear the well-known Superman costume. Still, the 
series is not without its touchstones to the Super- 
man mythos; besides kryptonite, the voice of Jor-EI 
has been heard, and familiar sights such as the 
Daily Planet offices, and characters like police- 
woman Maggie Sawyer, crime boss Morgan Edge, 
and editor Perry White have appeared. Even Christo- 



pher Reeve has guest-starred, as Dr. Virgil Swann, a 
cryptic man who knows something about Krypton. 

As Superman has reached more than two-thirds 
of a century in print, another feature film may be in 
the wings. Producer Jon Peters hired Jonathan Lemp- 
kin in 1995 — then Gregory Poirier— to script a new 
movie. Kevin Smith wrote drafts of a 1997 script 
titled Superman Lives, but when director Tim Burton 
came aboard in 1997, he jettisoned the story and 
cast Nicolas Cage in the title role. After costume fit- 
tings and location scouting was complete, Burton 
stepped out of the picture in 1998, and Cage left the 
project shortly thereafter. Since then, multiple scripts 
have been written by Wesley Strick, Dan Gilroy, Alex 
Ford, J. Ellison, William Wisher, Paul Attanasio, and J. 
J. Abrams. Multiple directors have also climbed 
aboard, including McG (Charlie's Angels), Brett Ratner 
(Rush Hour), and McG again in 2003. The film even 
has multiple titles, including Superman Reborn and 
Superman: The Man of Steel. A Superman/Batman 
film was also in development during 1999/2000, 
written by Andrew Kevin Walker. 

In a March 1988 Time magazine story, Christo- 
pher Reeve said, "Siegel and Shuster created a 
piece of American mythology. It was my privilege to 
be the onscreen custodian of the character in the 
'70s and '80s. There will be many interpretations of 
Superman, but the original character created by two 
teenagers in the '30s will last forever." For two- 
thirds of a century, the public has had a media-relat- 
ed Superman to enjoy, in addition to the comic-book 
stories. As long as there is a sky to look up to and 
see neither a bird nor a plane, whether on film or 
television, in live-action or animation, the Man of 
Steel will be there, defending the principles of 
"Truth, Justice, and the American Way." — AM 



Superman Wains 

He can "change the course of mighty rivers.... Bend 
steel in his bare hands." And that description of the 



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Superman Villains 



Man of Steel, from the introduction of The Adven- 
tures of Superman television program 
(1953-1957), barely scratches the surface of the 
hero's vast abilities, which poses the problem: 
What kind of menace can threaten a character who 
borders on omnipotence? Not that this question 
bothered Superman's creators — writer Jerry Siegel 
and artist Joe Shuster — in the hero's earliest excur- 
sions in Action Comics, beginning with issue #1 
(June 1938). Since the Man of Steel was the prog- 
enitor of superheroes, the sheer novelty of a 
"super" man was enough to amaze readers as he 
heaved bulky sedans over his head and smacked 
gangsters across the room. 

Mad scientist the Ultra-Humanite bears the dis- 
honor of being Superman's first recurring enemy, 
bowing in Action #13. Boasting, in his own words, 
"the most learned brain on Earth," the Ultra-Human- 
ite's knack for transferring his own mind into other 
bodies stymied his superfoe. The Man of Steel's 
best-known adversary, Lex Luthor, debuted in Action 
#23 (1940). This evil genius' legendary bald pate 
was nowhere to be seen as the original Luthor 
sported a mane of shocking red hair. While the 
Ultra-Humanite and Luthor battled the Man of Steel 
with brain power, Superman's next major opponent, 
the Puzzler, matched wits with the hero. On his 
heels were the Prankster and the Toyman, both 
more daffy than dangerous, who were little more 
than an annoyance to Superman. In Superman #30 
(1944), the bedeviling imp Mr. Mxyztplk first popped 
into Metropolis to pester Superman with his magi- 
cal powers. And thus the super-conflicts tramped, 
rather predictably, for two decades: Luthor would try 
to eliminate the Man of Steel with a death ray, and 
the Toyman would attack him with toy soldiers that 
fired real ammo. Superman's ego swelled as he 
considered his battles with these bad guys as little 
more than mere diversions. This plot predictability 
made Superman's adventures wholesome, entry- 
level reading material, which was the objective of 
his editors during the Golden Age of comic books 
(1938-1954). 



Science-fiction-based villains crept into the 
Superman titles with the advent of comics' Silver 
Age in the late 1950s, and for the first time in his 
career Superman began to face actual risks. Braini- 
ac, a space-faring android, employed both sophisti- 
cated science and a miniaturization ray to plague 
the Man of Steel. A mutated monkey called Titano 
the Super-Ape konged through Metropolis, zapping 
Superman with kryptonite vision. Metallo, a cyborg 
whose robotic body was powered with a kryptonite 
heart, pummeled and poisoned Superman. The 
Phantom Zone was introduced as a ghostly dimen- 
sion incarcerating villains from the late planet Kryp- 
ton, some of whom, including General Zod and Jax- 
Ur, occasionally escaped and imperiled Metropolis 
with powers that rivaled Superman's. 

By the early 1960s, Superman had established 
himself as not only the Metropolis Marvel but also 
the galaxy's greatest hero, enticing a band of inter- 
planetary enemies to join forces as the Superman 
Revenge Squad. In World's Finest Comics #142 
(1964), the Composite Superman, commanding the 
powers of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes, gave 
the Man of Steel and his superfriends, Batman and 
Robin, the biggest challenge of their lives. The Para- 
site, the last great Superman villain of comics' Sil- 
ver Age (1956-1969), was introduced in 1966 and 
came close to killing the Man of Steel with his abili- 
ty to siphon the hero's very life force. Luthor's 
hatred of Superman intensified throughout the 
1960s, and the mastermind — usually wearing 
prison grays — regularly constructed devices or 
plans to eliminate his enemy. With all this mean- 
ness in Metropolis, Bizarro, an imperfect duplicate 
of the hero played strictly for laughs, and a 
renamed Mr. Mxyzptlk (note the spelling change) 
regularly dropped by to keep the overall tone light. 
By the time the 1960s closed, Superman's writers 
and editors had run of out new ideas, and his vil- 
lains had once again become humdrum. 

Publisher DC Comics overhauled its flagship 
character in 1970, and new and more challenging 
super-adversaries were introduced. Writer/artist 



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Jack Kirby's Darkseid, the despotic and immeasur- 
ably powerful ruler of the planet Apokolips who over 
time emerged as DCs most formidable foe, was 
first seen in, of all places, Superman's Pal Jimmy 
Olsen #134 (1970). Working behind the scenes 
with Darkseid was Intergang, a Metropolis crime 
network. In the landmark Superman #233 (1971), 
an explosion that (temporarily) transformed all kryp- 
tonite into iron also created a "Sand-Superman," a 
rogue replication of the Man of Steel. In 1972, 
Luthor, still loathing Superman after all these years, 
created the Galactic Golem to attempt to destroy 
his foe, and Terra-Man, a desperado from the Wild 
West transplanted into contemporary times rode — 
make that flew— -into town on a winged horse for 
the first of several showdowns with the Action Ace. 
Other new additions to Superman's rogues' gallery 
during the 1970s — the high-tech Toyman II, the ion- 
charged Blackrock, and the insipid Microwave 
Man — didn't fare as well, deservingly being put out 
to pasture after a few appearances. 

In the early to mid-1980s, DC Comics pumped 
up the villainous volume by introducing newer and 
more powerful super-foes. World enslaver Mongul 
was almost more than Superman could handle, and 
the hero was imperiled by demonic forces courtesy 
of Lord Satanis. Not to be outdone by upstarts, 
Luthor donned a cyber-suit and Brainiac was 
retooled into a new robotic form. When the entire 
Superman franchise was reinvented in The Man of 
Steel (1986), previous incarnations of the super- 
foes were discarded as the hero's entire continuity 
slate was wiped clean. Old favorites were repack- 
aged in newer, darker forms. Luthor was re-estab- 
lished as a corporate megalomaniac with criminal 
ties whose power reached such heights that in the 
2000 election he became president of the United 
States. Brainiac, Bizarro, Parasite, Mr. Mxyzptlk, 
Metallo, Toyman, and even the Prankster were 
upgraded (and ethically degraded) into dangerous, 
credible threats. And a lethal legion of new villains 
has since been introduced to endanger the Man of 
Tomorrow: the mercenary Bloodsport, the she-fury 




The Adventures of Superman #441 © 1988 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY JERRY ORDWAY. 



Rampage, the unstoppable Dreadknaught, and the 
bounty hunter Massacre, as well as Riot, Dominus, 
Imperiex, Ignition, and Kancer, super-rogues whose 
very names evoke danger and potential death. 
None has been so fatal, however, as the behemoth 
Doomsday, who actually killed Superman in 1992 
before the hero rose from the dead not long there- 
after. Although his "never-ending battle" against 
these increasingly dangerous adversaries has 
forced the Man of Steel to get down and dirty, 
Superman remains an inspirational symbol of hope. 

As the Man of Tomorrow leapt onto screens 
small and large, Luthor has, more than any of his 
foes, joined him for the ride: in the movie serial 



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Superman's Weapons and Gadgets 



Atom Man vs. Superman (1950); in animated incar- 
nations of Superman in 1966, 1988, and 1996, 
plus the long-running Super Friends series; in three 
of the four Superman movies, with Gene Hackman 
in the role; and in the live-action television series 
Superboy (1988), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures 
of Superman (1992), and Smallville (2001). —ME 

Superman's 

Weapons and 

Gadgets 

In a never-ending battle for "truth, justice, and the 
American way" that has spanned sixty-plus years, 
Superman has designed, invented, and utilized his fair 
share of super-paraphernalia. While the Superman 
mythos of the twenty-first century allows for much 
more high-tech gadgetry than initially accompanied 
Superman's early career, all told there is a super-list 
of apparatus that accessorizes the Man of Steel. 

Superman's secret hideout, the Fortress of 
Solitude (described in detail in Action Comics #241 
[1958] and given larger-than-life status in the 
Superman live-action films of the late 1970s and 
early 1980s), originally housed one of the most 
well-stocked superweapons chambers in comic- 
book history. This might seem like a dichotomy to 
some, for in his battle for "truth, justice, and the 
American way," the hero's violence is never cruel, 
malicious, or initiated by him. Noted a Time maga- 
zine cover story on Superman when the hero turned 
fifty, "His greatest powers are exerted to deflect vio- 
lence, by stepping in front of bullets, say, or moving 
huge objects out of harm's way." More times than 
not, Superman's powers of superspeed, super- 
strength, flight, and virtual invulnerability overrule 
the need for the Man of Steel to defend himself 
with anything other than his inborn, alien powers. 
Why resort to weaponry when you can bend steel 



with your bare hands? But even America's most 
beloved hero sometimes needs an extra line of 
defense; in these situations, items like the War- 
suit — an ultra-high-tech suit of armor housed in the 
new Fortress — come in handy. 

Once inside the Warsuit, Superman can cocoon 
himself in the chest cavity and, linked telepathically 
to a techno-brain, manipulate the armor shell as if it 
is an extension of his own body. The suit also acts 
as a protection device, sheltering Superman from 
the effects of kryptonite, radiation, and other harm- 
ful substances. Equipped with super-gadgets like 
environmental scanners, fusion reactor pads, and 
ion pulse cannon gauntlets, supervillains don't 
stand a chance against the Man of Steel when he 
assumes his protective shell. The Warsuit is one of 
the few weapons stored safely in the hero's hide- 
out, replacing such Golden Age (1938-1954) and 
Silver Age (1956-1969) staples as the Lex 
Luthor-created "fourth dimensional ray machine"; 
the duplicator ray that Luthor used to create the 
faux-Superman named Bizarro; the enlarging ray 
used by Kandorian scientist Zak-Kul; and the 
portable shrinking ray that Superman once confis- 
cated from supervillain Brainiac. 

Within the Fortress' impenetrable walls lies 
other noteworthy super-apparatus. Once upon a time, 
dummies and robots, in the likeness of both Super- 
man and his alter ego, Clark Kent, awaited their 
super-orders. Called upon to carry out various super- 
tasks, the robots showed human emotion and pos- 
sessed amazing powers. Summoned by Superman's 
X-ray vision or by voice command, the remote-con- 
trolled machines allowed Superman to experiment 
vicariously with kryptonite and participate in pitched 
battle with numerous supervillains. Today's Fortress 
houses only "Ned," the sole remaining Superman 
robot, whose number one task is to care for Super- 
man's dog, Krypto, who also calls the secret sanctu- 
ary home. Since the 1990s Superman has also 
sometimes been seen floating amidst a vast 360- 
degree complex of video screens feeding him infor- 
mation about wrongs in need of righting worldwide. 



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As "champion of the oppressed," the Man of 
Tomorrow has wielded some far-fetched tools and 
equipment. He has used a super-blowtorch to burn 
off dirt from his invulnerable costume; snapped pic- 
tures with his krypto-raygun, a combination cam- 
era/projector in the shape of a raygun straight out of 
Flash Gordon; whipped out his kryptonite detector 
(that's "K-detector" to friends and family) to locate 
these powerful planetary fragments; and applied his 
selective amnesia-inducer to erase the knowledge 
that Clark Kent is really Superman from the minds of 
Batman and Robin. In the wake of Superman's 
revamping in The Man of Steel comic book (1986), 
most of this weaponry no longer exists. Instead, 
Superman dons the Mother Box, an ultra-advanced 
armband computer (of a type originally seen in Jack 
Kirby's "Fourth World" comics) that summons dimen- 
sion-spanning Boom Tubes, heals injuries, and out- 
fits Superman's costume for battle. He overlays his 
aquanaut suit for deep-sea exploration. He bedecks 
himself in a device known as a Phantom Zone Pro- 
jector, created by John Henry Irons (a.k.a. the super- 
hero Steel) to allow Superman to see Krypton's 
past. For otherworldly adventures, Superman uses 
his super-oxygen mask, a deep-space breathing 
apparatus useful in non-oxygenated atmospheres. 

Whether calling upon these or an array of his 
backup gadgets, Superman frequently consults the 
expertise of S.T.A.R. Labs, Metropolis' innovative 
super-laboratory, and has sought advice from super- 
inventors like Irons and Professor Emil Hamilton. 
Besides providing super-gizmos, these resources 
allow the hero a safety net when the villainous grow 
too gigantic for even the Man of Steel to battle 
alone. — GM 



Supermedia 

Next to the number-one occupation of millionaire 
playboy, the day job most heroes embrace is some- 
how media-related. A quick rundown reveals that, 
when not out saving the world, many heroes spend 



their time on the air or behind the scenes of radio 
and television stations, or other media outlets. 

In 1936, the Green Hornet carved out a niche 
when his alter ego, Britt Reid, founded the Daily 
Sentinel, using his newspaper to fight for law and 
order. In 1938, Detective Comics #20 unfolded the 
cloak-and-mask-wearing Crimson Avenger, whose 
alter ego, Lee Travis, is a newspaper reporter for 
the Daily Globe-Leader. Like apparently so many 
other men in this field, Travis gleans great satisfac- 
tion working outside the law in his heroic guise. 
Probably the first hero to hit the airwaves premiered 
in Columbia Comics' Big Shot #1 in 1940: Tony 
Trent, a radio announcer for station WBSC, 
becomes disgusted by the reports of criminal activi- 
ty he hears daily on the air, and decides to fight 
crime as the terrifying, rubber-masked hero, the 
Face. The following year, Harvey Comics' Speed 
Comics #13 hit the stands, featuring newspaper 
publisher Don Wright, writer of editorials by day and 
crime fighter (Captain Freedom) by night, and 
Smash Comics debuted the hero Midnight, who, as 
Dave Clark, announces the news at radio station 
UMAX. One of the most popular characters to 
emerge from this era was Captain Marvel, who first 
appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (1940). His alter ego, 
Billy Batson, is an orphaned newsboy before he 
turns into the Shazaml-shouting hero. In his first 
adventure, Batson shows off his investigative skills 
to the head of WHIZ radio station, earning himself 
the position of roving radio reporter. 

While Captain Marvel would endure for years to 
come, other heroes have become yesterday's news. 
Though one version or other of the character has 
come around from his debut to the current era, few 
readers are familiar with Johnny Quick, the super- 
speedster who ran in More Fun Comics and Adven- 
ture Comics for thirteen years beginning in 1941, a 
cameraman for "Sees-All, Tells-AII News" in his civil- 
ian guise as Johnny Chambers. Or what about Mar- 
vel Comics' the Patriot, who bowed in Human Torch 
#3 (1941), as reporter Jeff Mace? Though well 
known among hardcore fans, the general public is 



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Supernatural Heroes 



none too acquainted with Marvel Comics' the 
Destroyer, who appeared in nine different comic 
books from 1941 to 1946, as reporter Keen Mar- 
low, or Prize Comics' Fighting American (1954), who 
broke stories as a TV newscaster-commentator at 
station U.S.A. in his everyday life as Johnny Flagg. 

Despite these predecessors and colleagues, 
the media man bar none is bespectacled Daily Plan- 
et reporter Clark Kent, alias Superman, who made 
headlines in Action Comics #1 (1938). For years, 
the Daily Planet trio helped round out Superman's 
cast of characters: tough-boss publisher Perry 
White; Superman's pal and the newspaper's photog- 
rapher, Jimmy Olsen; and love interest and fellow 
reporter Lois Lane. (In fact, Lane is one of the rare 
strong, female role models in this field; other super- 
heroines whose civilian lives have been anchored in 
the media include Golden Age [1938-1954] favorite 
Liberty Belle and Bronze Age [1970-1979] stalwart 
Ms. Marvel.) When the Superman mythos was 
revamped in the mid-1980s the Daily Planet roster 
expanded, introducing gossip columnist Catherine 
"Cat" Grant and fellow reporters Ron Troupe and 
Dirk Armstrong. Kent is now a foreign correspon- 
dent for the leading Metropolis newspaper, making 
it easier for him to slip out of the newsroom when 
duty calls. Along the way, Lane picked up a Pulitzer 
Prize and Kent's hand in marriage. 

The Silver (1956-1969) and Bronze Ages of 
comics also had their fair share of media moguls 
and beat reporters. Witness DC Comics' vigilante 
the Question, whose alter ego Vic Sage is a TV 
newscaster for World Wide Broadcasting; DCs the 
Creeper (who premiered in 1968, and surfaces 
occasionally today), whose alter ego Jack Ryder is a 
security investigator for the TV station WHAM; and 
the Steve Ditko-created Mr. A, who, as Daily Cru- 
sader reporter Rex Graine, fights mobsters in the 
press until he is forced to take them on as the 
metal-masked hero. Outshining these journalists is 
Peter Parker, a freelance photographer who keeps 
the Daily Bugle well stocked with candid pho- 
tographs of Spider-Man in action. Few know that 



another masked hero, Archie Publications' the Fox, 
functioned in the real world as Paul Patton, staff 
photographer for the Daily Globe, twenty-plus years 
before the web-slinger came along. Patton is the 
first to use a concealed camera to take news pic- 
tures of himself in action as the Fox, a gimmick 
solely credited to Parker. And lest anyone think that 
Lane is the only non-superpowered newshound to 
become a comic-book star in her own right, there's 
also Ben Urich, Daredevil's confidant in the 1980s 
and a leading character of the newspaper-themed 
Marvel Comics series The Pulse! in the 2000s. 

Other twentieth-century heroes have a nose for 
news. DC Comics' first Green Lantern, who 
appeared in 1940, started his noncostumed career 
as construction engineer Alan Scott before becom- 
ing a radio announcer for WYZX and eventually pres- 
ident of Gotham Broadcasting. DCs Green Arrow, 
who debuted the following year, was known for the 
events of alter ego playboy Oliver Queen, who even- 
tually became a reporter when his millions ran out. 

The most obscure character of this genre to 
come out of the late twentieth century was Captain 
Kentucky, who first appeared in Street Enterprises' 
The Comic Reader in 1980. His alter ego, Lancelot 
Pertwillaby, is a reporter for the Louisville Times. 
While covering a story on radioactive sewage, he 
accidentally swallows a rare form of chemical waste 
and instantly gains superstrength and the ability to 
fly. But his powers aren't permanent, and Pertwilla- 
by must partake of the gooey compound whenever 
he needs his powers. He was aided by his pet bea- 
gle Cleo, who as Captain Cleo, Hound Hero, often 
joined Captain Kentucky in saving the day. — GM 



Supernatural 



Heroes 



When the dark forces of the underworld threaten to 
scare up trouble for humankind, paranormal protec- 



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Supernatural Heroes 




Dick Durock stars in Swamp Thing. 



tors — many with modus operandi drawing from the 
same sinister sources as their enemies' — stand 
ready to vanquish vampires, demons, and wizards. 
King Features' Mandrake the Magician, an illu- 
sionist sporting a top hat and tails, first used his 



mystical attributes to fight crime in the June 11, 
1934 unveiling of his long-running newspaper strip. 
Over the decades Mandrake and his assistant, 
Lothar, have appeared in a 1939 movie serial, Big 
Little Books, comic books, a 1979 TV movie, and 



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Supernatural Heroes 



the animated series Defenders of the Earth (1986). 
DC Comics' debut of Dr. Occult predated the indus- 
try's eminent Golden Age (1938-1954). Originating 
in 1935, this amulet-wearing investigator of the 
arcane has materialized off and on in DCs titles 
over the decades but has never achieved tremen- 
dous acclaim. Dr. Occult's creators, Jerry Siegel and 
Joe Shuster, scored a larger success with their next 
character, Superman, first seen in Action Comics #1 
(1938), the same issue that introduced Zatara the 
Magician, the crime-fighting showman who voiced 
backward incantations ("raeppasid" = "disappear"). 

Zatara's daughter, Zatanna, surfaced in the 
1960s, eventually joining the Justice League of 
America with her own backward-spoken spells. In 
1940, Egyptian Prince Amentep emerged from a 
four-thousand-year sleep to become Fawcett's Ibis 
the Invincible, the red-turbaned titan who wielded a 
magic wand — his Ibistick — against evil. A chilling 
superheroine named Madame Satan had a short 
lifespan in 1941 at the publisher that would ulti- 
mately be known for its squeaky-clean characters — 
Archie Comics — and Fox Features Syndicates' the 
Wraith, a ghostly guardian parroting DCs successful 
supernatural hero, the Spectre, faded from view 
after a mere five stories that same year. The Heap, 
Hillman Periodicals' mindless, lumbering behemoth, 
first tramped from the mire in 1942, putting the 
squeeze on Axis officers and criminal vermin that 
stumbled across his path. Other supernatural 
superheroes seen during the 1940s were Dr. Fate, 
Mr. Mystic, and Sargon the Sorcerer. 

Horror comics were the rage in the early 1950s, 
through gruesome anthology titles like EC Comics' 
Tales from the Crypt. During this trend, two notewor- 
thy supernatural heroes arose at DC. There was Dr. 
Thirteen, a.k.a. the "Ghost-Breaker," a skeptic sleuth 
who flushed out the truth behind supposed paranor- 
mal perils, and the Phantom Stranger, a trench-coat- 
ed enigma who guided passersby through the super- 
natural realm in a short-lived series bearing his 
name. The Stranger was a moderate success, inspir- 
ing copies like Charlton's Mysterious Traveler and 



Harvey's Man in Black. The Phantom Stranger 
returned to his own title from 1969 to 1976 — with 
Dr. Thirteen occasionally included as a backup fea- 
ture — and continues to wander in and out of various 
DC titles in the 2000s. 

The content sanitization of comics in the wake 
of mid-1950s U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings 
temporarily retired supernatural references. Two of 
DCs spooky heroes eventually resurfaced in the 
1960s: the Spectre returned in 1966 and spun off 
into a ten-issue run of his own title, and Dr. Fate 
received occasional outings in the pages of Justice 
League of America. Marvel's master of the mystic 
arts, Doctor Strange, first peered into his all-seeing 
Eye of Agamatto in 1963, fending off magical men- 
aces like Baron Mordo, and in 1966 Dell Comics 
launched three superhero titles based on famous 
monsters: Frankenstein, Dracula, and Werewolf. 
DCs Deadman, originating in 1967, was circus aeri- 
alist Boston Brand before an assassin's bullet 
ended his life and began his postmortem quest: to 
find his killer. While dealing with matters mystical, 
these 1960s creepy crusaders were squarely root- 
ed in the mainstream. 

The same cannot be said of Vampirella, the 
scantily clad, voluptuous vampire, who originally 
flashed her fangs (and other attributes) in 1969 in 
her self-titled series from Warren Publishing. Vam- 
pirella's black-and-white magazine-sized format 
sidestepped the stringent restrictions imposed 
upon color comic books, and her stories were 
replete with gore and eroticism. A native of Draku- 
lon, a planet of bloodsuckers, Vampirella took stake 
against her evil brethren that wrought havoc on 
Earth. Her title lost its bite in 1983, but she did not 
lay dead for long. Harris Comics resurrected the 
character first with a 1988 reprint, followed in 1991 
by a new comic-book series (and an altered origin) 
that continues in print as of 2004. Vampirella 
starred in a 1996 movie that was mercilessly 
slaughtered by critics, but the world's sexiest vam- 
pire remains undaunted: Live models, including 
Playboy Playmates, have popularized the heroine 



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Supernatural Heroes 



through personal appearances and cover photo 
shoots. As of 2004, model Kitana Baker wears 
Vampirella's slinky red costume. 

In the 1970s, the Comics Code Authority cen- 
sorship board eased its restrictions against occult 
references, and a plethora of paranormal heroes 
crawled forth. DC revived the Spectre (again) in the 
pages of Adventure Comics, pushing graphic story- 
telling to its limits with the hero's bloodcurdling 
means of disposing of criminals, including dismem- 
berment by giant scissors and transmutation into 
mannequins. Legendary comics artist Jack Kirby 
expanded DCs mystical mythos in 1972 with The 
Demon, a series starring demonologist Jason 
Blood. Blood, an immortal, is the human host to 
Etrigan, a chaotic, yellow-skinned devil who once 
served in the court of Camelot. Channeled by Blood 
through an incantation, the Demon speaks in rhyme 
and has fought magical threats in myriad appear- 
ances, including team-ups with Batman. 

Marvel Comics embraced the macabre with a 
host of horrifying heroes all bowing in the 1970s. 
Morbius, the "living vampire," was a geneticist whose 
treatment of his own blood disease triggered scientif- 
ically created vampirism, which he employed to fight 
demonic menaces — after some early skirmishes with 
Spider-Man, that is. Another Spider-Man spinoff was 
Man-Wolf, an astronaut mutated into a white-furred 
beast by a moon rock. Jack Russell sprouted fur as 
Marvel's Werewolf by Night, a hip young lycanthrope 
who, after initial uncontrollable rages, channeled his 
bestial abilities into battling bad guys. Other Marvel 
supernatural heroes premiering during this era 
include the Ghost Rider, the flame-headed motorcy- 
clist/superhero who gave a new definition to the 
term "Hell's Angel"; Moon Knight, Marvel's answer to 
DCs Batman; the half-man/half-vampire Blade, who 
has headlined a successful franchise of live-action 
movies from the late 1990s to the present; Brother 
Voodoo, an African-American character mixing 
Hougan mysticism and superheroics; the Son of 
Satan, a.k.a. Daimon Hellstrom, who, with a penta- 
gram birthmark on his chest and a trident that emit- 



ted "soul fire" in hand, waged war against his unholy 
father; and lesser-known characters like Satana 
(Hellstrom's sister), the Living Mummy, the Monster 
of Frankenstein, Manphibian, Gabriel the Devil 
Hunter, and the Golem. 

Marvel's Man-Thing and DCs Swamp Thing both 
premiered at roughly the same time in 1971 and 
have become immortalized in comics lore. Both were 
humans transmogrified by the marsh, both were 
slimy plant-men, both pitted their newfound strength 
against wrongdoers, and both have regularly encoun- 
tered superheroes. Swamp Thing is better known, 
with two live-action movies (1982 and 1989), a live- 
action TV series (1990-1993), a Kennertoy line, an 
animated cartoon program (1992), and several suc- 
cessful Vertigo (DCs "mature readers" imprint) 
series under his belt, but Man-Thing, a small-budget 
motion picture slated for 2004 release, should afford 
a higher profile to this misunderstood beast whose 
touch burns those who fear him. 

Beginning in the 1980s, "real-world" society 
grew more violent, and the supernatural heroes of 
popular fiction followed suit. Perhaps no character 
better exemplifies this than creator James O'Barr's 
bleak angel of vengeance, Eric Draven, popularly 
known as the Crow. In the character's 1989 origin 
from Caliber Comics, the mortally wounded Draven 
watches helplessly as his fiancee is brutalized and 
murdered by street punks. The trauma of this event 
prohibits him from resting in the afterlife, and on 
the first anniversary of his death he is resuscitated 
by a crow and given paranormal abilities, including 
an empathic touch and augmented agility, in a mis- 
sion of vengeance against those who cut short his 
life. His iniquitous methods have transcended his 
cult-favorite comic book and have been adapted to 
cinema via a franchise of films beginning with The 
Crow (1994), and a syndicated TV series, The Crow: 
Stairway to Heaven (1998). 

Top Cow Productions' NYPD detective Sara 
Pezzini was first seen in 1995 on an implacable 
expedition to destroy the mobster who ritualistically 
eliminated those closest to her. Once she 



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Superpatriots 



unearthed Joan of Arc's enchanted gauntlet — called 
the witchblade — Pezzini donned the glove and sym- 
biotically bonded with it. As Witchblade, she wields 
the glove's powers — the creation of daggers, the 
deflection of bullets, and an extrasensory percep- 
tion — in a brutal vendetta against organized crime. 
A live-action Witchblade TV movie (2000) and week- 
ly cable series (2001-2002) starred Yancy Butler. 

Characters like the Crow, Witchblade, and Buffy 
the Vampire Slayer are non-masked fighters that 
elevate the classic concept of the superhero to a 
more realistic level, despite their fantastical set- 
tings. "Buffy could be seen as qualifying as a super- 
hero," wrote Peter Coogan in his 2002 dissertation 
"The Secret Origin of the Superhero." Coogan also 
observed, "She has a mission; she has superpow- 
ers; Buffy has an identity as the Slayer." Buffy and 
her supernatural ilk — Steven Hughes' Lady Death, 
Dark Horse's Ghost, and DCs Vertigo heroes (like 
Sandman, Death, Hellblazer, and Preacher) — have 
reinvented the concept of the dark hero for a new 
generation. — ME 



Superpatrfofr 

Marvel Comics' shield-slinging Captain America is, 
bar none, the most famous of the star-spangled 
freedom fighters known as the superpatriots. But 
he was not the first superhero to wear the colors of 
Old Glory. 

The Shield was the first superpatriot. Pep 
Comics #1 (January 1940) introduced Joe Higgins, 
a man who avenges his father's murder by applying 
dad's secret formula "SHIELD" (an acronym for 
Sacrum, Heart, Innveration, Eyes, Lungs, and 
Derma) to his skin. The formula is activated when 
Higgins wears a specially designed outfit — which 
just happens to be star-spangled — that boosts his 
strength, speed, and stamina, making him the Axis- 
busting superhero, the Shield. The Eagle promptly 
parroted the Shield by flying into print in Science #1 



(February 1940). Secretly Bill Powers, the Eagle, 
dressed in a blue suit with a golden eagle chest 
logo and red-and-white striped cape, fights the 
Nazis and their American sympathizers. Manowar, a 
superpatriot android, also premiered in February 
1940, in Target Comics #1. 

Uncle Sam — the Uncle Sam, the top-hat-wear- 
ing, white-goateed icon painted by James Mont- 
gomery Flagg in his immortal military recruitment 
poster — became a superhero in National Comics 
#1 (July 1940) in a tale by Will Eisner, creator of the 
Spirit. Imbued with patriotism-induced super- 
strength, Sam is more than a match for Nazis and 
saboteurs. Uncle Sam, a 1997 miniseries pub- 
lished under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, features a 
dispirited Sam, muttering madly as the America he 
once knew has fallen apart. 

Private Jack Weston was a true patriot, but not 
a superpowered one, which did not deter his zeal: 
In a red-and-white-striped shirt with blue sleeves 
dotted with white stars, he blazes onto the front- 
lines as Minute-Man, the "One Man Army," in /Was- 
ter Comics #11 (February 1941). One month later, 
in March 1941, comic-book readers witnessed two 
flag-furled firsts: Captain America #1, by Joe Simon 
and Jack Kirby, and Feature Comics #42's USA — 
"the Spirit of Old Glory" — the first star-spangled 
superheroine. Both debuted nine months before the 
United States entered World War II. 

SUPZZPAmiOTS FLOURISH 

A survey of 1941 comic books would lead one 
to suspect that America was already at war. Publish- 
ers barraged readers with a surfeit of superpatriots, 
each clad in democratic duds that would warm 
Betsy Ross' heart. Some carried guns, some were 
supported by sidekicks or kid gangs, some were 
superstrong, and virtually all were indistinguishable 
from each other: the American Crusader; Captain 
Battle (dubbed the "One-Man Army," the difference 
from Minute-Man's moniker being a mere hyphen); 
Captain Courageous; Captain Fight ("America's #1 



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Defender"); Captain Flag; Captain Freedom (aided 
by the Young Defenders, a patriotic street gang); the 
Conqueror; the Defender (a Captain America clone 
by Cap's own creators, Simon and Kirby); and the 
Flag (who, as an infant, bore a U.S. flag birthmark, 
predestining his fate as a superpatriot). 

Joining them were Flag Man, Lady Fairplay, the 
Liberator, Major Liberty, Major Victory, Man of War 
(who received a flaming sword from Mars, the god of 
war), Miss America (granted the superpower of matter 
alteration by the Statue of Liberty in Military Comics 
#1), Miss Victory (often spied winking and flashing 
the "V for victory" sign at her readers), Mister Ameri- 
ca, and the Patriot (joined by his girlfriend Miss Patri- 
ot). Also originating in 1941: "War Nurse" Pat Patriot 
(accompanied by the Girl Commandos, "five fearless 
freelance fighters of the United Nations"); the Sen- 
tinel; the Skyman; the Spirit of 76; the Star-Spangled 
Kid and Stripesy (a kid hero with an adult partner); the 
Unknown Soldier; and the no-nonsense U.S. Jones 
(one of his earliest stories in Wonderworld Comics 
was titled "Traitors Die Fast!"). By the time Stormy 
Foster— a. k.a. "the Great Defender" — premiered in 
Hit Comics #18 (December 1941), all the good super- 
patriot costumes (and names) had been taken: Below 
the belt Foster wore white briefs with no leggings, 
looking as if he had left his pants at home. Another 
superpatriot debuting that same month had better for- 
tune in fashion and longevity: Wonder Woman. 

In Startling Comics #10 (1941), the Fighting 
Yank receives superpowers while wearing an ances- 
tral cloak from the American Revolution. His tri-cor- 
ner cap and buckle shoes differentiated him from 
other superpatriots. Likewise, from his first appear- 
ance in Mystic Comics #6, the Destroyer is clearly 
no average star-spangled hero. His grim blue face 
and piercing yellow eyes terrorize the Nazis, as 
does the foreboding white skull insignia on his 
black shirt. Many of the Destroyer's earliest stories 
were written by a teenage Stan Lee, who later 
became the driving force behind Marvel Comics. 

More comic-book superpatriots appeared after 
the United States entered the war: American 



Avenger, American Eagle, Captain Commando, Cap- 
tain Red Blazer, Commando Yank, Crimebuster (a 
young hero), Liberty Belle, a different Miss America 
(this one from Timely/Marvel Comics, a female Cap- 
tain America who remained in print for several 
years), the Phantom Eagle, Super-American, V-Man 
(with his young aides, the V-Boys), Yank and Doodle, 
Yankee Doodle Jones, Yankee Boy, Yankee Girl, and 
Yankee Eagle. Superpatriot sidekicks were com- 
mon, including Dusty (partner of the Shield), Buddy 
(the Eagle), another Buddy (Uncle Sam), Bucky (Cap- 
tain America), Dandy (Yankee Doodle Jones), Sparky 
(Captain Red Blazer), and Rusty (Flag Man). The 
Axis could not stop these invincible superpatriots, 
but the end of World War II could: Peacetime almost 
instantaneously put them out of business, although 
some limped along until the early 1950s. 

F20M ZZt?, WHITB, 
ANP 8LUB TO 2£P SCAZB 

Pack leader Captain America suffered an igno- 
ble fate in 1950, being ousted from his own series 
as it briefly became a horror comic (Captain Ameri- 
ca's Weird Tales) before being discontinued. Timely 
revived Captain America in 1954 with a new agen- 
da: fighting Communism, as Captain America, 
"Commie Smasher." Within several issues, however, 
the character and series were once again retired. 

Yet Communism remained a new threat to 
explore in superhero comics, and the next superpa- 
triot to combat it plied a different weapon: satire. 
With tongue rooted firmly in cheek, Simon and Kirby 
melted the cold war in Prize Comics' Fighting Ameri- 
can. Issue #1 starts harshly, though, as an Ameri- 
can Adonis, blunt-tongued broadcaster Johnny 
Flagg, is executed by Russian agents. The life force 
of Flagg's meek brother, Nelson, is transferred into 
his slain sibling's "revitalized and strengthened" 
body, and he resumes the Commie Smashing aban- 
doned after Captain America's cancellation. As the 
Fighting American, he and teenage sidekick Speed- 
boy tackled broadly portrayed Red menaces like 



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Super Khakalovich and Poison Ivan. During this era 
of rampant paranoia, however, Fighting American's 
cavalier approach was rejected by readers and the 
series died after seven issues (though similar 
spoofs in the 1990s and 2000s, like AC Comics' 
retooled Fighting Yank and Alan Moore's First Ameri- 
can, have shown that the strip was simply ahead of 
its time). 

The next superpatriot to materialize bore a 
familiar name: the Shield. In Archie Comics' The 
Double Life of Private Strong #1 (1959), by Simon 
and Kirby, Army private Lancelot Strong ventures 
down three familiar superpatriotic paths: He is 
orphaned; his late father, a scientist, leaves behind 
data that helps Strong develop superpowers; and 
he adopts a red-white-and-blue supersuit and bat- 
tles the United States' enemies. This Shield incar- 
nation lasted a mere two issues. 

Another superpatriot appeared in DCs Revolu- 
tionary War series, Tomahawk #81 (1962): Miss 
Liberty. In her debut tale, the "Frontier Heroine," 
clad in red, white, and blue, rescues the magazine's 
heroes, Tomahawk and Dan, from British soldiers by 
chucking explosive powder horns at the Redcoats. 
Miss Liberty stuck around as a member of the Tom- 
ahawk cast off and on throughout the 1960s. 

SUPZPPATPIOTS OF THB 
VIETNAM BPA 

The Revolutionary War heroine Miss Liberty 
aside, superpatriots lay dormant for several years 
after the Shield's disappearance. America was 
embroiled in the controversial Vietnam War, and 
heroic characters could no longer rouse the nation's 
spirit. In Marvel Comics' Avengers #4 (1964), 
"Earth's mightiest heroes" discover the most 
famous superpatriot literally frozen in ice. Captain 
America is thawed into an uneasy existence as an 
anachronistic superpatriot (his "Commie Smasher" 
stint is conveniently forgotten). Cap's Archie Comics 
doppelganger, the Shield, resurfaced again in 
Mighty Crusaders #1 (1965), this time as the son 



*ffi 



of the 1940s Shield. This version of the character 
enjoyed a brief blip of popularity during a superhero 
boom of the mid-1960s, but soon hung up his star- 
spangled togs. Meanwhile, Charlton Comics used 
the name Captain USA for a hero who could fly at 
the speed of light in a one-shot tale in Charlton Pre- 
miere #3 (1968). 

In the 1970s, Captain America, having mostly 
ignored Vietnam, diverted his attention to the urban 
streets, partnering with the African American super- 
hero the Falcon. In his essay "The Vietnam War and 
Comic Books," from James S. Olson's The Vietnam 
War (1993), scholar Bradford Wright observed, "The 
Captain America of the 1970s symbolized a nation, 
weary of confusing and painful overseas adven- 
tures, that had turned inward to confront serious 
domestic ills, brought on, in part, by a decade of 
war." Captain America soon rejected his patriotic 
persona, becoming Nomad, but before long was in 
the red, white, and blue once more. 

The 1976 American bicentennial renewed inter- 
est in patriotism, but instead of wading into poten- 
tially polarizing waters, comic-book publishers 
returned to safe ground: World War II, where the 
menace, the Axis, was clear. Captain America head- 
lined Marvel's The Invaders (1975-1979), a series 
retrofitted into the 1940s; Uncle Sam joined other 
superheroes in a 1970s-set title called Freedom 
Fighters (1976-1978); and Wonder Woman tem- 
porarily published "untold" tales set during World 
War II, mimicking the setting of the then-popular 
television series starring the superheroine. DC also 
introduced a new title starring a 1940s superpatri- 
ot, Steel the Indestructible Man, lasting only five 
issues in 1978. 

VT&ILANTTSM ANP 
THE NEW SUPZPPATPIOT 

By 1980, American cynicism rooted in the Viet- 
nam War and the Watergate scandal had triggered a 
transformation: The anti-hero was displacing the 
altruistic caped crusader. Superheroes representing 



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Superpets 



traditional values had no place in this harsh new 
world, and a new breed of superpatriot was born. 

In DCs Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1 
(1984), the American Security Agency's Force of 
July — Major Victory, Lady Liberty, Mayflower, Silent 
Majority, and Sparkler — toe the line for the govern- 
ment, but once his teammates die in battle, the 
Major reevaluates his loyalty. In 1986, Dark Horse 
Comics introduced a conflicted superpatriot, forged 
in the fires of conspiracy. The American (no relation 
to the 2000s hero of same name from Com.X), seri- 
alized in the anthology Dark Horse Presents, was a 
jingoistic juggernaut, genetically enhanced to protect 
the United States' foreign and domestic interests 
against terrorist threats. The public was led to 
believe that the American was a sole individual, and 
did not suspect that he was actually an army of inter- 
changeable soldiers, one always ready to replace 
another who died in action. When the latest Ameri- 
can decides to go public to honor his predecessors 
who perished while fighting terrorists, he is thrust 
into conflict with a tight-lipped U.S. government. DCs 
Agent Liberty storms into Superman vol. 2 #90 
(1991) brandishing firearms, retractable gauntlet 
blades, and an energy shield. An expertly trained 
operative for the CIA's covert squad the Sons of Lib- 
erty, Agent Liberty questions his employers' motiva- 
tions after encountering Superman and members of 
the Justice League of America. Image Comics' super- 
patriot, appositely named Superpatriot, is a hard-hit- 
ting freedom fighter first seen in the pages of Erik 
Larsen's Savage Dragon series in 1993. 

In 1986, Marvel introduced into Captain Ameri- 
ca a former soldier named John Walker, publicly 
known as the grandstanding guardian Super-Patriot. 
With augmented strength and a well-oiled publicity 
machine backing him, this superpowered yes-man 
leveraged Steve Rogers out of his job as Captain 
America. Rogers eventually returned to his guise 
and Walker became USAgent, a bounty hunter of 
supervillains employed by the U.S. Commission on 
Superhuman Activities. Captain America suffered 
through several subsequent reboots, with varying 



degrees of success, until being renewed by a real- 
life catastrophe: the September 11, 2001 terrorist 
attacks on America, after which the hero was rein- 
vented into a kind of "terrorist smasher." Taking a 
cue from the American and Agent Liberty, however, 
the post-September 11 Cap is suspicious of the 
government he is sworn to defend. — ME 

Superpets 

Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thou- 
sand Faces (1949) and respected interpreter of 
heroic lore, noted that heroes often have helpers 
along their mythic journey. Though the traditional 
sidekick has often fulfilled this role through comics 
history, the "superpet" has occasionally proved to 
be a hero's best friend in perilous circumstances. 

Probably the best known of all superpets is DC 
Comics' super-pooch, Krypto the Superdog. As the 
beloved canine companion of Superman, Krypto 
was first introduced in Adventure Comics #210 
(1955) as the teenage Superman (a.k.a. Super- 
boy)'s dog, who had drifted down to planet Earth 
many years after being launched off into space as a 
"test" by Superman's scientist father, Jor-EI. He has 
all of Superman's powers (including X-ray vision, 
superstrength, and flight), is vulnerable to kryp- 
tonite, and retires to his Doghouse of Solitude 
when the going gets tough. The comics often refer 
to Krypto as the Dog of Steel. During his many 
adventures, Krypto wears a red cape detailed with 
the letter "S." 

A few years later, in Action Comics #261 
(1960), DC introduced Streaky the Super-Cat, pet 
feline to Supergirl. She was an average cat before 
being exposed to a strange strain of "X-kryptonite" 
(accidentally created by Supergirl while experiment- 
ing with the common green kryptonite), after which 
the cat gains the ability to fly, with matching red 
cape. In her heroic form, Streaky has a yellow light- 
ning-bolt streak on either side of her body. A few 



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Superpowers 



years later Supergirl also acquired a white stallion, 
Comet the Super-Horse, in Action Comics #293 
(1962). Unlike the other pets in the Superman 
mythos, Comet didn't quite start out as an animal. 
A former centaur from ancient Greece with powers 
of mental telepathy, he locates Supergirl, who takes 
him under her wing and adopts him as her equine 
companion. To complicate matters, he also has the 
power to temporarily take on human form, changing 
into a handsome young man (with the identity of 
cowboy "Bronco" Bill Starr) each time a comet 
passes through the solar system. In his adven- 
tures, Comet is bedecked with (are you sitting 
down?) a red and yellow cape. Beppo the Super- 
Monkey, a Kryptonian lab animal who was a stow- 
away on the rocketship that carried Superman to 
Earth, made his first appearance in Superboy #76 
(1959). As Superman's pet, he wears a yellow and 
blue costume and enjoys many of the same powers 
as his master. Proty II is a native creature of the 
planet Antares who can change into any shape he 
chooses. He is the pet of Chameleon Boy, and — 
along with Krypto, Streaky, Comet, and Beppo — 
does double-duty as a member of the Legion of 
Super-Pets. A nonhuman superteam who often 
came to the aid of the thirtieth century's Legion of 
Super-Heroes, the Legion of Super-Pets enjoyed 
about a dozen adventures over the 1960s, after 
which they pretty much disappeared from the DC 
mythos. Only the careful comic-book reader noticed 
that Streaky and Beppo were given cameos by 
British comics writer Grant Morrison in a 1990 Ani- 
mal Man story (issue #23). 

Outside of the Superman storyline, other DC 
superpets include Ace the Bat-Hound, Bruce 
Wayne's household pet and Batman's courageous 
crime-fighting companion. Wearing a bat insignia on 
his collar and a tight-fitting eye mask intended to 
conceal distinctive markings that would otherwise 
reveal him as Wayne's pet, Ace accompanied Bat- 
man and Robin on many adventures from the late 
1950s through the mid-1960s. He was occasionally 
joined by Bat-Mite, a magical, elf-like creature 



& 



described as a "mischievous mite from another 
dimension" in a 1960 story from Detective Comics 
(issue #276). 

While the superpets phenomenon is primarily 
restricted to DCs lighter moments, a few other char- 
acters come to mind. Captain America's partner the 
Falcon has a real falcon "partner" of his own, Red- 
wing. A trained bird of prey, Redwing developed a 
paranormal mental link with Falcon and often aids 
his master in defeating various criminals. Marvel's 
Red Wolf, a Native American hero with mystical pow- 
ers and a smattering of adventures in both the Old 
West and the present day, has a trusted companion, 
a wolf named Lobo. The most notable superpet of 
late, however, might just be Radar, canine compan- 
ion to the strongman Supreme, as recreated by 
British comics scribe Alan Moore in 1996 for the 
now-defunct Maximum Press Comics. In Moore's 
homage to the Superman myth, Radar takes the 
Krypto role, with a radio collar to amplify his translat- 
ed doggy thoughts. Though he shares the cape and 
superpowers of his predecessor, Radar can terrorize 
the neighborhood and get his master in the dog- 
house in ways the comics of a more innocent era 
would never have depicted — both a nostalgic and 
satirical reminder of how far comics have roamed 
from the superpet's golden age. — GM 



Superpowers 

Superheroes, the contemporary extension of the 
ancient gods, represent ideals to which we all aspire. 

Well, that looks good on paper, and to a 
degree, it /strue. The fundamental explanation, 
however, for the enduring popularity of super- 
heroes — from the granddaddy of them all, Super- 
man, to the Man of Steel's more recent successors 
like Witchblade — is envy. People wish they could do 
the amazing things that superheroes do. Young chil- 
dren tie towels around their necks and pretend to 
fly, or stage ninja battles in their backyards, before 



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Superpowers 



graduating to less visceral, more vicarious means 
of simulating superpowers: engaging in computer 
and role-playing games, reading comics and fantasy 
books, and watching superheroes on film. 

Two superpowers fascinate people most: flight 
and invisibility. In his report for National Public 
Radio's This American Life, in a segment entitled 
"Invisible Man vs. Hawkman" (February 23, 2001), 
commentator John Hodgman surveyed a handful of 
participants on their preference between those abil- 
ities. Flight, the ultimate symbol of freedom and 
happiness, is a common theme in nighttime 
dreams, while invisibility denotes stealth and even 
insecurity. To no surprise, many men revealed their 
transparency by opting for invisibility. What flabber- 
gasted Hodgman was that each of his interviewees' 
motivations was purely selfish: They wanted to fly to 
Paris, or to sneak into the women's locker room. No 
one said they'd use their powers to help others — 
they'd only help themselves. 

Humans may covet the gift of flight, but flying 
is so routine within the supercommunity, it's easier 
to hail an airborne hero than a taxicab. DC Comics' 
Superman, Supergirl, Captain Marvel and the rest 
of the Marvel Family, and Martian Manhunterfly 
effortlessly. Marvel Comics' Thor is pulled through 
the air by hurling his magic hammer. The Fantastic 
Four's Human Torch and the Teen Titans' Starfire 
scorch the skyways, leaving behind flaming trails. 
Iron Man's armor, Starman's cosmic rod, and Green 
Lantern's power ring propel them. The Silver Surfer 
rides his space-spanning surfboard throughout the 
deepest regions of the Marvel universe. DCs Hawk- 
man and Hawkwoman, X-Man Archangel, the Wasp 
of the Avengers, and TV hero Birdman flap their 
wings, and Sub-Mariner, his winged ankles. Doctor 
Strange, Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts, floats 
with his Cloak of Levitation, while Jean Grey of the 
X-Men levitates via telekinesis. Justice Leaguers 
Wonder Woman and the Atom glide on air currents, 
and Genl3's Freefall manipulates gravity. Members 
of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the teenage adven- 
turers living one thousand years in the future, all 



have flight rings. And while the X-Men's Nightcrawler 
can't fly, he can do the next best thing: teleport. 

That other superpower, invisibility, is not as 
prevalent among superheroes as one might think. 
The Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four (formerly 
the Invisible Girl before changing times liberated 
her) can disappear (as could her possible model, 
the 1940s newspaper-comic heroine Invisible Scar- 
let O'Neil). The Legion's Invisible Kid gained admit- 
tance to the team by pulling a vanishing act, and 
the cartoon hero Space Ghost relies upon his Invisi- 
belt to fade away. Then there are the phasers, phan- 
tom superheroes whose ghostly appearances 
spook their foes, or allow them to walk through 
walls: Dark Horse Comics' Ghost, the Legion's 
Phantom Girl (a.k.a. Apparition), the Justice Soci- 
ety's Obsidian, the X-Men's Kitty Pryde (a.k.a. Shad- 
owcat), and Top Ten's Jack Phantom display this 
trait, as do deceased DC Comics heroes like Dead- 
man and the Spectre. The android member of the 
Avengers, the Vision, has absolute mastery of his 
density, through thick and thin. 

Superstrength is the superpower supreme, how- 
ever, found among more characters than any other. 
There are the infinitely strong, like Superman, who 
can push asteroids, or the Hulk, whose strength is 
fueled by rage. Other mighty men and women regis- 
tering high on the muscle meter are Marvel's Thor, 
Hercules, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Gladiator, and the 
Thing; DCs Captain Marvel and Supergirl; and Image 
(later Awesome) Comics' Supreme. The next level 
down includes Wonder Woman and Troia (the original 
Wonder Girl); America's Best Comics' Tom Strong; 
Gen 13's Fairchild; Marvel's Sub-Mariner and Spider- 
Man, who can heave cars; and Acclaim's Magnus, 
Robot Fighter, who can karate chop through rogue 
cyborgs. They're not alone: Dozens of other super- 
heroes have varying grades of enhanced strength. 
Being able to bench-press tons sometimes carries a 
hefty price: Ben Grimm lost his humanity when cos- 
mic rays mutated him into the Thing, and the 
gamma-irradiated Bruce Banner cannot control his 
incredible alter ego, the Hulk. 



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Superpowers 



Most superstrong heroes are also bolstered by 
invulnerability, or superdense skin. The Hulk can 
shrug off mortar shells, while Superman can with- 
stand even greater blasts. The Avenger Iron Man's 
armor and X-Man Colossus' steel skin keep them 
safe from most attacks, and Ferro (a.k.a. Ferro Lad) 
of the Legion of Super-Heroes can transmute into 
iron. The Invisible Woman's force fields protect her 
and her Fantastic Four teammates. The accident 
that turned Luke Cage into Marvel Comics' "hero 
for hire" called Power Man buffered his skin into the 
organic equivalent of Kevlar. The X-Men's Wolverine 
may not be invulnerable, but his mutant healing 
ability allows him to rebound quickly from wounds. 

Size does matter among superheroes. Many 
can grow, like Dark Horse's Hero Zero, Marvel's 
Black Goliath, the Doom Patrol's Elasti-Girl, the 
Legion's Colossal Boy, and the ghostly Spectre, who 
once expanded to such heights that he clobbered a 
similarly sized opponent with a planet! Then there's 
Henry Pym, the size-changing Avenger known as 
Giant-Man ... and Goliath (and Yellowjacket!). Pym 
started his career by getting small as the astonish- 
ing Ant-Man, then teaming up with another tiny 
titan, the Wasp. The world's smallest superhero, DC 
Comics' Atom, can shrink to microscopic size, as 
can the Legion's suitably named Shrinking Violet, 
and Golden Age (1938-1954) freedom fighters Doll 
Man and Doll Girl clobbered crooks despite their 
Barbie-esque statures. 

Other heroes shift their shapes in the line of 
duty. Created in 1941, the first morphing superhero 
was Plastic Man, who not only stretches his body 
but also disguises himself as anyone or any 
object — pliable "Plas" has snared many a felon by 
pretending to be a chair or a lamp. Ralph Dibny, DC 
Comics' sleuthing Elongated Man, drinks a liquid 
called Gingold for his powers, and has frequently 
snuck an extended ear into a room to get the goods 
on bad guys. The malleable Mr. Fantastic's primary 
attribute is his intellect, but he'll bounce and bend 
with the Fantastic Four when necessary. Super- 
man's pal, Jimmy Olsen, has been known to guzzle 



his "elastic serum" to become Elastic Lad, and in 
2000, the Atomics' Mr. Gum joined the ranks of the 
rubbery heroes. Stretching characters aside, the 
Rapunzel-like Medusa of Marvel's Inhumans can 
turn her flowing red hair into entrapping tentacles or 
harmful projectiles. Beast Boy (a.k.a. Changeling) of 
the Teen Titans monkeys around in a variety of ani- 
mal forms. The Super Friends' junior allies the Won- 
der Twins trigger their abilities by joining together 
their rings and chanting, "Wonder Twin powers, acti- 
vate!" — Jayna, like Beast Boy, transmutes into crea- 
tures, but her brother Zan can become ... liquid (a 
superpower lampooned by the Cartoon Network in a 
2002 commercial featuring Zan as water in a mop 
bucket). The multi-powered Martian Manhunter is 
also a shape shifter, and employs this ability regu- 
larly — the bald, green form he uses as a Justice 
League member disguises his true extraterrestrial 
appearance, which unnerves most Earthlings. 

Superspeed covers a lot of ground among 
superheroes. The Marvel mutant Quicksilver is 
blindingly fast, as are Marvel's Golden Age speed- 
ster the Whizzer and the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents' 
Lightning. DC Comics is so enamored of fast 
heroes that it has a stable of them, including three 
generations of Flashes (Wally West, Flash III, got his 
start as Kid Flash, swift-footed sidekick to Flash II); 
two generations of Johnny Quicks; a Lady Flash; the 
racing Russians called the Kapital Kouriers; teen- 
age speedster Impulse; his mentor Max Mercury; 
and the villainous Professor Zoom. One thousand 
years from now, the Tornado Twins, descendents of 
Flash II (Barry Allen), will zip alongside the Legion, 
as will one of their children, XS. These heroes are 
all linked by an extradimensional energy supply 
known as the Speed Force. 

Some superheroes possess supersenses. 
Wolverine is able to sniff out friend and foe alike, 
while Superman can adjust his hearing to pick up 
voices from miles away and decipher frequencies 
generally inaudible to the human ear. The Man of 
Steel also boasts a range of optic powers: heat, X- 
ray, telescopic, infrared, and microscopic visions. X- 



tf* 



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Men member Cyclops can't regulate the devastating 
laser blasts from his eyes without his ruby-quartz 
visor. Marvel's Daredevil lost his sight, but compen- 
sates with a "radar sense" that allows him to per- 
ceive nearby objects, while Spider-Man's "spider 
sense" warns him of impending danger — and he 
can cling to walls, to boot! Captain Mar-Veil is in 
tune with the Marvel universe thanks to his Cosmic 
Awareness, an ability Wizard: The Comics Magazine 
once called "spider sense on steroids." Rogue's 
superpower involves touch: She absorbs the abili- 
ties and memories of those she encounters, a 
mutation that keeps her at arm's length from her 
friends in the X-Men. 

Some superheroes snap, crackle, and pop with 
electrical energy. Siblings Spark (formerly Lightning 
Lass), Live Wire (a.k.a. Lightning Lad), and their vil- 
lainous brother Lightning Lord possess this shock- 
ing trait in their futuristic adventures with the 
Legion, as does DCs Black Lightning and Mile- 
stone's Static (a.k.a. Static Shock). Then there's 
Thunderbolt, the mystical being who is living light- 
ning. Thunderbolt fought crime in the 1940s when 
summoned by Justice Society of America member 
Johnny Thunder, and is called into action in the 
2000s by Jakeem Thunder. 

Elemental powers are also widespread among 
superheroes. Storm of the X-Men and Rainmaker of 
Gen 13 manipulate the weather, Marvel's Iceman is a 
human popsicle who can form ice and snow, DCs 
Red Tornado commands the wind, and the Human 
Torch and Gen 13's Burnout are able to create flame. 
The purviews of Comico's Monolith, Vortex, Morn- 
ingstar, and Fathom are earth, air, fire, and water, 
hence their superteam name: the Elementals. H 2 0- 
breathers Aquaman and Sub-Mariner are kings of DC 
and Marvel Comics' seas. DCs Metamorpho the Ele- 
ment Man emulates the properties of the periodic 
table, transforming his body into a wide array of 
gases and chemical compounds. Marvel's Scarlet 
Witch "alters probabilities" to create seemingly 
supernatural phenomena, while other matters arcane 
fall under the jurisdiction of sorcerers such as Mar- 



vel's Doctor Strange and Clea, and the spirit-channel- 
ing mutant Dead Girl; and DC Comics' Dr. Fate, Tem- 
pest (formerly Aqualad), and father-daughter magi- 
cians Zatara and Zatanna, the latter of whom speak 
their spells backwards (or "sdrawkcab"). 

And then there are the superbrains: The 
Legion's Saturn Girl reads minds and Justice Lea- 
guer Aquaman telepathically speaks with fish. Pro- 
fessor Charles Xavier and Jean Grey are the X-Men's 
resident telepaths. Professor X can, like Saturn Girl, 
scan minds, but can also implant thoughts and tele- 
kinetically manipulate objects. His protege Grey is 
able to project powerful mental bolts. 

Many superheroes received their superpowers 
through scientific accidents: Peter Parker was bitten 
by a radioactive spider and became Spider-Man, 
while Barry Allen (and later, Wally West) was simul- 
taneously doused with chemicals and struck by 
lighting (what are the odds of that happening once, 
much less twice?) to gain superspeed as the Flash. 
Fluke accidents like these are unlikely to create any- 
thing other than body-bag filler in the real world, but 
science is striving to create artificial superpowers. 
Wired magazine's "Super Power Issue" (August 
2003) revealed the latest technological advance- 
ments in replicating invisibility (with optical camou- 
flage) and teleportation (an Australian physicist suc- 
cessfully teleported a laser beam in June 2002), as 
well as weather control, x-ray vision, and other 
amazing abilities. Journalist Paul Eng's June 4, 
2003 ABC News report "Super-Hero Tech" covered 
the efforts of the U.S. Army's National Protection 
Center at the Soldier Systems Center — which 
sounds like an agency lifted from a superhero 
comic book — to design protective "LECTUS" (Law 
Enforcement/Corrections Tactical Uniform System) 
battle gear. Eng's opening comment: "Batman 
would be jealous." 

Actually, the jealousy is ours. Until LECTUS 
suits and camouflage cloaks are available at the 
mall, we'll have to rely upon superheroes to be 
super for us. 



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Superteams 



It is interesting to note how the representation 
of the superpowers themselves has changed over 
the decades. In the 1940s and 1950s, the solution 
to any superhero's problem was clear: Punch the 
bad guy in the face (the sure-fire method to use 
against thugs, mad scientists, Nazis, monsters, 
alien invaders, and Communist spies). In the 
1960s, the superpower ante was upped to satisfy 
an audience jaded by tumultuous world events. Sim- 
ple fisticuffs no longer sufficed. Old-timers like 
Superman grew stronger and almost unstoppable, 
while the new breed of heroes introduced by Marvel 
Comics boasted powers unlike anything ever seen 
before, from Spider-Man's uncanny ability to climb 
walls to the Silver Surfer's almost-godlike "Power 
Cosmic." For the next three decades, superpowers 
got bigger and bolder as comic books amped up to 
complete with special-effects-laden movies, TV 
shows, and video games: Some superheroes, like 
Jean Grey (a.k.a. Phoenix), became corrupted by 
power, while omnipotent menaces like the Anti-Mon- 
itor (in DC Comics' 1985 maxiseries Crisis on Infi- 
nite Earths) threatened to erase all of existence. 

As of September 11, 2001, superpowers 
detoured into realms more realistic: Mighty heroes 
still battle mighty villains, but newer characters 
empowered only by determination have become the 
icons of the twenty-first century. Marvel's 411 
(2003) involved "real-world" peacemakers who have 
no superpowers, and DCs Gotham Central 
(2002-present), stars the cops on the beat in Bat- 
man's hometown. — ME 

Superteams 

When the din of the competition threatens to drown 
companies out of the marketplace, they have to 
make more noise. That's what DC Comics did in the 
winter of 1940 when, to give itself a viable edge on 
the mounting number of new superhero comic 
books appearing, it made the unprecedented move 
of combining many of its superstars into one pack- 



age, introducing comics' first superteam: the Jus- 
tice Society of America (JSA). 

In the ensuing decades, superhero teams have 
come and gone, some more respected and endur- 
ing than others, most with membership rosters too 
long to cite. Individual heroes, too, have flitted 
about, joining various teams throughout their 
careers. Since the JSA splashed onto the pages of 
All Star Comics #3, superteams have evolved into a 
variety of archetypes. 

we PAmxoTxc tsam 

DCs primary intention with the JSA was to 
spotlight characters — the Flash, Hawkman, the 
Atom, the Sandman, the Spectre, Hourman, Dr. 
Fate, even the lighthearted Johnny Thunder — who 
were featured in only one other title (which explains 
why Superman and Batman, who starred in two 
series each, appeared only as honorary members). 
This showcase concept created a revolving door for 
superheroes, with Dr. Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman, 
Starman, Black Canary, Wildcat, and Mr. Terrific 
stepping in and out of the group. 

Before long, however, the Justice Society 
received a loftier calling than circulation boosting. 
Once the United States entered World War II, the 
JSA became a symbol of teamwork, encouraging 
readers to unify to support the war effort. They were 
the first patriotic superteam, poster children for 
American propaganda. Others followed: Marvel 
Comics' Young Allies (featuring sidekicks Bucky and 
Toro, who stormed into action with their boisterous 
battle cry of "Yahoo!") and All Winners Squad (Cap- 
tain America, Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the 
Whizzer, and Miss America, with Bucky and Toro 
thrown in for good measure), and DCs second-string 
JSA, the Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as 
the Law's Legionnaires). Many comics covers star- 
ring these characters featured the heroes attacking 
Axis soldiers, or fighting Adolf Hitler himself. 

The Justice Society, like most superheroes, 
faded into oblivion in the early 1950s, but was res- 



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Superteams 



urrected in the 1960s in annual team-ups with their 
contemporary counterparts in the pages of DCs 
Justice League of America. Subsequent resurrec- 
tions in ongoing titles and miniseries, beginning 
with a short-lived 1970s revival of All Star Comics, 
have kept the JSA in print every few years. 

Patriotic superteams resurfaced in the 1970s 
when Marvel published The Invaders, a retro series 
starring Captain America and company, who boldly 
fought the Axis powers during World War II, some- 
times alongside counterparts the Liberty Legion (on 
America's home front) and the Crusaders (in 
Britain). In the 1980s DC published All-Star 
Squadron, a conglomeration of champions sum- 
moned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to assist 
the overtaxed Justice Society of America after the 
Pearl Harbor bombing. Both The Invaders and All- 
Star Squadron (and a variety of spinoffs) were mas- 
terminded by writer Roy Thomas. When DC acquired 
the rights to Quality Comics' classic superheroes 
like Uncle Sam, the Phantom Lady, the Ray, and Doll 
Man, the publisher combined them in a 1970s 
series called The Freedom Fighters. Then there's 
Femforce, the most widely known superhero/ne 
team, featuring Ms. Victory, Blue Bulleteer (later 
Nightveil), She Cat, and Rio Rita. 

Patriotism isn't confined to American soil: Mar- 
vel's Alpha Flight (Northstar, Puck, Snowbird, and 
others) are Canadian superheroes, and for a while 
England was protected by Excalibur, consisting of 
Captain Britain, transplanted X-Men Nightcrawler 
and Shadowcat, and other mutants. DCs Global 
Guardians is an international team with diverse 
heroes like Ireland's Jack O'Lantern, Australia's Tas- 
manian Devil, and Denmark's Little Mermaid. 

THB SUPZZ-FAMUY 

Many superteams are more than allies: They 
share a close bond, which in some cases is blood. 
Fawcett's legendary Marvel Family featured brother 
and sister Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, plus 
extended family Captain Marvel Jr., Uncle Marvel, 



and even the three lieutenant Marvels. They fought 
the Monster Society of Evil and other troublemakers 
for nearly a decade in eighty-nine issues of Marvel 
Family (December 1945-January 1954). 

A snooty scientist, his reserved fiancee, her 
hot-headed brother, and their irascible friend gained 
superpowers in November 1961 and became Mr. 
Fantastic, the Invisible Girl (later Woman), the 
Human Torch, and the Thing — the Fantastic Four. 
The "FF" bickers constantly, and has had its share 
of divisive spats, but their love for each other 
always reunites them. They consider themselves 
family first, superheroes second. The Baxter Build- 
ing, a gleaming skyscraper in the heart of Manhat- 
tan, serves as the Fantastic Four's home and base 
of operations. It houses a vast laboratory where 
Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) conducts bizarre 
experiments, and, as the HQ of the FF, has attracted 
numerous attacks from supervillains, much to the 
chagrin of the building's other tenants. 

In the 1960s the Teen Titans were just a bunch 
of sidekicks (Robin the Boy Wonder, Kid Flash, 
Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and later Speedy) who got 
together for fun, and to help teens in need. In 1980 
they gained new teammates Cyborg, Raven, 
Changeling, and Starfire as the New Teen Titans, 
and their union matured: "I was accused of trying to 
do DCs X-Men," claims New Teen Titans writer/co- 
creator Marv Wolfman. "And that was about as far 
from the truth as possible. I was trying to do DCs 
Fantastic Four." The Titans, and its television incar- 
nation on the Cartoon Network's Teen Titans ani- 
mated program (2003-present), operate from the T- 
shaped Titans Tower in New York City. 

Marvel's Power Pack is family in the truest 
sense: Siblings Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power all 
have superpowers. Blossom, Buttercup, and Bub- 
bles are genetically engineered sisters as the Car- 
toon Network's Powerpuff Girls. The strangest 
superfamily is the Metal Men — Gold, Iron, Lead, 
Mercury, Platinum, and Tin — a group of robots with 
human personalities. They are known for their argu- 
ments, but are fiercely loyal to one another. 



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THE SUPZ2-AUIANCB 

Most superhero groups gather together for the 
common good. In Fawcett's Master Comics #41 
(August 1943), Captain Marvel Jr., Minute-Man, Bul- 
letman, and Bulletgirl teamed as the Crime Cru- 
saders Club. That quartet was dwarfed in size by 
the team of teenage heroes from 1,000 years in 
the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes. First appear- 
ing in a throwaway story in DCs Adventure Comics 
#247 (1958), the Legion— originally Cosmic Boy, 
Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy (later Lightning 
Lad) — traveled to the past to recruit Superboy into 
their "Super Hero Club." Reader demand brought 
the Legion back, and over the decades the team 
has grown to an army (with Chameleon Boy, Ultra 
Boy, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, and Matter- 
Eater Lad being just a few who have called them- 
selves Legionnaires), with backups (the Legion of 
Substitute Heroes) and furry companions (the 
Legion of Super-Pets). The Legion's headquarters 
was originally their "clubhouse," a yellow-and-red, 
upside-down rocket ship. Over time their command 
center expanded and reflected a more technologi- 
cally realistic vision of the future. Several require- 
ments govern Legion membership, including age 
(teens only) and superpower restrictions (no artifi- 
cial abilities, please). The Legion operates under 
strict bylaws, and upon induction members are 
issued a flight ring. In the 1990s the Legion 
received an updating: outmoded names were mod- 
ernized (Lightning Lad became Live Wire, Triplicate 
Girl became Triad) and the series' tone took a dark- 
er turn. From 1990 to 1995, Marvel published its 
own futuristic superteam, with a much smaller cast 
than Legion: Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring 
characters like Starhawk and Yondu. 

Perhaps the best-known group of heroes is the 
Justice League of America (JLA), which debuted in 
The Brave and the Bold #28 (1960). An updating of 
the Justice Society, the Justice League merged DC 
Comics' best-known characters Superman, Batman, 
Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green 



Lantern, and Martian Manhunter into a superteam 
supreme. The roster has changed frequently over 
the decades: Green Arrow, the Atom, Hawkman, 
Zatanna.the Elongated Man, Blue Beetle, Dr. Fate, 
and Plastic Man are just a few of the heroes who 
have marched through JLA stints. The JLA head- 
quarters is a satellite base, orbiting Earth; mem- 
bers must teleport in and out. JLAers rotate through 
monitor duty, surveying possible or credible threats 
and either dispatching smaller teams or uniting the 
group en masse. The Justice League has occasion- 
ally established outposts, like the Justice League 
Europe and Justice League International, but no 
matter where it's located, the JLA stands ready to 
protect not only America but the entire world. 

The Avengers is Marvel Comics' counterpart to 
the JLA. Originally the team consisted of Thor, Iron 
Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and reluctant member the 
Hulk, and over the years, Captain America, Scarlet 
Witch, the Vision, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, and expatriate 
X-Man the Beast are just some of the heroes who 
have been called Avengers. The team operates from a 
New York City mansion — although a West Coast satel- 
lite branch was established for several years — with 
their butler Jarvis assisting when needed. Captain 
America has frequently served tours of duty as team 
leader, and has rallied his titanic troops together with 
the cheer, "Avengers Assemble!" The Avengers met 
DCs Justice League in a four-issue, best-selling 
crossover in 2003 and 2004. In the 2000s Marvel's 
alternate-reality Ultimates series features a decidedly 
different take on the Avengers. During a comics boom 
of the mid-1970s, Marvel also published The Champi- 
ons, a hodgepodge team featuring former Avengers 
(Hercules, Black Widow), X-Men (Angel, Iceman), and 
Ghost Rider thrown in for good measure. In the late 
1980s and early 1990s a role-playing game appropri- 
ated the name The Champions for a module starring 
a team that also appeared in several comic books — 
Flare, the Rose, Malice, and the Marksman were 
included in this group. 

Almost every comics company has combined its 
heroes into teams. Archie Comics' Fly Man, the 



<& 



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Shield, the Black Hood, and other superheroes 
became the Mighty Crusaders; Malibu's Ultraforce 
counted Prime, Prototype, and Hardcase among its 
roster; and even King Features' Flash Gordon, the 
Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician joined forces 
as the Defenders of the Earth. A more provocative 
examination of the superhero group concept began in 
1999 with WildStorm's The Authority, featuring a team 
taking on repressive regimes and a corporate power 
base. Among the Authority's lineup are Apollo and 
Midnighter, gay versions of Superman and Batman. 

me outsipbzs 

There are groups of superheroes that are 
unwelcome in society, usually due to humankind's 
fear of their differences. No team better embodies 
this than the X-Men, Marvel's mutant heroes. In The 
X-Men #1 (September 1963) Professor Charles 
Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath also known as 
Professor X, located five troubled but unique young 
people with remarkable superpowers and assured 
them that they were not alone. They were mutants: 
The next step in human evolution. From Xavier's 
School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X trained 
them as the X-Men, and this original group of five — 
Cyclops, Marvel Girl, the Beast, Iceman, and the 
Angel — epitomized the hope for harmony between 
humans and mutants. Xavier's rival, Magneto, 
recruited his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to ascend 
to societal dominance. 

The X-Men's struggles against Magneto, and 
against racial intolerance, were a modest success 
in the 1960s comics. X-Men was canceled in 1970, 
but revived shortly thereafter as a reprint book. 
Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) debuted a new version 
of the team, with an ethnically diverse, harder- 
edged roster including Wolverine, Colossus, Night- 
crawler, Storm, and others joining Cyclops and Pro- 
fessor X. From that point countless mutants have 
been introduced, and the concept has mushroomed 
into a franchise of comics (including, over the 
years, X-Factor, X-Force, Wolverine, and X-Statix, 



among others), several animated TV series, dozens 
of action figures, and two successful live-action 
movies (with the promise of more to follow). 

Three months before the premiere of the X- 
Men, DCs Doom Patrol debuted in My Greatest 
Adventure #80 (June 1963). The similarities 
between Marvel's mutants and DCs "world's 
strangest heroes" are undeniable: Paraplegic mas- 
termind Niles Caulder (the Chief) assembled a trio 
of powerful outcasts (Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and 
Negative Man) to work together as a team. The 
Doom Patrol never fared quite as well as the X-Men 
eventually did, although the "DP" has been revived 
on several occasions, the most recent being a new 
Doom Patrol series that began in 2001. 

The Inhumans are an artificially constructed 
race of superpeople (Black Bolt, Medusa, and many 
others) who, like the X-Men, are often shunned by 
the "real" populace within Marvel's comics and live 
away from humans in the extraordinary lunar city of 
Attilan. The Defenders were originally called Mar- 
vel's "non-team": The anti-heroic Incredible Hulk 
and Sub-Mariner, and the Master of the Mystic Arts 
Doctor Strange, found themselves united by com- 
mon goals, but divided by motivational differences. 
The Defenders added numerous non-teammates to 
its non-roster over the years, from the Silver Surfer 
to the Valkyrie to former X-Men and Avenger mem- 
ber the Beast. The Next Men, creator John Byrne's 
homage to Marvel's X-Men, featured a quintet of 
mutates who flee from the top-secret "Project Next 
Men" and struggle to adjust to the real world while 
avoiding their pursuers. 

THZ SPECIALISTS 

Some superteams are well-trained combatants, 
"the best at what they do." Marvel's super-spy organi- 
zation S.H.I.E.L.D. features a host of agents working 
under the orchestration of former soldier Nick Fury. In 
1982 Batman had a falling out with the Justice 
League and assembled his own task force: the Out- 
siders (Geo-Force, Metamorpho, Black Lightning, 



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Katana, and Halo), a team that has morphed into vari- 
ous incarnations over the years. In 2003 Batman's 
protege Nightwing (the original Robin the Boy Wonder) 
began fronting an all-new Outsiders featuring Arsenal, 
Thunder, returnee Metamorpho, and other heroes. 
Nightwing's friend Oracle (the former Batgirl) sends 
her operatives Black Canary and Huntress into urban 
action as the Birds of Prey. DC Comics has also pub- 
lished several versions of the Suicide Squad, the 
most popular being the 1987-1992 incarnation, an 
expendable collection of heroes and villains (Bronze 
Tiger, Enchantress, Captain Boomerang, the Vixen, 
and even Oracle) who were sent on missions by their 
tough-as-nails boss Amanda Waller. 

In the 1960s Tower Comics introduced its 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (Dynamo, No-Man, Menthor, 
and others) as a disparate group of superpowered fig- 
ures gathered to serve as The Higher United Nations 
Defense Enforcement Reserves. Beautifully illustrated 
by superstar artist Wally Wood, the original 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics were reprinted in the 
2000s by DC Comics. The Green Lantern Corps is 
another group of super-specialists: They are inter- 
galactic police, representing every sector of space 
and protecting the universe with their power rings, the 
infinitely mighty weapons with one weakness: Ineffec- 
tiveness against anything yellow. One more group of 
super-professionals is Top Ten, the name of a precinct 
of cops in a city populated solely by superheroes. 

The extreme superteam Youngblood was one of 
the first of a new wave of hero groups that premiered 
starting in 1992 when a cabal of popular artists/writ- 
ers defected from Marvel to form their own company, 
Image Comics. Boasting heavily armored anti-heroes 
with take-no-prisoners attitudes and a bottomless 
munitions cache, Youngblood spawned similar 
series, from Image and other publishers, with impul- 
sive, heavily weaponed characters: Cyberforce, 
Brigade, Tribe, and Wetworks, to name a few, most of 
which have fallen by the wayside. The most enduring 
superteam to emerge from this trend was 
WlldC.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams, counting hotshots 
like Grifter and Spartan among its number. 



WlldC.A.T.S continues in print into the 2000s, and 
was an animated TV series in the mid-1990s. 



THB NEXT GBNZZATTON 

There are superteams consisting of younger 
heroes who will one day replace their adult mentors 
(and in some cases, super-parents), or simply 
become the next heroic wave. The super "family" of 
Teen Titans was originally considered the "junior 
Justice League" before maturing out of their guides' 
shadows. Infinity, Inc. (published by DC Comics 
from 1984 to 1988) was a second-generation Jus- 
tice Society (with Jade, daughter of the original 
Green Lantern, plus Fury, the Huntress, Northwind, 
and others, all JSA descendants), and in the 2000s 
the Justice Society tradition continues in the pages 
of JSA, featuring a hybrid team of classic and new 
superheroes. DCs superteam parody The Inferior 
Five (Merryman, Awkwardman, Dumb Bunny, White 
Feather, and the Blimp) were the hapless offspring 
of superheroes who couldn't quite fill their parents' 
shoes (or boots). A latter-day Avengers, A-Next, fol- 
lowed in its predecessors' flight-paths for one mem- 
orable year (1998-1999), and still occasionally 
appears in the similarly themed Spider-Girl. 

Marvel has introduced teams of young charac- 
ters, with X-Men spinoffs The New Mutants (includ- 
ing Cannonball, Warlock, Wolfsbane, and Sunspot), 
Generation X (with Husk, Jublilee, Mondo, and oth- 
ers), and X-Statix (featuring the Anarchist, Phat, U- 
Go Girl, and Dead Girl), as well as its 1990s version 
of the Teen Titans, The New Warriors (Speedball, 
Night Thrasher, Namorita, Firestar, Marvel Boy, and 
Nova). In WildStorm Productions' Gen 13, the U.S. 
government planned to create its own S.P B.s 
(superpowered beings) through DNA manipulation, 
the result being a group of superkids including 
Fairchild, Burnout, Rainmaker, and Grunge. A similar 
theme was explored in the mid-1980s series DNA- 
gents: "Science made them ... but no man owns 
them" read a tag line for this comic starring Tank, 
Surge, Rainbow, Sham, Amber, and Snafu. 



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THE NEXT OZPZZ 

Finally, there are superteams that exhibit god- 
like traits, no better example being the New Gods, 
created for DC Comics by the celebrated "King" of 
comics, artist/writer Jack Kirby. Orion, Lightray, 
Metron, the Black Racer, and other superpowered 
beings answer to the all-knowing Highfather on the 
peaceful planet New Genesis. The New Gods' par- 
adise is constantly disturbed by New Genesis' dark 
doppelganger world, Apokolips, ruled by the tyranni- 
cal Darkseid and his evil minions. For DC Kirby also 
produced the Forever People (Mark Moonrider, 
Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear, Serifan, and Vykin the 
Black), hippie-ish young superbeings who reside in 
the amazing city called Supertown; while for com- 
petitor Marvel he created the New Gods-like Eter- 
nals (Makkari, Thena, Sersi, and Ikaris). 

Some superteams consider themselves gods. 
Marvel's Squadron Supreme, at face value a Justice 
League riff — Hyperion was its "Superman," 
Nighthawk, its "Batman," Power Princess, its "Won- 
der Woman," Golden Archer, its "Green Arrow," 
etc. — was a mid-1980s limited series that explored 
a superteam's benevolent rule of its society, and a 
resistance group that plotted to overthrow the 
Squadron's quiet tyranny. DCs groundbreaking 
twelve-issue Watchmen (1986-1987) covered simi- 
lar territory via its society of dysfunctional super- 
heroes (Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, Nite Owl, and 
others). Dark Horse's mid-1990s series Catalyst: 
Agents of Change chronicled the demands placed 
upon a superteam (Grace, Titan, Rebel, Mecha, and 
others) who took it upon themselves to manage the 
Utopian Golden City. 

Then there was the New Guardians, a group of 
dissimilar characters who arrived in the DC universe 
after Millennium, a 1988 crossover threaded 
throughout most of DCs superhero titles. Their agen- 
da was to propagate their unique genetic strains, but 
with an odd cast containing Harbinger, Ram, Flora, 
and the flamboyantly gay stereotype Extraho, readers 
rejected the series and it died after twelve issues. 



Other superteams have come and gone, and 
some that have gone will surely be back. From the 
original concept of an assemblage of costumed 
favorites to the more contemporary interpretation of 
argumentative rebels, the superteam will continue 
to exist as long as superheroes do. — ME 

Supetvefirctes 

"Chicks love the car," observed the Dark Knight (Val 
Kilmer) in director Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever 
(1995). Guys do, too: For decades, the Batmobile has 
won the race to be the premier superhero vehicle. 

After tooling around Gotham City's mean 
streets for two years in a variety of unidentifiable 
autos, in 1941 DC Comics' Batman drove his first 
stylized Batmobile, a steel-reinforced roadster with 
a bathead-shaped battering ram, batwinged tail fin, 
and bulletproof windows. In 1950, the car was 
lengthened into a sedan with a bubble top, spot- 
light, and interior crime lab, and got plenty of 
mileage until the mid-1960s when Batman and 
Robin traded it in for an open-topped sports car 
with dual batwinged fins and a batmask hood 
insignia. The most recognizable version of the Bat- 
mobile careened onto television in the campy Bat- 
man live-action show (1966-1968). Car customizer 
George Barris converted a 1957 Ford Futura into a 
batfinned hot rod with mag wheels and orange rac- 
ing stripes, equipped with a rear parachute for quick 
stops, a dashboard radar, and a beeping Batphone 
to police Commissioner Gordon — all clearly labeled. 
Multiple Batmobiles were created for the program, 
but the unwieldy vehicles proved awkward to han- 
dle. Stunt driver Victor Paul remarked, "That thing 
was a deathtrap.... The steering would break on it." 
Maneuvering difficulties aside, the TV Batmobile 
was a smash, and replicas — from tiny diecasts to 
plastic model kits to kid-sized pedal cars — were 
(and still are) popular items. To this day, Barris' Bat- 
mobiles tour the United States in auto shows and 
at comics conventions. In the comics, with each 



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passing decade, Batman has swapped his Batmo- 
bile for a newer model: a sports coupe in the 
1970s, a drag racer in the 1980s, and a heavily 
armored rolling arsenal beginning in the late 
1980s, inspired by another Barris custom, for direc- 
tor Tim Burton's Batman (1989). 

The Batmobile is only one vehicle in the expan- 
sive Batcave: Batman and Robin have taken wing in 
the Batplane (which has also undergone many 
transformations, including the Batwing, in the 1989 
Batman movie), Batcopter, Batgyro, Whirly-Bat, Bat- 
Glider, Bat-Missile, and even the Flying Batcave; rid- 
den the waves in the Batboat and Bat-Sub (a.k.a. 
the Batmarine); and avoided traffic jams in the Bat- 
cycle (with a sidecar for the Boy Wonder) and the 
Bat-humvee! Robin tried rocket-propelled roller 
skates in 1941 before eventually hopping onto a 
motorcycle of his own, a mode of transit he main- 
tains in his identity of Nightwing. 

Not to be outdone, Bat-foes Joker and Cat- 
woman have sped around Gotham in their own vil- 
lainous vehicles, the Jokermobile and Kitty Car, and 
early in their careers, Green Arrow and Speedy 
cruised the highways and skyways in their golden 
Arrow Car and Arrow Plane. Ideal Toys' Captain 
Action, who appeared in his own DC Comics series 
(1968-1969), zoomed over land and sea in his mis- 
sile-launching Silver Streak, but the Spy Smasher, a 
Golden Age great, one-upped the Captain with his 
Gyrosub: plane, helicopter, speedboat, and subma- 
rine, all in one vehicle! The Green Hornet and his 
sidekick (and chauffeur) Kato patrolled the streets 
in a sleek sedan dubbed the Black Beauty. Loaded 
with crime-crushing devices ranging from a surveil- 
lance camera to a steel-piercing laser, the Black 
Beauty was a hit in television's The Green Hornet 
(1966-1967); customized by Dean Jeffries from a 
1966 Chrysler Imperial Crown, this supervehicle 
was profitably merchandized. Even Superman, 
comics' foremost flying hero, was bitten by the car 
bug: He took his aerodynamic Supermobile, com- 
plete with lead lining for kryptonite protection and 
retractable giant fists, for several spins in his 



1970s comics. Meanwhile, Superman's pal Jimmy 
Olsen and his young allies the Newsboy Legion 
rocketed about in a souped-up supercar called the 
Whiz Wagon, in a series of 1970s comics stories 
written and illustrated by Jack Kirby. Aquaman, DC 
Comics' king of the seven seas, usually swam the 
ocean depths (or hopped a ride from an equestrian- 
sized seahorse or another of his undersea friends), 
but once on TV's Super Friends he used an 
Aquasled; his underwater counterpart at Marvel, 
Namorthe Sub-Mariner, commanded his Imperial 
Flagship to navigate the seas. 

Since most of Marvel Comics' superheroes 
reside in the dense urban environs of New York City, 
few drive vehicles. Look up, however, and you may 
see the Fantastic Four's sky-soaring Fantasti-car, or 
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s airborne automo- 
bile called the Hovercar. Fury's organization of 
super-cops also uses a flying headquarters dubbed 
the Helicarrier, loaded with myriad countermeasures 
against psionic and telekinetic attacks. Down 
below, the Punisher seeks human vermin in his 
shatterproof battle van, and the web-slinging Spider- 
Man once grabbed the keys to a dune buggy called 
the Spider-Mobile for a brief ride in the 1970s. Mar- 
vel's eerie Ghost Rider prowls the night streets on a 
motorcycle (with flaming tires!), and he's not alone: 
DCs Huntress, Black Canary, Wildcat, and cowboy 
crusader Vigilante are also bikers. (In fact, the Vigi- 
lante's cycle has a unique gyro system that allows it 
to remain stable no matter how the rider leans, and 
it packs destructive missiles that are activated by a 
"trigger-mech" in the handgrips.) On the Batman 
television show, Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) puttered 
about on a purple cycle adorned with lace and a big 
yellow bow (born to be m/7d?)! 

While virtually every superteam from the X-Men 
to the Legion of Super-Heroes owns a stealth jet or 
space cruiser, some heroes use even more extraor- 
dinary means to travel. Metron, the dimension- 
crossing couch potato of DCs New Gods, traverses 
the final frontier in his Mobius Chair, while Marvel's 
"sentinel of the spaceways," the Silver Surfer, 



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hangs ten on his cosmic surfboard. DCs resident 
spaceman, Adam Strange, and writer/artist Dave 
Stevens' Rocketeer, use jetpacks to fly into action. 
Wonder Woman's invisible plane is the most unusu- 
al of all superhero vehicles. Even though her jet is 
transparent (perceptible to the reader's eye in out- 
line form), Wonder Woman herself is not — the seat- 
ed Amazonian Princess is clearly visible each time 
she pilots her plane! 

With the technological advances of the late 
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, sleek, 
computerized vehicles have rolled out of the exclu- 
sive domain of superhero mythology and into the 
real world: On-board mapping systems, voice-auto- 
mated instructions, and even televisions with DVDs 
have become common features in the "family car." 
As a result, the supervehicle of the comics is no 
longer the awe-inspiring novelty it was during the 
Golden (1938-1954) and Silver (1956-1969) Ages 
of comics. — ME 

Supewflfahis 

At the advent of comics' Golden Age (1938-1954), 
readers were dazzled by the audacious exploits and 
flashy ensembles of the first wave of superheroes. 
Very quickly, however, the novelty of these men and 
women of steel became endangered from battles 
with generic gunmen and mouthy mobsters, men- 
aces borrowed from the pages of newspapers of the 
day. Comic-book editors, writers, and artists were 
challenged to create supervillains against whom 
their heroes could maintain their mythic status. 

MZPIA INSPIRATIONS 

Some comics creators looked to the movies for 
inspiration. Mad scientists, a staple of popular cine- 
ma of the 1930s, soon unleashed their diabolical 
machinations against many of the first super- 
heroes. Dr. Death, a run-of-the-mill evil genius, 
posed a minor threat to Batman, but Professor 



Hugo Strange proved a deadlier menace: He terror- 
ized the hero's home of Gotham City with mutated 
monsters and noxious gas. The first two major foes 
to challenge Superman boasted tremendous intel- 
lects: the Ultra-Humanite, who could transfer his 
mind into other bodies; and Lex Luthor, a master- 
mind who took on Superman with a destructive 
arsenal and became so popular with readers that 
he has endured to this day. Captain Marvel, the 
"World's Mightiest Mortal" of Fawcett (and later DC) 
Comics fame, was habitually harassed by the das- 
tardly Dr. Sivana. Similarly, Professor Torture bedev- 
iled the Angel (no relation to the popular X-Men 
member), Dr. Psycho confronted Wonder Woman, 
the Thinker challenged the Flash, Brainwave tried to 
outsmart the Justice Society of America, Dr. Riddle 
took on Bulletman and Bulletgirl, and Mr. Who used 
his "Z solution" to annoy Dr. Fate. Many of these 
characters apparently patronized the same tailor, 
given their preference for lab coats. 

Movie monsters scared up big box office 
receipts during this era, and inspired ghoulish 
supervillains in comic books. In one of his earliest 
tales, Batman fought — and killed! — vampires, then 
later met Clayface, a serial killer patterned after 
horror star Boris Karloff, and Two-Face, a grotesque- 
ly scarred Jekyll-Hyde gangster. The undead 
Solomon Grundy lumbered out of the swamps to 
become a foe of Green Lantern; Captain America 
and Bucky battled the "walking dead" called the 
Hollow Men; and the serpentine saboteur Cobra put 
the squeeze on Magno, the Magnetic Man. 

Another early supervillain trend — costumed 
criminals — netted mixed results. Bad guys with col- 
orful garb did not always make enduring adver- 
saries: Doll Man's pint-sized pest Tom Thumb and 
Bulletman's nemesis the Black Rodent (whose uni- 
form included a rat's-head mask and a tail) are 
remembered today only by the most dedicated his- 
torians. Superman's first enemy to don a disguise, 
the Archer, also failed to strike a bull's eye with 
readers. Most of the menacing masqueraders 
added to Batman's rogues' gallery, however, com- 



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bined compelling modus operandi with garish attire 
to imprint themselves upon comics readers: The 
ghastly, grinning Joker's shock of green hair and 
pasty-white face frightened fans, as did his pen- 
chant for inducing a smile upon murdered victims; 
the fetching Catwoman's sexy purple gown and flow- 
ing ebon locks belied her wicked fluency with her 
"cat-o '-nine-tails" whip; and the pillaging Penguin's 
portly waddle made him look comical, but his dead- 
ly bumbershoots were no laughing matter. 

TH£ ZVIL THAT MEN PO 

World War II produced real-life "supervillains" 
who shocked the world. Despicable acts of blood- 
shed, torture, and conquest perpetrated by the Axis 
powers filled the papers and newsreels, proving too 
sinisterly seductive for the comics to ignore. In the 
early 1940s, German and Japanese soldiers, spies, 
and saboteurs were regularly depicted as comic- 
book menaces: Superman tackled Adolf Hitler and 
Joseph Stalin in a 1940 Look magazine supplement, 
and Marvel's own Captain America, who bowed in 
March 1941, owes his very origin to the advent of 
Nazi spies. Once the December 1941 bombing of 
Pearl Harbor drew the United States into this global 
conflict, the anti-Axis sentiment became even more 
overt. Actual comic-book supervillains swathed in 
Swastika cloth set their diabolical sights on super- 
heroes: The Red Skull became Captain America's 
principal adversary; Captain Marvel Jr. squared off 
against Captain Nazi; MU Publications' Steel Ster- 
ling battled Baron Gestapo, and its dark hero the 
Hangman was the sworn enemy of Captain Swasti- 
ka; and a cretin called Satan, decked out in a robe 
decorated with a Swastika, fought Harvey Comics' 
Spirit of 76. Japanese villain Captain Nippon took on 
Captain Marvel Jr.; the yellow-skinned, fang-toothed 
Claw, an "Oriental" supremacist who could grow to 
humongous proportions, fought the Golden Age 
Daredevil (not to be confused with the Marvel 
Comics hero of the same name); and the Shield and 
his sidekick Dusty wrangled with the heinous Hun. 
Hitler himself appeared regularly in comics and on 



comics covers of the era, including Gleason Publica- 
tions' 1941 classic, Daredevil Battles Hitler #1. 

Golden Age superhero comics did not exclusive- 
ly rely upon the Axis threat for villainous fodder, how- 
ever: Each publisher consistently churned out a bevy 
of bad guys (and gals) to fight their superheroes. 
Noteworthy no-goodniks of the era include Captain 
Marvel's (and the Marvel Family's) foe Mr. Mind (a 
brainy worm who wore thick-lensed eyeglasses), the 
robotic Mr. Atom, the savage Ibac, and the problem- 
atic Monster Society of Evil (a villainous superteam 
led by Mr. Mind); Green Lantern's enemies the Icicle, 
the Gambler, the Sportsman, the Huntress, and the 
Harlequin; the Shark, who swam into the pages of 
Amazing-Man Comics; Dr. Fate's mystical menace 
Wotan; and the Riddler, Tweedledee and Tweedle- 
dum, the Mad Hatter, and the Scarecrow, yet more 
hazardous threats to Batman and Robin. 

Other memorable Golden Age supervillains 
include the Hangman's foe, the Executioner (who 
wielded an icepick as an artificial hand); Flash 
rogues Star Sapphire, the Fiddler, and Thorn; 
Magno, the Magnetic Man's pesky Clown; the villain- 
ous Valkyrie, who was a thorn in Airboy's side; the 
armored God of War Mars and the spotted pest the 
Cheetah, who made life tough for Wonder Woman; 
the sentient ventriloquist's puppet called the 
Dummy, arch foe of DC Comics' Western superhero 
the Vigilante; Hawkman's dastardly dapper nemesis 
the Gentleman Ghost; Superman's headaches the 
Puzzler, the Prankster, the Toyman, and Mr. Mxyztplk 
(later Mr. Myyzptlk); the cloudy criminal called the 
Mist, who mystified Starman; a different villain call- 
ing himself the Mist, who clashed with MU's Black 
Hood, as did Panther Man, the Skull, and the Crow; 
and a handful of enemies of DC Comics' Justice 
Society of America — Vandal Savage, Per Degaton, 
the Psycho-Pirate, and the evil assemblage the 
Injustice Gang of the World. Most of these supervil- 
lains were content to use their powers or weapons 
to plunder, or just to irritate their enemies, but a 
few — including Mars, Vandal Savage, and the 
Claw — were true tyrants, bent on domination. 



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Once the most popular superheroes jumped 
from comic books to other media, their rogues usu- 
ally failed to accompany them. Sivana was nowhere 
to be seen in the movie serial The Adventures of 
Captain Marvel (1941), nor did the Red Skull join 
his foe in Captain America (1944). Likewise, the 
Man of Steel's enemies from the comics were 
absent from the seventeen Superman animated 
theatrical shorts produced by the Fleischer Studios 
(1941-1943), but Luthor appeared on screen in the 
live-action serial Atom Man vs. Superman (1950). 
In their two movie serials, Batman and Robin tan- 
gled with villains specially tailored for the limited 
budgets of the medium, but in their daily and Sun- 
day newspaper strips, arch-nemeses Joker, Penguin, 
and Catwoman were menacing mainstays. 

POSTWAR VILLAINS 

While World War II was a boon for superhero 
comics, the war's conclusion proved disastrous for 
the genre, and most superheroes and supervillains 
were systematically retired. For the handful of 
superheroes who remained in print, their adver- 
saries continued to reflect the headlines of contem- 
porary newspapers. Readers predisposed toward 
believing the Roswell alien-landing story appreciat- 
ed Captain Midnight's 1947 struggles with Jagga 
the Space Raider and Xog the Evil Lord of Saturn; in 
1948 the Fighting Yank clobbered Ku Klux Klan-like 
robed foes; and the Fighting American, one of the 
few superheroes (albeit a parody of the medium) to 
premiere in the 1950s, fought Communist adver- 
saries like Poison Ivan and Hotsky Trotsky. 

By the mid-1950s, almost all superheroes had 
hung up their capes, save DCs Superman, Batman, 
and Wonder Woman, who tangled with alien 
invaders, a handful of watered-down versions of their 
Golden Age foes, and a few new additions to their 
rosters of enemies — Angle Man took on Wonder 
Woman, and a new, morphing Clayface mucked up 
Batman's life, as did minor-league menaces Doctor 
Double-X, Calendar Man, and Signalman. When the 



Man of Steel flew onto the small screen in the live- 
action syndicated television series The Adventures 
of Superman (1953-1957), he corralled hoodlums 
and petty thieves, with nary a supervillain in sight. 

One major supervillain did surface to plague 
comic-book superheroes in the 1950s: Dr. Fredric 
Wertham. This well-intentioned, real-life psychiatrist 
linked juvenile delinquency to comics reading in his 
book Seduction of the Innocent (1954), inciting U.S. 
Senate hearings that inflicted upon the industry a 
censorship board (the Comics Code Authority, or 
CCA). The few post-code supervillains that still 
appeared in print were nonthreatening — and boring. 

PC COMICS SUPZZVIUAINS OF 
THB SILVZZAGZ 0956-1969) 

The introduction of the all-new Flash in DC 
Comics' Showcase #4 (1956) heralded a superhero 
comeback. The Flash over time garnered one of the 
most imaginative rogues' galleries in comics, felons 
each employing technological gadgets or scientific 
weapons to take on the Fastest Man Alive: The Mir- 
ror Master teleported and created illusions with 
trick mirrors, Heat Wave melted the pavement under 
the Flash's feet with his heat ray, Captain Cold put 
the Flash on ice with his freeze gun, and the Weath- 
er Wizard manipulated blizzards and winds with his 
weather wand. Other Flash foes of the era include 
Captain Boomerang, the Top, the Trickster, Pied 
Piper, Abra Kadabra, Professor Zoom (a.k.a. the 
Reverse-Flash), Dr. Alchemy (a baddie who some- 
times appeared in a different guise, as Mr. Ele- 
ment), and the telepathic, super-intelligent simian, 
Gorilla Grodd. 

Green Lantern followed the Flash with his 
Showcase #22 (1959) reinvention, and likewise 
attracted science-spawned adversaries: Sinestro, 
Doctor Polaris, the Shark, Sonar, the Black Hand, 
Hector Hammond, the Tattooed Man, and a new 
Star Sapphire (who happened to be the hero's girl- 
friend under her pink mask). DC continued to 
rework its Golden Age heroes into Silver Age incar- 



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Supervillains 



nations, and added ultramodern (for the time) men- 
aces to the mix: The Atom fought Chronos and 
Plant-Master; the Shadow Thief challenged Hawk- 
man; Ocean Master, Black Manta, and the Fisher- 
man splashed into the pages of Aquaman; and the 
Justice League of America was plagued by Starro 
the Conqueror, the Queen Bee, Amazo, Felix Faust, 
Doctor Light, Doctor Destiny, Despero, the Key, the 
Shaggy Man, and Kanjar Ro. Eclipso, deemed hero 
and villain in one man, temporarily became the star 
of the anthology series House of Secrets. The Teen 
Titans tumbled with the tousle-haired Mad Mod, 
whose Carnaby Street fashions foreshadowed the 
coming of the movies' Austin Powers; and Chemo, a 
giant that spewed toxic chemicals, was a recurring 
threat to the robot heroes the Metal Men. 

Science-based menaces were also introduced 
into the Superman comics, including the android 
Brainiac, who used his reducing ray to shrink and 
collect cities from across the universe; Titano the 
Super-Ape, a King Kong pastiche, who paralyzed 
Superman with kryptonite vision; Metallo, the man 
with the robotic body powered by a kryptonite heart; 
Bizarro, a superpowerful but dimwitted duplicate of 
the Man of Steel; the multipowered Composite 
Superman, who nearly eliminated the Man of Steel 
and Batman; and the Parasite, who could siphon 
Superman's energy. The Legion of Super-Heroes — 
the team of super-teenagers living one thousand 
years in the future — also developed an impressively 
insidious roster of enemies including Computo, Doc- 
tor Regulus, the Fatal Five, the Time Trapper, Mordru 
the Merciless, Universo, and the Legion's dishonor- 
able doppelgangers, the Legion of Super-Villains 
(Cosmic King, Saturn Queen, and Lightning Lord). 

While Batman encountered a few science- 
based opponents — like the chilling Mr. Freeze 
(called Mr. Zero in his initial 1959 appearance), the 
dizzying Spellbinder, and the aforementioned Com- 
posite Superman — most of his new foes emerging 
during the Silver Age were more down to earth: The 
sultry Poison Ivy seduced Batman and Robin into 
conflict, the hulking Blockbuster's rage could only 



be quelled by a glimpse of the face of Bruce Wayne 
(Batman's alter ego), and Batman discovered the 
existence of a vast international crime network 
called the League of Assassins. The Caped Crusad- 
er's rogues' gallery became television stars in the 
live-action Batman (1966-1968), which featured 
Hollywood's hottest (and a few has-beens) as villain- 
ous guest stars. Some examples: Cesar Romero as 
the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, Frank 
Gorshin (temporarily replaced by John Astin) as the 
Riddler, Vincent Price as Egghead, Roddy McDowell 
as the Bookworm, Milton Berle as Louie the Lilac, 
and Victor Buono as King Tut. On Saturday morning 
TV, Brainiac, Luthor, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the Prankster 
fought Superman on his cartoon show, while, con- 
versely, most of the other animated episodes fea- 
turing DC superheroes pitted them against stereo- 
typed extraterrestrials. 

DCs supervillains of the Silver Age shared 
more in common than flamboyant costumes and 
scientific weaponry. Most were motivated by greed, 
and their rivalry with their superheroes was a 
byproduct of their thievery. Few DC villains of this 
era could be categorized as inherently evil. Excep- 
tions include Grodd, who held no regard for 
humans, and Luthor, whose hatred of Superman 
had intensified to such a boiling point that he was 
no longer content with matching minds with the 
Man of Steel; He wanted Superman dead. 



MAZVU COMICS 

SUPZ2VIUAINS OF THE 

SILVeZAGB 

Marvel Comics approached both superheroes 
and supervillains differently from competitor DC. 
Marvel's heroes possessed traits previously consid- 
ered anti-heroic, such as selfishness and narcis- 
sism, and its villains went even further, many being 
despicable despots or egomaniacal enslavers. 

The Fantastic Four (FF), the originators of the 
Marvel universe, protected New York City from an 



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Silver Surfer and the evil Galactus in the animated show The Silver Surfer. 



onslaught of menaces including the hideous subter- 
ranean dictator called the Mole Man; Super-Skrull, 
an alien commanding each of the FF's abilities; and 
the emotion-manipulating Hate Monger; plus Blas- 
tarr, Diablo, Dragon Man, Psycho-Man, the Molecule 
Man, Puppet Master, and Annihilus. The FF's most 
challenging adversaries were Galactus, a sky- 
scraper-sized alien who consumed the lifeforce of 
planets, and Doctor Doom, the collegiate rival of the 
FF's leader Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic), 
whose machinations nearly toppled the Four time 
and time again. Even the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's pop- 
ular anti-hero from the Golden Age, resurfaced as a 
villain in early Fantastic Four issues, although his 



motivation for striking against humankind — retribu- 
tion for surface dwellers' encroachment upon his 
undersea kingdom — made him a sympathetic foe. 

Some Marvel menaces' names unambiguously 
conveyed a thirst for domination, or an evocation of 
terror: the Avengers' antagonists Kang the Con- 
queror and Ultron; the Incredible Hulk's bitter ene- 
mies the Leader, the Abomination, and the Absorb- 
ing Man; Captain America's foe Baron Zemo; the 
armored adversaries of Iron Man, the Titanium Man 
and the Crimson Dynamo, plus the insidious instiga- 
tor the Mandarin; the god of thunder Thor's powerful 
enemies the High Evolutionary, Grey Gargoyle, and 



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s*r 



Supervillains 



Ulik; and Dormammu and Baron Mordo.the sinister 
sorcerers casting evil spells on the Master of the 
Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange. The Silver Surfer bat- 
tled the lord of the underworld, Mephisto, and when 
not warring against pummeling powerhouses, Thor 
matched wits with his evil half-brother Loki. Dare- 
devil's rogues' gallery lacked the omnipotence of 
some of Marvel's other 1960s villains, but still, the 
Beetle, the Owl, the Stilt-Man, and the Gladiator 
were no pushovers (actually, pushing over the Stilt- 
Man was one way to defeat him ...)■ 

Marvel's X-Men, a society representing 
humankind's next evolutionary step, waged a civil war 
with evil mutants like Magneto, the Juggernaut, the 
Blob, the Toad, and Sauron. Spider-Man, Marvel's oft- 
misunderstood superhero, was regularly branded a 
bad guy by the media and police, while targeted by 
supervillains like Kraven the Hunter, the Kingpin, the 
Scorpion, the Shocker, Electro, the Vulture, the Lizard, 
the Sandman, the Rhino, and Mysterio. Spidey's most 
problematic Silver Age villains, the sneering Green 
Goblin, who sailed over the New York cityscape on his 
goblin glider, and the mechanical-armed madman Doc- 
tor Octopus (a.k.a. "Doc Ock"), stood out among this 
pernicious pack. The Hulk, Marvel's monstrous super- 
hero, was a frequent combatant of most of Marvel's 
heroes, particularly the Fantastic Four's Thing. 

In the mid- to late 1960s, many of Marvel's char- 
acters were translated to television cartoons, and 
their villains joined them, wreaking terror on the tube. 
These translations were truly literal in the case of TV's 
Marvel Super Heroes (1966-1968) and Fantastic 
Four (1967-1970), with the former's limited-anima- 
tion episodes being shot directly from the Marvel 
comics and the latter's scripts closely based on them. 

OTHER SUV BR 
AGB SUPBZVIUAINS 

The popularity of superheroes during the 1960s 
triggered an upsurge of costumed crime fighters 
from a variety of comic-book publishers and televi- 
sion producers. Moltar, Zorak, the Black Widow, and 



Brak were among the foes of the Saturday-morning 
TV superhero Space Ghost, and Captain Action of 
Ideal Toys (and DC Comics) fame clashed with the 
otherworldly scientist Dr. Evil. While Charlton 
Comics' "Action Heroes" were inventive alternatives 
to DC and Marvel superheroes, their supervillains 
ranged from unique (the Madmen, who battled the 
Blue Beetle, plus the Ghost, Punch and Jewelee, and 
Dr. Spectra, foes of Captain Atom) to derivative 
(Peacemaker's flaming foe Mr. Blaze, Judomaster's 
agile adversary the Acrobat, and Son of Vulcan's 
egotistical enemy King Midas). 

PAZKSZI1? 14SHZZS IN A N£W 

BzeepoFeviL 

Supervillains became bolder, blacker, and 
bleaker in the 1970s. So did superheroes. The 
anti-hero — the hero with personality flaws, or with 
questionable motivations — was popularized during 
the decade, in response to a youth culture desensi- 
tized over an unpopular war, civil unrest, and dis- 
honest politicians. 

In 1970, Jack Kirby, the artist for many of Mar- 
vel's most popular characters of the 1960s, jumped 
ship to DC, producing four interlocking "Fourth 
World" titles that shared one central villain: Dark- 
seid (pronounced "Dark-side"), a genocidal demigod 
who subjugated the dismal planet Apokolips. Dark- 
seid craved the elusive Anti-Life Equation, and with 
malevolent minions like his brutish offspring 
Kalibak, the duplicitous Desaad, and the sadistic 
Granny Goodness, Darkseid brought a new depth to 
DC villainy. Had Kirby introduced Darkseid into the 
Marvel universe, the villain's impact may have been 
weakened by the publisher's other omnipotent war- 
lords. But at DC, Darkseid was truly unique, and sin- 
gularly vile. His machinations ultimately spread 
beyond Kirby's "Fourth World," and over the 
decades he has challenged everyone from Super- 
man to the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

Another daringly different DC villain that originat- 
ed in the early 1970s was Batman's adversary, the 



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Supervillains 



immortal Ra's al Ghul, an international terrorist 
spreading global chaos long before anyone in the real 
world had heard of Osama bin Laden. Also in the 
1970s, one of Batman's most enduring enemies, the 
Joker, reverted from his mischievous Clown Prince of 
Crime persona to his original murderous ways, leav- 
ing grinning corpses in his wake. The Joker became 
so popular during the decade that he was awarded 
his own magazine, albeit one in which restrictions 
imposed by the CCA censorship board made his por- 
trayal more comical than homicidal. 

Another chilling Batman foe to debut during the 
1970s was Man-Bat, a chemically mutated scientist 
who sprouted powerful batwings. The CCA eased its 
limitations that formerly prohibited the depiction of 
the undead in comics, and monster villains (and 
some heroes) soon crept forth. Morbius, the Living 
Vampire and Man-Wolf fought Spider-Man, and Bat- 
man tangled with the muck-monster Swamp Thing. 

Urban violence intensified in the real world of 
the 1970s, and comics supervillains reflected that 
trend. The street smart Hero for Hire, Luke Cage 
(later called Powerman), got shafted by superpow- 
ered enforcers Diamondback, Mace, Lionfang, and 
Big Ben; hired gun Deadshot took aim at Batman; 
and by decade's end, Bullseye was hired by the King- 
pin to take down Daredevil. The most famous assas- 
sin of the decade, Marvel's Punisher, began his 
career in 1974 as a Spider-Man villain, then segued 
into his own solo adventures, as well as two live- 
action movies (in 1989 and 2004). The bestial 
Wolverine, added to a revamped version of the X-Men 
in 1974, so embodied violent anti-heroics that the X- 
Men's villains grew more savage in response, like the 
feral Sabretooth (who, for the record, first surfaced in 
conflict with the martial-arts superhero Iron Fist). 
Even the most traditional of superheroes, Superman, 
witnessed a darkening of some of his rogues' gallery 
during the 1970s: Luthor amped himself in battle 
armor, the killer cowboy called Terra-Man flew (on a 
winged horse!) into Metropolis to take down the Man 
of Steel, and the Atomic Skull and the Sand-Super- 
man made life difficult for the hero. 



Comic-book villains discovered that there was 
safety in numbers during the 1970s: Doctor Doom 
and Sub-Mariner joined forces in Super-Villain Team- 
Up (1975-1980), and DC combined Captain Cold, 
Sinestro, Grodd, and other scalawags in its Secret 
Society of Super-Villains series (1976-1978). On 
television, more DC villains (Luthor, Grodd, Black 
Manta, the Scarecrow, and others) united as the 
Legion of Doom in the animated Challenge of the 
Super Friends (1978-1979) and the Riddler, Mor- 
dru, Dr. Sivana, and several other DC bad guys were 
brought to life — and lampooned — by comedians in 
two campy 1979 live-action Legends of the Super- 
Heroes TV specials. However, in the dramatic, 
primetime adaptations of superheroes airing during 
the 1970s— ABC's Wonder Woman and CBS's The 
Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man — none 
of the heroes' supervillains appeared. 

UPPTNGTHZAhlTe 

Starting in the 1980s and continuing into the 
2000s, real-world street gangstas, serial killers, 
and international terrorists have made the comic 
book's costumed bank robber of yesterday seem 
ludicrous by comparison. The fictional world of 
superheroes has darkened, and supervillains have 
slipped even further into evil and depravity. 

Old-time menaces have become more con- 
temptible — Lex Luthor was reinvented into an ego- 
maniacal corporate executive who executed a power 
play to the U.S. presidency; the Joker crippled Bat- 
girl and massacred the second Robin the Boy Won- 
der in 1988, then killed Gotham City police Com- 
missioner Gordon's wife in 1999; and readers were 
shocked by the intensity of Doctor Doom's hatred of 
Reed Richards when Doom disfigured the hero's 
face in 2003 — and newer villains accomplished pre- 
viously unthinkable acts: Doomsday beat Superman 
to death in 1992 (although he rose from the dead), 
and Bane broke Batman's back in 1993. 

Even the very names of supervillains introduced 
since the 1980s invoke a more dystopian worldview. 



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Superweapons 



Examples include Typhoid Mary and Shotgun, foes of 
Daredevil; Spider-Man rogues Venom (a talking 
Venom action figure actually spoke, "I want to eat 
your brains!"), Carnage, Carrion, and Hobgoblin; X- 
Men enemies Dark Phoenix (formerly founding team 
member Marvel Girl), Stryfe, X-Cutioner, Mr. Sinister, 
Deadpool, and Apocalypse; Fatality, killer of inter- 
galactic Green Lanterns; Brother Blood, who has ter- 
rorized the Teen Titans and the Outsiders; Justice 
League menaces Mageddon (a.k.a. the Primordial 
Annihilator), Neron, and Soultaker; Spawn's nemesis 
the Violator; Superman rogues Dominus, Imperiex, 
Massacre, and Kancer; and Batman villains Killer 
Croc, Anarky, Brutale, and Cain. 

Many of these villains, particularly the rogues' 
galleries of superstars Spider-Man, Batman, the X- 
Men, Superman, and the Justice League, have joined 
their adversaries on television and in the movies. 
Blockbuster superhero films, however, tend to spice 
their villains with camp humor — as one of many exam- 
ples, consider Jim Carrey's over-the-top take on the 
Riddler in director Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever 
(1995). Willem Dafoe's unsettling interpretation of the 
Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002), how- 
ever, signaled the arrival of sinister supervillains in 
Hollywood, a dark trend that has continued with Nick 
Nolte's abusive David Banner in The Hulk (2003). 

Superheroes, the contemporary counterparts of 
the ancient gods, traditionally represented the lofty 
ideals to which humankind aspired. As society slipped 
more into violence, so did its heroes. Consequently, 
supervillains have continued their descent into the 
darkest recesses of the human soul, with little hope 
for rehabilitation. But such is villainy. As the editors of 
Marvel's trade paperback Bring Back the Bad Guys 
(1998) pondered, "What is good without evil?" — ME 



Superweapons 

Not every superhero is faster than a speeding bullet 
or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. 
That's when superweapons become a necessity. 



Since his first mission in Gotham City's violent 
streets in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), DC 
Comics' Batman has cornered the superweapons 
market with an array of crime-crushing gadgets that 
would make 007's "Q" green with envy. The Dark 
Knight's utility belt houses his miniaturized line of 
defense: A retractable Batrope, a grappling hook, 
grenades, smoke and gas capsules, a penlight, an 
acetylene torch, a respirator, and a first-aid kit are 
just some of the weapons he keeps close to the 
hip. Batman is proficient with his bat-styled 
boomerang — his Batarang — which he flings with 
expert accuracy, as well as his Batblades, skin- 
piercing, batwinged projectiles. 

Belts also have significance to other super- 
heroes: Batman's ally Robin the Boy Wonder carries 
a similar arsenal in his own utility belt, Hanna-Bar- 
bera's Space Ghost vanishes by pressing a button 
on his Invisibelt, and Dynamo of the TH.U.N.D.E.R. 
Agents uses his belt to become supercharged. DCs 
1970s superstar the Thorn stored thorns of every 
conceivable dimension in her belt — blackout thorns, 
painful dart thorns, flare thorns, and electric-shock 
"thistle stingers" — in addition to her whip, coiled up 
and ready to release on a moment's notice. The orig- 
inal Robin (Dick Grayson), now called Nightwing, has 
retired his utility belt for glove gauntlets, loaded with 
gizmos not unlike Batman's, including customized 
Batarangs, gas pellets, and "de-cel" jumplines. 
Nightwing also wields unbreakable "Escrima sticks" 
with unnerving speed and accuracy. His mask's eye- 
pieces are equipped with night-vision lenses, as are 
Batman's and the current Robin's. 

Wristbands or gauntlets are fashionable 
weapons among superheroes. After science student 
Peter Parker gained the ability to crawl up walls like 
an insect, he created wrist-mounted shooters to 
secrete a thin webline for swinging from building to 
building as the amazing Spider-Man (though in 
director Sam Raimi's blockbuster Spider-Man 
[2002], Parker gains the organic ability to shoot 
webs). Several other Marvel Comics superheroes 
bond with bands: The Wasp and Yellowjacket use 



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Superweapons 



their wristbands to fire electrical stings, the Black 
Widow discharges debilitating "Widow's Bite" blasts 
from her gauntlets, and the warrior from the planet 
Kree, Mar-Veil (a.k.a. Captain Marvel), has cosmi- 
cally imbued Mega Bands. Space Ghost fires a vari- 
ety of blasts — including a beam that levitates 
objects — from his power bands. The most famous 
wrist gear in the superhero world is worn by Wonder 
Woman: She deflects oncoming bullets with her 
bracelets — and forces captives to speak the truth 
with her other superweapon, her magic lasso. Top 
Cow Comics' Witchblade became a superheroine 
once she donned an enchanted steel glove that, 
like Wonder Woman's bracelets, repels bullets. 
Witchblade's gauntlet can do much more, however: 
It morphs into a variety of deadly edged blades and 
commands unusual supernatural properties. 

When fighting crime with gadgetry in the world 
of Marvel Comics, nobody does it better than Nick 
Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury fronts this high-tech 
police force with a sophisticated arsenal including 
magnetic cuff links capable of supporting a human's 
weight, explosive cigars, bulletproof and flame-retar- 
dant clothing, shirt buttons that are secretly oxygen 
pellets, an eyepatch that doubles as a slingshot, 
and an expansive array of firearms shooting every- 
thing from traditional bullets to concussive blasts. 

Industrialist Tony Stark covers his entire body 
with one of the most awesome superweapons in 
the Marvel universe: the high-tech armor that 
empowers him as the Invincible Iron Man, placing 
flight, repulsor blasters, a uni-beam, and super- 
strength at his command (other armored heroes 
include Valiant's X-0 Manowar, Dark Horse's Mecha, 
Marvel's War Machine and Future Comics' Metallix). 
Cyborg of the Teen Titans and Marvel's cybernetic 
supersoldier Deathlok take the armor concept a 
dramatic leap further: Both are part-man, part 
machine. Cyborg, in fact, has interchangeable 
hands that perform a variety of functions, including 
the emission of sonic discharges. On a smaller 
scale, the Avenger Ant-Man's antennae-helmet 
makes ants do his bidding. 



Captain America, Marvel's stalwart patriot, 
uses his mighty red, white, and blue shield, forged 
of shatterproof vibranium, to deflect incoming 
blasts. Cap also hurls his shield to plow through 
adversaries, and often suckers them by ricocheting 
the shield in sneak attacks. Even more durable 
than vibranium is the synthetic metal adamantium, 
of which the X-Men's Wolverine's retractable claws 
and entire skeleton are made. His claws can slice 
through virtually any object. His acquisition of this 
superweapon did not come easy: Wolverine's bones 
were replaced with adamantium in an agonizing sur- 
gical process. Sarge Steel, a hard-boiled crime 
crusher who started his career at Charlton Comics 
in the 1960s before joining the DC universe in the 
1980s, has a metal hand that packs quite a punch. 

The mighty Thor, Marvel's god of thunder, 
wields the hammer Mjolnir. The resilient hammer, 
made of the mystical metal uru, can only be lifted 
by one deemed worthy by Thor's father, Odin, king of 
the Norse gods. Thor uses Mjolnir to fly, and to 
smash objects and enemies. Superman's ally Steel 
hoists a sledgehammer in his street-level crime- 
busting in Metropolis. Several members of DCs 
Justice Society of America have employed a "cos- 
mic rod" in their crime-fighting endeavors: In the 
1940s, the original Starman created his "gravity- 
rod" to siphon stellar radiation to allow him to fly 
and emit powerful blasts. He later renamed the 
device the cosmic rod and in the 1970s passed it 
down to the Star-Spangled Kid. When the 1990s 
Starman arose to carry on the astral tradition, he 
did so with a similar superweapon, a cosmic staff, 
which in the 2000s was inherited by Stargirl. The 
Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange, exploits 
the arcane properties of his all-seeing Eye of 
Agamotto to locate supernatural threats lurking 
within the Marvel universe. Blind hero Daredevil 
enlists the aid of his billy club: Guided by his uncan- 
ny radar sense, Daredevil tosses his club at foes 
and swings from rooftops on its retractable line. 

Perhaps the most legendary — and omnipo- 
tent — superweapon is DC Comics' Green Lantern's 



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Superweapons 



power ring. Alan Scott, the Golden Age 
(1938-1954) Green Lantern (GL), carved his ring 
from a meteor and used it to fire mystical energy 
bolts. A dying alien named Abin Sur gave fearless 
test pilot Hal Jordan his power ring, the weapon of 
the intergalactic peacekeeping force, the Green 
Lantern Corps. As the Silver Age (1956-1969) GL, 
Jordan used his ring to vanquish global and space- 
faring threats. Green Lantern reservists Guy Gard- 
ner and John Stewart have also worn power rings, 
and the 2000s ring bearer and newest GL is Kyle 
Rayner. A Green Lantern's power ring's abilities are 
nearly limitless, its only boundaries being the wear- 
er's imagination and (up to Rayner's tenure, at 
least) the ring's sole weakness, ineffectiveness 
against any yellow object. GL's will power enables 
him to use the ring to create anything, from a giant 
green fist to a glowing emerald spacecraft. The 
power ring's energy source is a battery — shaped 
like a green lantern — and the ring requires recharg- 
ing after twenty-four hours. 

Expert marksmen Green Arrow (GA), his son 
Connor Hawke (also known as Green Arrow), and 
the first GA's former sidekick Speedy (now called 
Arsenal) all aim arrows from bows, as do Marvel's 
Hawkeye, DCs Amazon Artemis, and CrossGen 
Comics' Arwyn the Archer from the series Sojourn. 
Some of their arrows are electrical, explosive, or 
trick in some capacity (boxing-glove arrows were an 
old favorite of GA's). The Huntress pins gangsters 
with a crossbow. Another sureshot superhero is the 
X-Men mutant Gambit, who infuses biokinetic ener- 
gy into inorganic objects, making anything he touch- 
es a deadly weapon — Gambit gets a charge out of 
throwing explosive playing cards. 

Some superheroes' superweapons aren't 
super at all. Hawkman and Hawkgirl prefer ancient 
arms like maces, swords, and shields; the Golden 
Age's Shining Knight, one-time Avengers Swords- 
man and Black Knight, and Valkyrie of Marvel's 
Defenders have used a similar arsenal. Elektra 
brandishes three-pronged daggers called sai, and 
the Master of Kung Fu, Shang-Chi, backs up his 



martial arts with nunchakus and throwing darts (as 
does the Green Hornet's ally Kato). The Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles, those heroes in a half-shell, 
are also experts at swordplay. And watch out for 
Catwoman! This sultry streetfighter lashes out at 
her enemies with her cat-o'-nine-tails whip. The 
Western superhero the Vigilante, who fought crime 
during the 1940s and 1950s in DC Comics, often 
used a lariat to corral his foes. 

Making the list of superheroes armed with the 
wackiest weapons are Harvey Comics' 1960s-era 
Spyman, with his "electro-robot" hand and his gun- 
belt filled with additional, screw-in fingers that 
accomplish amazing feats — from producing a 
smoke screen to creating a supersonic shock wave; 
undersea hero Pirana, who packs an undersea 
blowtorch neatly tucked away in a pocket; and Neal 
Adams' short-lived (1983) hero Skateman, a former 
roller derby athlete turned hero, who uses his roller 
skates as a weapon. 

Finally, a horde of heroes new and old wield 
conventional firepower in battle. DCs Deathstroke 
the Terminator blasts (as well as slices) away at his 
foes, as does that other Terminator, the futuristic 
cyborg assassin from a franchise of live-action 
movies and Dark Horse comic books. Tomb Raider 
Lara Croft backs up her martial arts prowess with 
awesome aim as an expert sharpshooter. The 
vengeful Punisher unleashes his lethal war on crime 
with a bottomless munitions cache that his altruis- 
tic ally Spider-Man finds distasteful. Spidey would 
no doubt prefer the Green Hornet's or the Golden 
Age Sandman's firearms, meant to disarm, not 
destroy: Both use gas guns to knock out their foes 
(Sandman's former partner Sandy, called Sand as 
of the 2000s, carries on his mentor's tradition), and 
the Green Hornet's vibrating Hornet's Sting rips 
through steel. Still others rely solely on their 
respective superabilities, preferring not to use 
weapons of any sort: When you're pliable like Plas- 
tic Man, as fast as the Flash, as strong as the Hulk, 
or can burst into flame like the Human Torch, super- 
weapons serve no purpose. — ME 



«j&> 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 




Tank Girl 

Reminiscent of the tough, super-mobile punk babe 
that became a staple in such science-fiction novels 
as Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992), Tank Girl 
is the 1990s incarnation of the punkster tomboy 
superheroine. An Australian tank pilot turned out- 
law, Tank Girl is the quintessential "bad grrrl." The 
tough-talking Generation X-er showcases a partly 
shaved head and a bad cigarette and beer habit, 
and is described succinctly by British comics histori- 
an Roger Sabin as an outcast "with a knack for gra- 
tuitous violence." In her adventures in the Aus- 
tralian outback, Tank Girl always seems to be look- 
ing for a fight, and is often aided by friends Jet Girl 
and Sub Girl, white-haired Aborigine Stevie, and her 
significant other, Booga, a half-human kangaroo. 
Her supervehicle of choice is a stolen tank, hence 
her moniker. 

Tank Girl is the creation of UK comic-book 
artists Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. She first 
appeared in a 1990 issue of the British comic mag- 
azine Deadline, where she became an underground 
favorite, her stories reprinted in the United States 
by maverick comic-book publisher Dark Horse 
Comics. The U.S. comic-book publisher published 
two series of four books, Tank G/r/(1991) and Tank 



Girl 2 (1993). Though her position as a true super- 
heroine is debatable, her cult status is not, and as 
Tank Girl grew in popularity — on both continents — 
she could be seen plastered on a variety of hipster 
merchandise, including T-shirts, skateboards, and 
upper right arms. 

Directed by Rachel Talalay, the celluloid inter- 
pretation of the character, Tank Girl, hit the big 
screen in 1995. The futuristic live-action thriller 
starred Lori Petty in the title role, with Naomi 
Watts as Jet Girl, Ann Cusack as Sub Girl, and 
Malcolm McDowell as arch-villain Kesslee. A gang 
of half-human, half-kangaroo mutant warriors 
called the Rippers rounded out the cast. 
Described by reviewer Scott Rosenberg in the San 
Francisco Examiner as a film that "takes [the] mili- 
tant feminism of the Thelma & Louise school and 
weds it to the punk nihilism of the Mad Max 
school," Tank Girl was dismissed by comics' true 
fan base as a superficial treatment of the heroine. 
Though it tanked at the box office, the film was 
adapted into a graphic novel by DC Comics, which 
then published two four-issue miniseries, Tank 
Girl: The Odyssey (June-August 1995, with art by 
Hewlett) and Tank Girl: The Apocalypse (October 
1995-January 1996) under its adult-themed Verti- 
go imprint. — GM 



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Team-ups and Crossovers 




Lori Petty as the hard-edged heroine in Tank Girl. 

Team-vps and 
Crossovers 

Superhero comic books, originally an American art 
form, epitomize escapist entertainment, but have, 
since their inception in the late 1930s, represented 
another American principle: capitalism. In June 
1940 when Marvel Comics — then known as Time- 
ly — paired its two most popular characters in one 
story, the publisher succeeded in enthralling its 
audience while reaping huge profits. 

THE FIZST 

supzzHezo czossovez 

The superheroes were the Human Torch, the 
artificial human who could burst into flame, and the 



Sub-Mariner, the defiant Prince Namor from the 
ocean depths. This was a clash of elemental fury: 
Fire vs. Water! The Torch/Sub-Mariner meeting was 
brainstormed by Bill Everett, artist of The Sub- 
Mariner, and Carl Burgos, illustrator of Marvel's 
best-selling title, The Human Torch, to curry reader 
interest within a marketplace exponentially expand- 
ing with new superheroes. With writers John Comp- 
ton and Hank Chapman, Everett and Burgos' epic 
was serialized in three consecutive issues of Mar- 
vel Mystery Comics (#8-#10). Namor demolished 
New York City landmarks in chapter one, building 
toward chapter two's 22-page slugfest and a cliff- 
hanger ending, with the Torch trapped in a "translite 
tube," his flame extinguished. Readers anxiously 
returned the next month to see the combat end in a 
standstill, cleverly arranged by Marvel so as not to 
upset fans from either camp. With this momentous 
meeting of Namor and the Torch, the superhero 
crossover was born. MU Publications (later Archie 



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Comics) quickly copied Marvel's idea by having the 
Shield guest star with the Wizard in Top-Notch 
Comics #7 (1940). 

THB FIRST SUPeZTZAM 

Competitor DC Comics took the concept to the 
next level in the winter of 1940 by introducing 
comics' first superfeam when the Justice Society of 
America (JSA) premiered in All Star Comics #3, 
combining the Flash, the Sandman, Hawkman, the 
Spectre, Hourman, the Atom, Dr. Fate, and Johnny 
Thunder (with more heroes signing on later) as a 
super-squad. Marvel countered in the summer of 
1941 with Young Allies, starring a group of 
superWcfs: Bucky (Captain America's sidekick) and 
Toro (the Human Torch's partner), plus a pack of 
patriotic youths called the Sentinels of Liberty. 
Young Allies #1 also marked the historic first meet- 
ing between mentors Captain America and the 
Torch, who continued to appear in cameos through- 
out future issues. LevGleason Publications' Dare- 
devil Comics #1 (not to be confused with the super- 
hero from Marvel Comics) in July 1941 got into the 
act by having the heroes from Silver Streak 
Comics — Lance Hale, Cloud Curtis, Dickey Dean, 
Pirate Prince, and, of course, the Silver Streak and 
Daredevil himself — merge in a multi-chaptered con- 
flict against the supervillain Claw and a menace 
borrowed from the real world, Adolf Hitler. 

In 1941 Martin Goodman, Timely Comics' pub- 
lisher, decreed to Everett and Burgos that a 
rematch between the Sub-Mariner and the Human 
Torch take place — and gave them a mere 72 hours 
to produce 60 pages of material. The illustrators 
orchestrated an artistic "jam" session — "All done in 
my apartment on 33rd St., with six writers, four 
artists, and a case of booze," remarked Everett in a 
1961 letter — running the course of a three-day 
weekend. Everett recalled "Joey Piazza lying in the 
bathtub, fully clothed, writing up a storm" while the 
other artists and authors labored frantically, shout- 
ing story ideas back and forth. Irate neighbors com- 



plained about the noise, even siccing the police on 
the annoying comics clan, but despite these inter- 
ruptions and insurmountable odds, their mission 
was accomplished: The Torch/Sub-Mariner battle 
was completed in three days! This "life and death 
struggle," Marvel's second superhero crossover, 
was published in The Human Torch #5 (Fall 1941). 
The climax entailed a graphic image that, in the 
post-September 11 real world, is disturbingly chill- 
ing: Namor unleashes a massive tidal wave to flood 
New York City, with buildings and bridges toppling. 
Just as prophetic, however, was the accompanying 
caption: "But the spirit of the populace stays up!" 
New Yorkers escaped watery deaths by donning div- 
ing helmets and seeking solace in shelters below 
the subways. 

Despite the phenomenal sales of the Human 
Torch/Sub-Mariner meetings, superhero crossovers 
were relatively uncommon during the Golden Age of 
comics (1938-1954). The illusions of superhero 
team-ups were often presented, however, as charac- 
ters appearing in anthology titles often interacted 
on comics covers: Fawcett's Wow Comics #21 
(1944), for example, depicted Mary Marvel, Mr. 
Scarlet and Pinky, Phantom Eagle, and Commando 
Yank in action together; and similarly, on artist Alex 
Schomburg's energetic cover to Marvel's All Select 
Comics #2 (1944), the Human Torch and Sub- 
Mariner resolved their spat and teamed up — along 
with their new ally, Captain America — to thwart a 
Japanese attack. While that scene didn't play out 
inside, those three heroes (along with the Whizzer, 
Miss America, Toro, and Bucky) ultimately joined 
forces as the JSA-like All Winners Squad in All Win- 
ners Comics #19 (1946). 

yoi/g two favozitz 

HZZOZS ... TOGBTHBJ2! 

Although they shared cameo status in All Star 
Comics #7 (1941), DC Comics' two most popular 
heroes teamed up for the first time in the mid- 
19405 — but not in the comics! Batman (along with 



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Team-ups and Crossovers 



Robin the Boy Wonder) made occasional guest 
appearances on the Man of Steel's weekly radio 
drama The Adventures of Superman. 

Once World War II ended, superheroes fell out 
of marketplace favor. By the 1950s only a few sur- 
vived, mainly at DC. Batman crossed over into the 
pages of Superman #76 (1952), laying the ground- 
work for a partnership that would resume two years 
later. Having appeared in separate stories for more 
than ten years in World's Finest Comics, Superman 
and Batman were combined as the lead feature 
with issue #71 (1954), making World's Finest the 
first actual team-up title. While the terms 
"crossover" and "team-up" are often used inter- 
changeably, technically their definitions differ. Editor 
Mike Gold, in his introduction to DC Comics' The 
Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told (1989), 
explained: "... a crossover is when a hero or a 
group of heroes meet in another hero's book ... A 
team-up is when two heroes (or two groups) meet in 
a special title." Batman appeared in print with 
Superman throughout World's Finest's long run — 
the series was discontinued in January 1986 with 
issue #323 — although Batman was temporarily 
bumped from the book in the early 1970s to make 
way for Superman team-ups with the Flash, Green 
Lantern, Aquaman, and others. Notwithstanding 
World's Finest's obvious objective of bonding DCs 
most lucrative franchises (for years the blurb "Your 
Two Favorite Heroes, in One Adventure Together^." 
appeared on each story's title page), over the 
course of the decades Batman and Superman 
became the best of friends. Characters from each 
of their respective series would sometimes enter 
the pages of World's Finest, from villains (including 
Lex Luthor and the Joker, who also teamed up to 
fight their foes) to sidekicks (Robin was usually on 
hand, and sometimes, Superman's pal Jimmy 
Olsen) to supporting cast members (Supergirl, Bat- 
girl, Lois Lane, even the Legion of Super-Heroes). 
Meanwhile, throughout the 1950s a smattering of 
crossovers took place in DCs titles — for example, 
Robin appeared in Superboy's series in Adventure 



Comics #253 (1958), and Aquaman and Green 
Arrow visited each other's strips in Adventure #267 
(1959) — but the concept of superhero team-ups 
was poised to explode into ubiquity in the 1960s. 

TH£ SUVZZAGe 0956-1969) 

First, however, came the reemergence of the 
superteam, with the Justice League of America 
(JLA) in The Brave and the Bold #28 (1960), min- 
gling the recently introduced new versions of the 
Flash and Green Lantern with Superman, Batman, 
Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. 
During a golf game, Marvel's Goodman discovered 
how profitable the JLA was for his competitor and 
commissioned his editor/writer Stan Lee to create 
a superteam for their company. The result: Fantas- 
tic Four#l (1961), marking the coming of a new 
Marvel Age. 

Crossovers began to occur more frequently at 
DC. The Golden Age Flash returned in The Flash 
#123 (1961), where readers discovered that the 
JSA still existed on a parallel world called Earth- 
Two. The first Marvel crossover since the mid- 
19405 took place in 1962 as the antisocial Sub- 
Mariner (him again!) appeared in Fantastic Four #4. 
At DC, the entire Justice Society returned for annual 
meetings with their contemporary counterparts, 
commencing with "Crisis on Earth-One" in Justice 
League of America #21 (1963), while Marvel's sec- 
ond superteam — Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, the 
Wasp, and reluctant member the Incredible Hulk — 
merged as the Avengers. 

Before long, both companies were crossover 
crazy. At DC, the Flash guest-starred in Green 
Lantern (and vice versa), and Hawkman appeared in 
The Atom. At Marvel, the Hulk fought the Thing in 
Fantastic Four, and the Human Torch and Spider-Man 
were rivals. These crossovers illustrated a major dif- 
ference between the publishers' editorial styles: 
DCs heroes met as allies, where Marvel's fought 
each other. Granted, many of the tiffs between Mar- 
vel's heroes were resolved by story's end (with the 



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Team-ups and Crossovers 



exception of the conflicts involving the Hulk and the 
Sub-Mariner, who couldn't get along with anyone), 
but the unpredictability of these new, quirky Marvel 
superheroes made them popular with readers, and 
made DCs heroes seem stodgy by comparison. 

TH£ BRAVZ ANP THE 80L1? 

In late 1963 DCs The Brave and the Bold (B&B) 
shifted from its try-out format to team-ups, connect- 
ing two (and sometimes more) superheroes in a sin- 
gle adventure, their logos appearing side-by-side on 
the covers: Green Arrow and the Manhunter from 
Mars in #50, Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, and 
so on. When TV's live-action Batman series struck 
ratings gold in 1966, DCs Caped Crusader usurped 
the permanent lead spot in B&B beginning in 1967 
with #74's Batman/Metal Men story, and continuing 
a remarkable run of nearly twenty years that ended 
with issue #200 (1984). Batman's versatility made 
him the perfect teammate, adapting to traditional 
superhero tales (with the Flash, Hawkman, and the 
Atom), mysteries (with the British sleuths the Bat- 
Squad and the ghostly guardian known as the Spec- 
tre), horror (he encountered the muck-monster 
called Swamp Thing and even went into the House 
of Mystery), space epics (with Green Lantern and 
Adam Strange), time travel (with the Western hero 
Scalphunter and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth), 
war stories (with Sgt. Rock and the Unknown Sol- 
dier), globe-spanning adventures (he ventured to 
South America with Wildcat and to the undersea 
kingdom of Atlantis with Aquaman), and even team- 
ups with his enemies (the Joker, Ra's al Ghul, and 
the Riddler). Green Arrow was Batman's most fre- 
quent B&B co-star, with nine appearances total. 

Green Arrow is better known for his team-ups 
with fellow Justice Leaguer Green Lantern. The 
Emerald Archer packed his quiver and moved into 
Green Lantern's magazine beginning with Green 
Lantern #76 (1970), and the title became Green 
Lantern/Green Arrow (GL/GA) — but on the covers 
only; the indicia still read Green Lantern. The "All- 



New! Ail-Now!" GL/GA was DC Comics' first major 
attempt at producing comics as social commentary. 
Green Arrow was characterized as "the voice of the 
streets, of the left," according to writer Denny 
O'Neil, while GL, an intergalactic cop accustomed to 
following orders, represented rigid conservatism. 
Despite their idealistic clashes, the heroes bonded, 
traveling across America in a pickup truck and tack- 
ling problems that were eroding the soul of the 
nation: racism, pollution, and economic displace- 
ment, among others. The celebrated, oft-reprinted 
GL/GA was ahead of its time, so much so that it 
failed to attract an audience large enough to sus- 
tain it, and Green Lantern was canceled with issue 
#89 (1972); the series was revived shortly there- 
after, however, with a more traditional superheroic 
direction. (Two other superhero series featured 
mergers of two characters into one book: In 1968 
DC canceled Hawkman and relocated the winged 
hero into The Atom, retitlingthe series The Atom 
and Hawkman, and in the 1980s Marvel's Power 
Man and Iron Fist shared a series for a lengthy run.) 



TH£ 1970S TEAM-UP TRSNP 

There may have been a gasoline shortage dur- 
ing the 1970s, but team-up comics were abundant. 
Marvel's characters had mellowed from their 1960s 
spats and usually worked together in their encoun- 
ters. Marvel Team-Up (MTU) premiered in 1972, with 
Spider-Man (bumped out of the lead by the Human 
Torch on a handful of occasions) starring in a 
remarkable thirteen-year run that produced 150 
issues and seven annuals. From high-profile heroes 
like Iron Man and the X-Men, to more obscure char- 
acters like Tigra the Were-Woman and Brother 
Voodoo, almost every Marvel superhero imaginable 
crossed paths with Spidey, whose flexibility as a 
teammate rivaled Batman's. The Thing spun out of 
Fantastic Four into his own team-up series, Marvel 
Two-In-One (1974-1983), which lasted 100 issues 
and seven annuals. The publisher's cads and cow- 
boys even paired off, in the short-lived Super-Villain 



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Team-ups and Crossovers 



Team-Up, which premiered in 1975 and ran for sev- 
enteen issues, and Western Team-Up #1 (and only), 
published in 1973. DCs World's Finest and B&B 
were joined in 1975 by Super-Team Family, featuring 
everything from a Creeper/Wildcat tale to an 
Atom/Aquaman/Captain Comet trio, and by DC 
Comics Presents, Superman's answer to B&B, which 
launched with Superman and the Flash in #1 (1978) 
and ran for 97 issues, until its 1986 cancellation. 

THB GZBATBST SUPBZHeZO 
TBAM-UPOFAU TIME 

The ultimate superhero team-up also took 
place in the 1970s: Superman vs. The Amazing Spi- 
der-Man, a tabloid-sized one-shot co-published by 
DC Comics and Marvel Comics in 1976. "The per- 
son in charge of Marvel at that time came to DC 
with the crossover idea," Carmine Infantino, then- 
editorial director of DC, reflected in Back Issue mag- 
azine #1 (2003). "I was opposed to it, but since I 
had no choice, I insisted, 'Let us do it properly.'" 
Infantino, an accomplished artist (Batman, The 
Flash) who had served as DCs art director prior to 
ascending into company management, picked the 
project's creative team — author Gerry Conway and 
penciler Ross Andru, who had previously worked on 
both Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man — and 
designed the dynamic cover featuring the Man of 
Steel and the web-slinger in dizzying action above 
New York's skyscrapers. Superman vs. The Amazing 
Spider-Man garnered media attention and sold phe- 
nomenally well, but the publishing rivals parted 
ways for five years before producing a sequel. In the 
meantime, DC used this same oversized, "All-New 
Collector's Edition" format for a handful of team-ups 
with Superman: Superman vs. Wonder Woman, 
Superman vs. Shazam! (Captain Marvel), and the 
oddest of all, Superman vs. Muhammad AH. 

Marvel and DCs flagship characters reunited 
in 1981 in Superman and Spider-Man, quickly fol- 
lowed by Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk the same 
year, both in the tabloid-sized format. These best- 



sellers enticed the publishers into a pact to pro- 
duce more cross-company crossovers, albeit in the 
regular comic-book size, with an umbrella title of 
Marvel and DC Present. Issue #1, featuring the X- 
Men and the New Teen Titans, was released in 
1982, with the first-ever meeting of the Justice 
League of America and the Avengers scheduled for 
#2 in 1983. George Perez, the superstar artist who 
had previously illustrated both The Avengers for 
Marvel and Justice League of America for DC, was 
committed to draw the project, but editorial miscom- 
munications between publishers led to plot rejec- 
tions, verbal allegations of misconduct, and a 
brouhaha in the comics fan press. Perez, operating 
in good faith under direction from DC, illustrated 
twenty-one pages of the book, but due to mounting 
disagreements between the companies the project 
was never completed and was officially axed in 
1984. The resulting ill will severed ties between the 
publishers for many years to follow. 

TH£ COMING OF THZ 
mGA-CZOSSOVZZ 

Both DCs and Marvel's long-running team-up 
titles were canceled in the 1980s, one by one. The 
format had grown tired — how many times could Bat- 
man and Green Arrow team up, after all? — and read- 
ers' tastes had changed, with material growing dark- 
er and more violent. Mundane menaces were no 
longer interesting, and the notion of altruistic cama- 
raderie had also grown stale. But readers still clam- 
ored for superhero team-ups. Marvel's editor in chief 
Jim Shooter, in Les Daniels' history Marvel: Five Fab- 
ulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, com- 
mented that "every day a bunch of readers would 
say [in mail], 'Why don't you have one big story with 
all the characters in it together?'" 

Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions, 
the company's first limited series, was Shooter's 
response in 1982. This three-issue tale combined 
most of Marvel's superheroes into a largely routine 
adventure, but succeeded in taking team-ups to the 



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Team-ups and Crossovers 



next level: the mega-crossover. In 1984 the compa- 
ny published the twelve-issue Marvel Super-Heroes 
Secret Wars on the impetus of toy manufacturer 
Mattel, who approached Marvel with the Secret 
Wars concept for a line of superhero action figures. 
Secret Wars sold 750,000 copies per issue, the 
largest sales seen in the industry since World War 
II. The series brought together Spider-Man, the 
Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the 
Avengers to fight a common menace, the omnipo- 
tent Beyonder. The repercussions of Secret Wars 
were witnessed in the regular Marvel comics, most 
notably Spider-Man's garment change to an eerie 
black-and-white costume. 

DCs first mega-crossover was 1985's Crisis on 
Infinite Earths, a massive housecleaning in which 
their parallel worlds were streamlined into one and 
outdated characters were killed or retired. Almost 
every DC Comics character imaginable joined forces 
to stop the destructive might of the Anti-Monitor. 
Perishing in this cataclysmic conflict were Supergirl 
("She's Superman with boobs," remarked DC editor- 
ial director Dick Giordano when lobbying for 
approval of her demise) and the Flash, in addition 
to a legion of lesser names. Even Wonder Woman 
was expunged from continuity in Crisis, but quickly 
reintroduced in a new Wonder Woman series. 

The former world's finest team of Superman 
and Batman severed their ties in 1986. Frank 
Miller, author/illustrator of DCs gritty Batman: The 
Dark Knight Returns, portrayed an aging, angry Bat- 
man as a loner against a corrupt Gotham City, plac- 
ing him into conflict with the Man of Steel. "I'll glee- 
fully take credit for breaking up the Batman/Super- 
man friendship," Miller remarked. The heroes' ideo- 
logical divisions continued in DCs post-Dark Knight 
titles, and despite frequent encounters and a new 
Superman/Batman series that premiered in 2003, 
the two remain uneasy allies at best. 

Throughout the 1990s, mega-crossovers con- 
tinued, most often in DCs and Marvel's giant-sized 
summer annuals, usually with such apocalyptic des- 
ignations as Atlantis Attacks and Armageddon 



2001. Traditional guest appearances continued, as 
well, especially with the ever-popular Batman and 
Spider-Man popping up in DC and Marvel titles 
needing a sales boost. Newer lines of superheroes 
from independent comics publishers also employed 
crossovers to cross-pollinate their characters and 
strengthen their "universes": Turok was introduced 
in Valiant's Magnus Robot Fighter #12 (1992), 
Firearm blasted into Malibu's Prime #10 (1994), 
Barb Wire appeared in Dark Horse's Ghost #4 
(1995), and Spawn crept into the pages of Image's 
The Savage Dragon #30 (1996). 

C20SS-C0MPANY CZ0SS0VZ2S 

Cross-company crossovers evolved from laud- 
ed events to commonplace occurrences during the 
1990s. Almost every publisher got into the act, with 
team-ups including Superman vs. The Terminator; 
ShadowHawk/Vampirella; Hulk/Pitt; Spider- 
Man/Gen 13; Superman vs. Aliens; The Savage 
Dragon/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; The 
Joker/The Mask; Azrael/Ash; JLA; Superman/Mad- 
man Hullabaloo!; and perhaps the strangest of all 
team-ups, Archie Meets the Punisher. Batman 
reigned as the consummate teammate (or combat- 
ant), appearing with (or against) Spawn, Tarzan, 
Aliens, Grendel (twice), Predator (thrice), and Judge 
Dredd (in four separate team-ups!). 

Marvel and DC mended fences during the 
1990s: Batman/Spider-Man, Green Lantern/Silver 
Surfer, Batman/Daredevil, Superman/Fantastic Four, 
and The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman were just 
some of their cross-company team-ups, which have, 
as of 2004, been reprinted in a series of four 
Crossover Classics trade paperbacks. In 1996, the 
publishers went at it (fictionally) in the four-issue 
miniseries DC vs. Marvel/ Marvel vs. DC (issues #1 
and #4 were published by DC, with DC receiving top 
billing; Marvel took the lead for issues #2 and #3). 
Superhero slugfests transpired, with their outcomes 
selected by the votes of fans: Batman beat Captain 
America, Spider-Man defeated Superboy, etc. The ulti- 



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mate crossover transpired as a result of this series: 
The DC and Marvel universes temporarily merged 
into one, during which time the companies — under 
the Amalgam banner — published heroic hybrids of 
their characters. Amalgam superhero titles included 
Super Soldier (a Superman/Captain America com- 
posite), Doctor Strangefate (Doctors Strange and 
Fate as one), Spider-Boy (a Spider-Man/Superboy 
blend), JLX(a Justice League/X-Men fusion), and 
Speed Demon (the Flash plus Ghost Rider). A 1997 
follow-up produced similar crossbreeds, including 
oddities like Bat-Thing (Man-Bat/Man-Thing) and 
Lobo the Duck (Lobo/Howard the Duck)! 

In the early 2000s Marvel editor in chief Joe 
Quesada initiated talks with DC to revive the long- 
stalled crossover between the Avengers and the 
Justice League of America. After several false 
starts, the co-publishing project was given the green 
light — with George Perez, the artist emotionally 
wounded in the political crossfire of the first incar- 
nation of the crossover, on board to illustrate. Tout- 
ed by many as the comics event of the decade, 
JLA/Avengers, a four-issue miniseries, was pub- 
lished in late 2003 to astounding commercial 
acclaim. While embraced by new fans and wel- 
comed by longtime readers who had anxiously wait- 
ed twenty years for this meeting, JLA/Avengers, as 
well as the Marvel vs. DC stunts of several years 
prior, may have killed the team-up concept: Once 
you've pitted DCs and Marvel's powerhouses 
against each other, then united them to fight a com- 
mon threat, any future team-ups may seem lacklus- 
ter by comparison. 

TVANPMOVTS TEAM-UPS 

Superhero team-ups have also enjoyed popu- 
larity in television interpretations of comics charac- 
ters. The Green Hornet and Kato crossed over onto 
TV's Batman in 1966, and Thor and Daredevil 
appeared in two late 1980s The Incredible Hulk 
telefilms. Virtually every animated incarnation of DC 
and Marvel superheroes — from Super Friends to 



Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends to X-Men to 
Justice League — has featured guest appearances 
by other superheroes. The crossover phenomenon 
has not yet burst onto the big screen, however. Bat- 
man Forever (1995) featured Robin and Batman & 
Robin (1997) included Batgirl, and Daredevil (2003) 
counted Elektra among its cast, but those addition- 
al heroes were already a part of the host charac- 
ters' "families." In 2001 producer Jon Peters 
bandied about a Batman vs. Superman movie as a 
means of resuscitating each hero's film franchise. 
The Hollywood buzz ran rampant through 2002, with 
Collin Farrell as Batman and Jude Law as Superman 
among myriad casting considerations. Batman vs. 
Superman began to stall later that year and 
remains dormant, with a high-fanfare new Batman 
film shooting in 2004 and perhaps indefinitely 
putting off Hollywood's first superhero team-up 
movie. — ME 

Teen Vfam 

They were not the first group of teen sidekicks to 
join together to fight crime, but they are the most 
famous. Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, and 
Aqualad were the original Teen Titans in 1964, and 
almost forty years — and many code-name and cos- 
tume changes later — they and their legacies live on. 
Created by writer Bob Haney at the behest of DC 
Comics editor George Kashdan, the group first 
appeared with no name in The Brave and the Bold 
#54 (June-July 1964), wherein Robin, Kid Flash, 
and Aqualad joined forces to stop the villainous Mr. 
Twister. Wonder Girl joined as the group gained their 
name a year later in The Brave and the Bold #60 
(June-July 1965). Another appearance in Showcase 
that year preceded Teen Titans #1 (January-Febru- 
ary 1966). 

Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy guest-starred in 
issue #4 (July-August 1966), while Doom Patrol's 
animalistic shape-changer Beast Boy showed up in 
#6 (November-December 1966). Other young 



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heroes joined the Titans for various stories as the 
book continued its bimonthly run, including Russian 
powerhouse Starfire, mysterious psychic redhead 
Lillith, squabbling brothers the Hawk and the Dove, 
water-breather Aquagirl, and African-American hero 
Mai Duncan. Along the way, the teens faced villains 
ranging from monsters, witches, and interdimen- 
sional kidnappers to fashion disaster Mad Mod and 
the robotic killer called Honey-Bun. For a brief time, 
the Titans gave up their costumes, in penance for a 
murder they were framed for; during this time, a 
philanthropist named Loren Jupiter helped mentor 
them. Wonder Girl's origin was told in the first "Who 
Is Donna Troy?" story in issue #23 
(September-October 1969), though it would later 
be revised repeatedly. Embarrassingly "hip lingo" 
was used in the dialogue, but the gorgeous art — by 
Nick Cardy and others — and youthful exuberance of 
the stories really set them apart. 

Teen Titans came to an end with issue #43 
(January-February 1973), but it was revived in 
November 1976 with issue #44, a story which intro- 
duced Duncan with the codename of the Guardian. 
The Titans were soon fighting criminals such as Dr. 
Light, the Fiddler, Two-Face, and many others. New 
characters joined up, including the original Bat-Girl, 
Hawkman protege Golden Eagle, Duncan (now Horn- 
blower), Duncan's sting-blasting girlfriend Bumble- 
bee, Beast Boy, the Hawk and the Dove, Lillith, and 
a crazed woman called Harlequin who kept claiming 
to be the daughter of various supervillains. Some 
members eventually split to form a new group 
called Titans West, but the final issue of the series 
loomed. Teen Titans #53 (February 1978) revealed 
the heretofore untold origin of the Titans, as they 
battled their Justice League mentors who were con- 
trolled by Antithesis. 

Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez 
previewed 77ie New Teen Titans in issue #26 of DC 
Comics Presents (October 1980), then launched an 
all-new series the following month. This team con- 
sisted of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and 
Changeling (formerly Beast Boy), and an African- 




Teen Titans #16 © 1968 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY NICK CARDY. 



American man-of-metal named Cyborg, all gathered 
together by a dark teleporting empath named Raven, 
ostensibly to save alien princess Starfire from alien 
Gordanians. But Raven really brought the team 
together to fight her father, the ultra-demon Trigon. 

The New Teen Titans was an almost instanta- 
neous hit, and was at the top of DCs sales in no 
time. Wolfman's deft characterization combined 
with Perez's awesomely detailed art had fans agog, 
and the plots (eventually by both creators) moved 
from serious examinations of the plight of runaways 
to interstellar civil wars, pausing occasionally for "A 
Day in the Lives" stories. The Titans operated from 
Titans Tower on an island in the harbor of New York 
City. They also amassed their own rogues' gallery, 



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including the Brotherhood of Evil, powerful religious 
cult leader Brother Blood, amoral mercenary Death- 
stroke the Terminator, Starfire's evil sister Blackfire, 
assassin Cheshire, and others. 

The popularity of the series caught the eye of 
First Lady Nancy Reagan and other politicians, and 
three anti-drug issues of New Teen Titans were cre- 
ated for elementary schools (as was an animated 
television commercial using the characters). In April 
1984, the main series split into two. The retitled 
Tales of the Teen Titans continued its numbering 
with issue #41, while a second The New Teen 
Titans #1 debuted as well, on Baxter paper stock. 
The idea was that the Baxter issues, sold only in 
the direct comic market, would be reprinted a year 
later in the newsstand Tales series. This proved a 
tricky arrangement, but a memorable one for fans, 
since Tales was about to embark on its most infa- 
mous storyline ever. In "The Judas Contract" 
(issues #42-#44 and Annual #3, May-July 1984) 
teen earth-moving heroine Terra betrays her Titans 
teammates to Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E., shock- 
ing fans everywhere. The story also saw Dick 
Grayson set aside his Robin costume and code- 
name for the darker gear of Nightwing, and intro- 
duced a new Titan, Deathstroke 's son Jericho, who 
could enter and take over anyone's body! 

Both Titans series continued for several more 
years, although the loss of artist Perez (who moved 
over to illustrate Crisis on Infinite Earths and Won- 
der Woman) was a blow to sales. Still, DC produced 
Titans spin-offs such as Teen Titans Spotlight, fea- 
turing solo stories of cast members and Titans past. 
Stories in this run showcased return engagements 
for Trigon, Brother Blood, and the Fearsome Five, as 
well as two further origins for Donna Troy/Wonder 
Girl, leaving her with the new codename of Troia. 
New Titans would join in the form of crystal-powered 
Kole, angelic Azrael, and adolescent telekinetic 
Danny Chase. The team also lost allies; Aquagirl, 
Kole, and Dove were killed in Crisis. With issue #50 
of the Baxter series (December 1988), the title 
changed to The New Titans and welcomed Perez 



back for a spell of issues, while Tales had already 
ended with issue #91 (July 1988). More members 
joined — Red Star (the renamed original Russian 
Starfire), catlike Pantha, a baby Wildebeest, Arsenal 
(Speedy renamed), and the ghostly telekinetic Phan- 
tasm (Danny Chase disguised) — or were killed; Gold- 
en Eagle, Danny Chase, and Jericho were slain in a 
battle against the Wildebeest Society. 

In The New Titans #79 (September 1991), a 
team of young heroes from the future — calling them- 
selves "Team Titans" — appeared, gaining their own 
series in September 1992. Team Titans included fly- 
ing girl Redwing, another Terra, shape-shifting Mirage, 
vampiric Dagon, electrical being Kilowatt, computer- 
ized Prestor John, and gruff leader Battalion. Their ini- 
tial purpose was to stop Donna Troy from delivering 
her baby — who would become the tyrannical Lord 
Chaos in the future — but once that mission was 
scrubbed, they stayed in the past until their series 
ended with issue #24 (September 1994) and all but 
Terra II and Mirage were wiped from existence. Dur- 
ing this time, over in The New Titans, Arsenal led a 
team composed of himself, Darkstar (an again- 
renamed Troia), Supergirl, Green Lantern (Kyle Ray- 
ner), speedster Impulse, explosion-causing Damage, 
Mirage, and Terra II. This team lasted until issue 
#130 (February 1996), and the series was canceled. 

In October 1996, a new Teen Titans #1 
debuted, showcasing another tyro team of heroes, 
all unknown save for team leader the Atom. They 
included plasma-energy-throwing Argent, hyper-adren- 
alized Risk, heat-powered Joto, and light-capturing 
Prysm, though later members included Captain Mar- 
vel Jr. and hulking fighter Fringe. Despite stories that 
featured these Titans fighting dinosaurs, aliens, and 
their predecessors, the series was canceled with 
issue #24 (September 1998). Fans would not have 
to wait long, however, as a three-issue series called 
JLA/Titans (December 1998-February 1999) 
brought back every living Titans character in antici- 
pation of yet another new series. 

The Titans #1 premiered in March 1999, featur- 
ing Tempest (Aqualad renamed), Starfire, Cyborg (now 



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in a morphing gold body), Flash (Kid Flash renamed), 
Argent, Nightwing, Troia (back to her old name), Arse- 
nal, speedster Jesse Quick, and Damage. The group 
operated out of headquarters on the same New York 
harbor island, though this tower was a hologram and 
the actual quarters were underground. Familiar villains 
such as Deathstroke, Blackfire, H.I.V.E., and Cheshire 
(the mother of Arsenal's daughter) appeared, along- 
side new villains such as Marilyn Manson lookalike 
Goth, and supervillain group Tartarus. Distressingly, 
Donna Troy received a fourth major origin revision. The 
Titans never quite caught sales fire though, and 
ended with issue #50 (February 2003). 

Following the July 2003 The Titans/Young Jus- 
tice: Graduation Day miniseries that angered fans by 
callously killing off both Lillith and Donna Troy, a new 
Teen Titans series was launched in September 
2003. Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy (the reverted 
Changeling) now act as mentors to the former Young 
Justice members who now fight as the Teen Titans. 
Members include Kid Flash (the former Impulse), 
Superboy (the Kon-EI version), Robin III (the Tim 
Drake version), and Wonder Girl (the Cassie Sands- 
mark version), though Raven and Jericho quickly 
became a part of the mix as well. These new Titans 
are headquartered in a new Titans Tower in San 
Francisco Bay, and their battles against Deathstroke, 
Brother Blood, and others leave them hurting. The 
2003 Teen Titans was a sales smash, with four sep- 
arate printings of the first issue produced. 

The Teen Titans appeared in a trio of animated 
short adventures as part of Filmation's animated 
Superman-Aquaman Hour (CBS, 1966-1967), but 
other than the anti-drug commercial, Cyborg's appear- 
ance in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians 
(ABC, 1985-1986), and a proposed animated series 
in the mid-1980s, the popular group did not make any 
television appearances. But on July 19, 2003, the 
Cartoon Network debuted a half-hour Teen Titans ani- 
mated series. The high-rated show features Robin, 
Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy, as well as 
familiar heroes and villains such as Aqualad, Thunder 
& Lightning, Deathstroke, H.I.V.E., and others. 



While still airing new shows on Cartoon Net- 
work, Teen Titans also debuted on WB's Saturday 
mornings to further high ratings. Although some 
older fans chafe a bit at the blatant anime stylings 
of the show, most fans young and old enjoy Teen 
Titans. In early 2004, even as the second Teen 
Titans animated season was beginning, a third and 
fourth season were announced, and multiple toy 
lines and licensed items began to appear in the 
summer of that same year. DC caught on to the 
show's popularity quickly, launching Teen Titans Go!, 
a kids comic series based on the animated version, 
in November 2003. It would be the first time in 
nearly a decade that two Titans series shared the 
stands at the same time. 

The debut 1966 issue of Teen Titans pro- 
claimed, "They just couldn't wait to start their own 
mag!" Almost four decades later, the Cartoon Net- 
work's press materials for Teen Titans state "The 
kids are all fight!" Clearly, DCs second-longest-run- 
ning teen superhero group has lived up to its name. 
In comics or on television, they are Titans. — AM 

Teenage Mutant 
Ninja TvvOes 

Four turtles fall into the sewers of New York City 
and are befriended by Hamato Yoshi, a Japanese 
man who lives in this subterranean refuge. One day 
Yoshi encounters a strange green glow of sewer 
sludge, which transforms him into a giant mutant 
rat named Splinter and the four turtles into 
humanoid creatures. Master Splinter dedicates his 
time to teaching the skills of the ninja to the tur- 
tles, who have become superpowerful from the 
radioactive waste floating in the sludge, and thus 
the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) are born. 

These "Heroes in a Halfshell," as they have 
fondly been called, were created by Kevin Eastman 
and Peter Laird, who started their self-published 



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From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 © 1984 Mirage Studios USA. 

ART BY KEVIN EASTMAN AND PETER LAIRD. 



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black-and-white comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles, on a shoestring budget in 1984. In an off- 
the-wall creative session, the duo came up with the 
concept of a group of four turtles with a ninjitsu 
mentor, or sensei, whose origin story loosely paro- 
dies various elements of Marvel Comics' Daredevil. 
Eastman and Laird experimented with different 
looks for each Turtle, but finally agreed on a singu- 
lar, unified costume for all. Each Ninja Turtle was 
named after a renowned Renaissance artist: 
Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo. 

"When we created the Turtles, we wanted to 
spoof the world of superhero characters and poke 
good-natured fun at the heroic but not-so-funny 
characters that dominated the business," said Laird 
on the official TMNT website. "The Turtles are fun 
heroes with an attitude. Basically, they act and think 
like average teenagers." Indeed, these wisecrack- 
ing, fun-loving youngsters live life as "normal" ado- 
lescents would, stepping out to battle various mis- 
creants in between binges on pizza and ice cream. 
Raphael provides the comic relief, delivering one-lin- 
ers in the midst of heated battle; Donatello is 
resourceful and wise; Michelangelo (originally 
spelled "Michaelangelo") is a fun-loving, perpetual 
kid; and the group's de-facto leader, Leonardo, dis- 
plays the heroic feats and moments of wisdom that 
any great leader possesses. 

Though the comic's first print run was a hum- 
ble 3,000 copies, within a few months new issues 
were regularly being printed in quantities of 50,000 
or more. Eastman and Laird's company was chris- 
tened Mirage Studios, and the two set about publi- 
cizing their mutant terrapins. In a stroke of good 
timing, a reporter from UPI wrote a story about the 
Turtles that was picked up on the national wire and 
ran in dozens of newspapers across the country. 
The rest, as they say, is history. What started out as 
a creative fluke was parlayed into a $4.5 billion 
worldwide phenomenon. 

Palladium Books produced a pen-and-paper role- 
playing game featuring the Turtles, Dark Horse Minia- 



tures produced sets of TMNT lead figures for the role- 
playing gamers, and First Comics produced full-color 
reprint volumes of the original series. In December 
1987, CBS aired the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles, which ran until 1996. This highly rated televi- 
sion series saw the Turtles facing off against Splin- 
ter's arch enemy, Shredder, a mysterious ninja clan 
called "the Foot," and Krang, an alien from Dimen- 
sion X — all the while aiding confidante April O'Neil, a 
reporter for Channel 6 News. 

The success of the show — and the exposure it 
gave the Turtles — triggered a Playmates toy line, an 
Archie Comics licensed comic book (which hit the 
stands in 1988), a daily newspaper strip (launched 
in 1990), and a big-screen live-action debut, with 
animatronic characters from Jim Henson. Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie debuted in theaters 
in 1990, followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
2: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), and Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (1993). In the midst of this 
licensing bonanza, merchandise galore appeared on 
retailers' shelves, including Turtles T-shirts, Hal- 
loween costumes, lunchboxes, stationery, calen- 
dars, and coffee mugs. Turtles colloquialisms like 
"Cowabunga" became the slogan of choice among 
all playground-dwelling four-year-olds. 

In September 1997, Ninja Turtles: The Next 
Mutation, a live-action spin-off of TMNT, aired on 
Fox Kids, but lasted only one season. Though critics 
commented that the Turtles were mainly a merchan- 
dising phenomenon of the early 1990s, in the 
2000s the band of ninja mutants made a come- 
back. In February 2003, the Turtles returned to tele- 
vision in an all-new animated series as part of Fox's 
Saturday-morning lineup, supported by a Playmates 
action-figure line and assorted merchandise. — GM 



Tekkaman 

During the 1970s, the animation studio Tatsunoko 
Productions, founded by manga artist Tatsuo Yoshi- 



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da and his brothers Kenji and Toyoharu, created a 
group of unique animated shows for Japanese tele- 
vision. Fresh from the success of their show Mach 
Go Go Go (released as Speed Racer in the United 
States), Tatsunoko's purpose was to create more 
ambitious and sophisticated science-fiction anime 
that would appeal to an older and mature audience 
of teenagers instead of preteens or younger chil- 
dren. The resulting shows became known as the 
"Tatsunoko heroes." These programs represented 
an atypical fusion: all the elements of animation 
created in Japan (anime), but also the costumes 
and larger-than-life action and adventure that were 
typical of American superhero comics — albeit with 
darker themes, and much more violence. The 
shows also showcased designs by Yoshitaka 
Amano, who had joined the studio in 1967 and 
would later go on to become one of Japan's premier 
fantasy artists. 

Space Knight Tekkaman was the fourth of the 
major shows of the Tatsunoko heroes line, the oth- 
ers being Gatchaman, Casshan, and Hurricane Poly- 
mar. The series premiered on Japanese television 
in July 1975 and ended in December of the same 
year, running for a total of twenty-six episodes. The 
series chronicles Earth's battle against an alien 
invasion in the twenty-first century. The aliens, 
known as the Waldastar, have nearly decimated the 
planetary forces, leaving only the small band of 
adventurers — the Space Knights — as Earth's last 
hope. Johji Minami, Hiromi Tenchi, and Andrew 
Umeta comprise the Space Knights, but their prima- 
ry weapon, aside from their spaceship Blue Earth, 
is a special combat suit that transforms Johji into 
the lethal fighting machine, Tekkaman. 

In this armored suit, Minami resembles a styl- 
ized, high-tech red and white samurai, reborn in a 
future age, complete with a weapon that could be 
compared to a sword or halberd. With Tekkaman 
leading the way, the Space Knights take the battle 
to the Waldastar on the ground and in space. A sec- 
ondary storyline involves the crew of the Blue Earth 
searching for an earthlike planet for humans to col- 



onize and thus escape the environmentally ravaged 
first Earth. Humanity, then, faces two forces bent on 
their destruction — the Waldastar and possibly their 
own planet. 

In the early 1980s, about thirteen episodes 
were dubbed into English and released on video in 
the United States, but as with the majority of anime 
brought to the United States at that time, the 
episodes were heavily edited, with violent scenes 
removed and the story and dialogue rewritten. The 
dubbed episodes failed to find an audience and 
were quickly forgotten. 

In Japan, Tatsunoko began to remake several of 
their most popular shows during the 1990s, and 
Tekkaman was one of these. As the first of the four 
major shows of the Tatsunoko heroes line to be 
remade, Tekkaman Blade was also the only one to be 
remade as a television series; the remakes of the 
other shows — Gatchaman, Casshan, and Hurricane 
Polymar— were released as OVAs (Original Video Ani- 
mation series, direct to the home market), consisting 
of only three or four episodes. Story coordinators 
Mayori Sekijima and Satoru Akahori took only a few 
elements from the original series, and added family 
tragedy, teen angst, hard science-fiction elements, 
better animation, and possibly (as careful observers 
have noted) elements from the cult 1969 British sci- 
ence-fiction series UFO. Hirotoshi Sano (who would 
later work on the science-fiction anime Bounty Dog) 
provided the character designs, and Rei Nakahara 
and Yoshinori Sayama created the mechanical 
designs, including a new design for the Tekkaman 
armor. The updated armor retained the same basic 
shape and color scheme of the original, but was also 
given a sleeker look and powerful shoulder-mounted 
cannons called "voltekkers." 

The result was a much more exciting animated 
series than the original, set against a backdrop of 
tragedy and war. Tekkaman Blade first aired in 
Japan in 1992 and ran for forty-two episodes. The 
new series is set in the Year 192 of the "Allied 
Earth Calendar" (possibly 150 to 200 years in the 



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future), with Earth under attack by an insectoid race 
called the Radam and their mysterious armored 
warriors called Tekkamen, with Tekkaman Omega 
coordinating the invasion. The Radam attack 
Earth's Orbital Ring and rain down spores on the 
planet that begin to terraform Earth into a world 
suitable for the Radam — but not for humans. 

The beleaguered Space Knights find them- 
selves fighting the war on two fronts: battling the 
Radam and bickering with the Earth Defense Force 
(EDF) and their leader General Colbert. Hope arrives 
in a most unusual fashion — a rogue Tekkaman 
named Blade who falls to Earth and is found by the 
Space Knights. All are shocked to discover that 
underneath the alien armor is a human being, a 
young man who cannot remember his name. Given 
the name "D-Boy" (Dangerous Boy) by Noa and Aki 
of the Space Knights, Blade joins their fight against 
the Radam, but his help comes at a terrible price. 
First, he cannot stay in his armored form for more 
than thirty minutes; after that, he will go insane and 
attack friend and foe alike. Second, the EDF wants 
to use Blade for their own nefarious purposes. 
Third, and most tragic of all, the opposing Tekka- 
men Blade faces — Dagger, Evil, Lance, Sword, Ax, 
and Omega — are his family and friends. As revealed 
later in the series, D-Boy and his original family, 
members of a deep-space exploration mission, 
were transformed into Tekkamen after being cap- 
tured by the Radam; only D-Boy escaped. After shift- 
ing to an "on the road" tale in its latter half, the 
series concludes with the final battles between 
Blade and the Tekkamen Evil and Omega. 

Tekkaman Blade was a hit in Japan, with cover- 
age appearing in anime magazines such as Out, 
NewType, and Animage. Also successful was the 
merchandising effort that, while not on the massive 
level of Mobile Suit Gundam (the giant robot fran- 
chise that many have compared to Star Trek in 
terms of merchandising and influence in Japan), 
gave fans artbooks, models, and videogames. In 
2000 a videogame was released called "Tatsunoko 
Fight" which used the characters from the four main 



shows; also in 2000, the original Tekkaman series 
was released on DVD. 

Tekkaman Blade eventually caught the atten- 
tion of the U.S. media company Saban Entertain- 
ment, which in 1995 dubbed Tekkaman Blade into 
English and released it on television in the United 
States as Teknoman. Despite the changes in the 
music, character names, and in one case, even gen- 
der — D-Boy became "Slade" and the male or trans- 
sexual character of Rebin was changed to the 
female Maggie Matheson — the story remained 
intact. Despite favorable ratings, only the first twen- 
ty-six episodes were shown on television even 
though Saban had completed work on adapting all 
the episodes of the original Japanese version. 

The reaction to Teknoman was mixed. Those 
who had never seen Tekkaman Blade before were 
drawn to the show's strong storyline and animation 
(and would later look for the original version), but 
fans of the original Tekkaman Blade were split 
between those who hated the adaptation outright 
and those who felt that the changes to the show 
did not detract from the overall mood or story. The 
latter also felt that the show's appearance on Amer- 
ican television could bring new fans into the growing 
anime fandom movement in the America. 

In Japan, Tekkaman Blade //was released as 
an OVA in 1994, with the same creative staff from 
the previous series, consisting of six episodes. The 
OVA was well received, but was not as popular as 
the original Tekkaman Blade. Urban Vision released 
Tekkaman Blade II in the United States four years 
later. In the end, Tekkaman Blade proved to be 
more popular, both in Japan and abroad, than its 
predecessor, Tekkaman. — MM 



Thor 



Just as DC Comics has the all-powerful Superman, 
Marvel has the Mighty Thor, literally a god with 
extraordinary powers and, like his Kryptonian coun- 



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Thor 



terpart, with an earthly alter ego. Integrating 
themes from the warrior heroes of Norse mythology, 
Marvel introduced Thor as its fourth superhero. He 
appeared in late 1962, in the same month as Spi- 
der-Man's debut, and he has been one of the com- 
pany's most enduring stars ever since. 

His first adventure was chronicled in Journey 
into Mystery #83, which introduced readers to the 
frail, lame Doctor Don Blake, vacationing in Norway. 
Stumbling across an alien invasion force of the 
Stone Men of Saturn (who bear an uncanny resem- 
blance to the statues on Easter Island), the startled 
doctor takes refuge in a nearby cave. There, hidden 
in a deep chamber within, he finds a cane, which he 
strikes against the wall, only to find himself trans- 
formed into a blond, long-haired Adonis wearing a 
Viking costume (of sorts) and wielding a magic 
hammer, called Mjolnir. Blake becomes the Thunder 
God Thor because, as an inscription on the hammer 
declares, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be 
worthy, shall possess the power of ... Thor." As 
Thor, Blake can fly (with the help of his hammer) 
and control the elements, and he possesses extra- 
ordinary strength. The hammer also returns, like a 
boomerang, after being thrown; when the handle is 
hit twice on the ground it allows Thor to bring on a 
storm of any type or magnitude; and it makes for 
one mean weapon in a superhero battle. However, if 
the hammer is out of Thor's grasp for more than 
one minute, he reverts to his civilian identity as 
Blake. Having summarily dispatched the Stone Men 
back to Saturn, Blake/Thor heads home and on to 
a long career as a superhero. 

Thor was created by Marvel editor/writer Stan 
Lee and artist Jack Kirby, but neither was consis- 
tently able to fit the feature into their schedules for 
its first few years, so Lee's brother Larry Leiber 
scripted much of the early material. After several 
issues, Kirby moved on to the new X-Men and 
Avengers titles, but not before contributing to the 
strip's nascent supporting cast. Having returned to 
New York, Dr. Blake set up a practice with a pretty 
young nurse called Jane Foster — think Lois Lane 



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and Clark Kent — with whom he promptly fell in love. 
In true comic book style, revealing to her that he 
was really a superhero was strictly forbidden by 
Thor's father Odin, ruler of the Norse gods in far-off 
Asgard. Issue #85 introduced Thor's villainous half- 
brother Loki, the God of Mischief, who was to be a 
perpetual thorn in the hero's side and the feature's 
arch-villain, always plotting to take over Asgard. 

For its first couple of years, the strip was much 
like any other comic, with regular forays down to 
Earth by the treacherous Loki, interspersed with 
occasional communist plotters and local hoods, 
such as the Grey Gargoyle, Radioactive Man, the 
Cobra, and Mister Hyde. Gradually, however, the 
series began to evolve as Lee and Kirby returned 
(with issue #97 in late 1963) and changed the 
strip's focus from earthbound crime-fighting to the 
more expansive, imaginative realm of fabled 
Asgard. The pair introduced a new backup series, 
"Tales of Asgard," which adapted Norse legends 
and integrated them with the lead strips' growing 
band of Asgardians. Among the most important new 
characters were the dashing Balder, a brave, sword- 
wielding fighter; and Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun, 
collectively known as the Warriors Three. Then there 
was Heimdal, guardian of the Rainbow Bridge to 
Asgard, and the beautiful and plucky Sif — a future 
love interest. 

The Norse legends had fascinated Kirby since 
childhood and, coupled with his almost boundless 
imagination, they inspired some of his greatest art: 
astonishing battle scenes (often featuring the 
massed armies of Asgard), vast cosmic vistas, and 
extraordinary creatures. With issue #126 (in early 
1966), Journey into Mystery was retitled Thor, and 
the comic entered its most creative period with a 
stream of new stars and villains. A lengthy narrative 
introduced the Greek god Hercules (later to join the 
Avengers), his father Zeus, and the ruler of the 
Netherworld, Pluto. This was followed by an excur- 
sion into a far-off galaxy with the Colonisers of Rigel 
and Ego, the Living Planet. Later stories featured 
the High Evolutionary (a sort of Dr. Moreau for the 



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space age); the grotesque Ulik and the Rock Trolls; 
Hella the Goddess of Death; and the two great 
beasts, Surtur and Mangog, bent on bringing about 
Ragnarok — the destruction of Asgard and all around 
it. Amidst all the rest, of course, there were regular 
plots and schemes by Loki. 

This was heady stuff, and Kirby's narratives (it 
is widely accepted that he was the guiding force in 
the project) were complemented by Lee's flowery, 
almost Shakespearean language — all "thees," 
"thous," and "forsooths." In issue #124, Jane Fos- 
ter discovered that Thor and Don Blake were one 
and the same and, unable to cope with the enormi- 
ty of it all, was gone within the year, to be replaced 
by the rather more heroic Sif. The creators used the 
Blake identity less and less and, by 1970, it had 
largely been abandoned. That year was a watershed 
for the feature, as it witnessed Kirby's departure for 
arch-rival DC Comics, where he would create the 
New Gods, very much in the same imaginative tradi- 
tion as Thor. 

Within a year, Lee, too, had gone, but his 
replacements Gerry Conway and Len Wein, with 
artist John Buscema, carried on in much the same 
tradition as Kirby and Lee. Indeed, it is a hallmark 
of the strip that for the next three decades — the 
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s— it rarely strayed too far 
from the Lee/Kirby blueprint. Trends from "rele- 
vance" to hard-boiled action to the darker 1990s 
came and went, but Thor was invariably toughing it 
out with Loki in Asgard, traveling through space or 
preventing Ragnarok — again. Buscema was the 
principal artist throughout much of the 1970s, com- 
bining his peerless draftsmanship with a strong 
sense of action. In lesser hands, however, the strip 
has struggled. 

Following one such thin period, fan favorite Wal- 
ter Simonson took over the comic in 1983 (with 
issue #337) and revisited the original premise that 
a worthy bearer of the hammer shall possess the 
power of Thor, by giving it to a bizarre-looking alien 
called Beta Ray Bill. Over the next four years, 
Simonson — a Kirby devotee — recaptured the 




Thor #151 © 1968 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JACK KIRBY AND VINCE COLLETTA. 



grandeur of his idol's vision, reviving some of the 
old favorites and even turning the original Thor into 
a frog! Thor soon got his hammer (and body) back, 
but while Simonson was on the comic almost any- 
thing he did was received with rapture by its read- 
ers. In the late 1980s Simonson left Thor, and the 
former Amazing Spider-Man creative team of Tom 
DeFalco and Ron Frenz took his place. 

In the early 1990s (in issue #433), DeFalco and 
Frenz combined Thor's essence with a new human 
host, the architect Eric Masterson, to create effec- 
tively a new Thor, who had to learn to be a superhero 
all over again. In time, the old Thor reappeared and 
the Masterson incarnation (complete with beard and 
ponytail), now known as Thunderstrike, spun off into 



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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 



his own, short-lived series (1993-1995). Thunder- 
strike also teamed up with Beta Ray Bill and a Thor 
of the future called Dargo, in the wonderfully named 
(if ephemeral) Thor Corps. After issue #502, as part 
of a companywide late 1990s restructuring plan 
known as Heroes Return, the Thor comic restarted 
its numbering at issue #1, and readers were intro- 
duced to yet another new Thor. 

In the wake of Heroes Return, a stricken Thor 
was given a new mortal incarnation — Jake Olsen, 
an emergency paramedic — but new writer Dan Jur- 
gens did not stop there. After a period of finding his 
feet, the new Thor was split apart from his human 
host by Odin, who feared that his son had become 
too attached to planet Earth. Odin then died and 
his almost limitless power was transferred to his 
son, who became (as a new cover legend pro- 
claimed) Thor, Lord of Asgard. As Thor climbed the 
ladder of godhood, Asgard was transported to Earth 
and, in a daring move on Jurgens' part, the strip 
saw the emergence of a new religion: Thorism. As 
lowly earthlings attempted to cope with the gods 
who now walked among them, effectively creating 
world peace in their wake, it was left to Olsen to 
question the wisdom of Thor's actions. 

As of 2004, the comic has yet to recapture 
the commercial heights of the Simonson era. Jur- 
gens' run has been by far the most radical of the 
strip's existence, and perhaps only posterity will 
reveal how successful he has been in revitalizing 
the series. By contrast, critics have long consid- 
ered the Kirby era one of Marvel's finest achieve- 
ments and these comics have been extensively col- 
lected in oversized "Treasury Editions," hardback 
"Masterworks" anthologies, and paperback 
"Essentials" compilations. Since 1963 Thor has 
been a regular star of The Avengers, and periodi- 
cally appears in numerous Marvel comics as well 
as in merchandise and toys. Occasional rumors of 
a feature film have come to nothing, but movie 
technology has now advanced to such a point that 
Kirby's extraordinary imagination might just be cap- 
tured on film at last. — DAR 



Agents 

Of the many second-division publishers that sprang 
up in the 1960s, inspired by the sudden success of 
Marvel Comics, Tower (with its principal title 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) is among the most fondly 
remembered. The precise origins of Tower Comics 
are still somewhat vague, but the company seems 
to have sprung from the Midwood and Belmont line 
of paperbacks owned by Harry Shorten and Archie 
Comics co-owner Louis Silberkleit. Teaming up as 
Millwood-Tower, they created Tower Comics and 
recruited the great artist Wally Wood, fresh from a 
popular stint on Marvel's Daredevil, to put together 
a comics line for them. Thrilled at the prospect of 
control over his own work, Wood gathered together 
his friends and studio members, and created the 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. 

The first issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents came 
out in late 1965 and, unusually, had twice the page 
count of other comics at that time, sixty-eight pages, 
but at twenty-five cents it was also twice the price as 
well. The comic starred the supersecret heroes 
Dynamo, NoMan, Menthor, Raven, and Lightning. All 
of them worked for the clandestine T.H.U.N.D.E.R. 
organization — The Higher United Nations Defense 
Enforcement Reserves — in a battle against any evil 
foe who might threaten the earth. 

The characters' origin story reveals how 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. operatives arrive too late to save 
the brilliant Professor Jennings from agents of the 
dreaded Warlord, but find three fantastic new 
inventions in his apartment. One of these is given 
to each of three brave T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Len 
Brown (a.k.a. Dynamo) is given an "electron molec- 
ular magnifier belt," which gives him Superman-like 
strength and a body as hard as steel. Dr. Dunn, an 
aged colleague of Jennings who devised a way of 
transferring his mind into the body of an android 



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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 



(one of many which he had built), is given a cloak 
of invisibility to become NoMan. John Janus (a.k.a. 
Menthor) is given a cybernetic helmet that ampli- 
fies his brain power to such an extent that he can 
read minds and master telekinesis. (This character 
was also originally a double agent, working for the 
Warlord, but he soon saw the error of his ways.) 
The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad (Guy Gilbert, Weed, Kit- 
ten, and Dynamite) were regular agents who 
popped up in various stories to help their super- 
powered colleagues defeat a variety of aliens, zom- 
bies, and dictators. 

In what was clearly a combination of Marvel- 
style superheroics and Man from Uncle/ iames 
Bond-style spy thrillers, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 
regularly came up against sinister secret societies, 
such as the Warlords; Overlord and his Subter- 
raneans; the Red Star Group; and SPIDER. Other 
dastardly (though perhaps rather routine) villains 
included Dynavac, Vibraman, the Tarantula, Dr. Spar- 
ta, and Demo and the Submen. Two of the publish- 
er's most memorable villains had an unusual depth 
to them — Iron Maiden and Andor. The armor-clad, 
beautiful but deadly Iron Maiden was Dynamo's top 
enemy but was also in love with him and would go 
to some lengths not to kill him. Andor had been 
experimented on by the Subterraneans since child- 
hood, to make him a deadly opponent for the 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, but he was a tormented soul 
who soon turned against his masters. 

Each issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was a 
treat for the eyes. Wood was at the peak of his pow- 
ers on the series and was prominently featured in 
each issue, while such artistic talents as Reed 
Crandall, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, and Steve Ditko 
also contributed notable work. Scripts were provid- 
ed by Wood himself, Steve Skeates, Bill Pearson, 
Larry Ivie, and Len Brown. The latter's name had 
been appropriated (much to the writer's surprise) by 
Wood as Dynamo's alter ego. 

Tower's ambition to compete with Marvel and 
DC was great, but it was also the company's undo- 
ing. In 1966, it released a second superhero title, 




T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3 1966. © & ™ John Carbonaro. 

COVER ART BY WALLY WOOD. 



Undersea Agent, and later spun-off Dynamo and 
NoMan into their own short-lived series. In addi- 
tion, it launched a war comic — Fight the Enemy— 
and a couple of titles starring Tippy Teen in an 
attempt to tap into the Archie Comics market. All 
of the comics were double-sized and cost twenty- 
five cents each, and ultimately they overstretched 
the publisher's talents and readership. At double 
the price of other comics on the stands, readers 
were put off. In any case, as beautiful as the 
comics were, they lacked Marvel's personality and 
excitement. Tower had its innovative ideas (killing 
off Menthor in issue #7, for instance) but the com- 
pany was occasionally too eager to copy more suc- 
cessful superheroes. For example, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. 



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The Tick 

Agents Lightning and the Raven were transparently 
based on the Flash and Hawkman. So most of 
these new titles were dead by 1967, while 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents staggered on with an 
increasingly erratic schedule until issue #20 in 
1969. Tippy Teen, on the other hand, proved to be 
the publisher's most successful comic, running for 
twenty-seven issues until 1970. 

Despite its relatively short life span, there have 
been numerous official and unofficial T.H.U.N.D.E.R. 
Agents revivals. Throughout the 1980s, rival comic- 
book companies published competing 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics, with certain publish- 
ers believing that they had bought the rights to the 
heroes, while others claimed they were in the public 
domain. According to the July 2001 issue of Comic 
Book Artist magazine, eight different titles from five 
companies either presented new strips or reprinted 
original T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics before the 
copyright situation was remedied. Interestingly, in 
the United Kingdom much of the Tower line was 
reprinted in black-and-white titles such as Creepy 
Worlds and Uncanny Tales by the Alan Class Com- 
pany, and was continuously reprinted from the 
1960s up to the mid-1980s, making these titles as 
familiar to British readers as many Marvel or DC 
comics. The 1990s even saw a bootleg British 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic clearly photocopied 
from American issues. 

By the mid-1990s the legal complexities had 
been ironed out and a regular T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 
series was announced by — of all people — Pent- 
house magazine. However, while many issues had 
been completed, only one story appeared, in the 
pages of Omni Comix #3, before Penthouse can- 
celed its nascent comic line. Fans could have been 
forgiven for thinking that the characters were forev- 
er doomed, but in 2003 DC Comics announced 
plans to resurrect the Tower line. A much-anticipat- 
ed new series never made it to the market, but an 
Archives series of the classic stories and a line of 
collectible statues, each from DC, preserve the 
legacy for posterity. — DAR 



the Tick 



Bounding over the rooftops of The City, the big blue 
ball of justice known as the Tick faces naughty evildo- 
ers with fearlessness, gusto, and a rallying cry of 
"Spoon!" The absurd superhero is often aided in his 
adventures by the portly Arthur, whose all-white moth- 
winged costume and easily spooked attitude do not 
generally strike fear into the hearts of criminals. The 
spawn of crankiness may churn a bitter butter of evil, 
but The City has its heroes in Tick and Arthur ... and 
a few of their equally odd superhero friends. 

Created as an absurdist parody of superheroes 
by cartoonist Ben Edlund, the Tick first appeared in 
the pages of comic store New England Comics' 
newsletter with issue #14 (July-August 1986). In 
the story, the character escapes from Evanston Asy- 
lum on a mission to protect The City. After a number 
of newsletter adventures proved popular with fans, 
a limited edition of The Tick #1 was published in 
March 1988. It was later reprinted in a nationally 
distributed edition, and the saga of The Tick began. 
In the years since, several dozen series, miniseries, 
specials, and one-shots for The Tick have been pub- 
lished in color and black-and-white. Spinoff series 
for supporting characters have also appeared, 
including Man-Eating Cow and Paul the Samurai. 
Although Edlund wrote and illustrated most of the 
original Tick adventures, many other creators came 
aboard for later stories. 

Although the Tick first fought crime alone, in 
The Tick #4 (March 1989), he met Arthur, a shy and 
portly accountant who wanted to become his side- 
kick. Arthur bought a moth-like outfit that more 
closely resembled a rabbit, but the two were soon 
inseparable. The Tick doesn't really have a secret 
identity (though he once masqueraded as Neville 
Nedd, crossword-puzzle creator for the Weekly World 
Planet), and the duo has its headquarters in 
Arthur's apartment (though a Tick Cave on the out- 
skirts of New York was later seen). Other heroes 
with whom Tick and Arthur are acquainted include 



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The Tick 



female ninja Oedipus, baker Paul the Samurai, patri- 
otic heroine American Maid, bat-dressed hero Die 
Fledermaus, color-changing Crusading Chameleon, 
cannon-firing Human Bullet, stinky hero Sewer 
Urchin, and World War II— era heroes the Decency 
Squad (Captain Decency, Johnny Polite, Suffra-jet, 
Living Doll, and Visual Eyes). 

The Tick villains are an equally odd lot. Crime 
boss Chairface Chippendale has a piece of furniture 
for a head. The deadly Chainsaw Vigilante wants to 
get rid of all the superheroes of The City. El Seed is 
a sentient plant with a daisy-head that wants to take 
over the world with the Plant Kingdom. Brainchild is 
an evil genius who is really a grade-schooler with an 
enlarged brain. The Breadmaster commits baking 
crimes with his sidekick Buttery Pat. Other villains 
include the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at 
Midnight, the Red Scare, Dinosaur Neil, Pineapple 
Pokopo, the Terror, Omnipotus the Eater of Planets, 
Thrakkorzog, and the forces of Villainy, Inc. 

What are the Tick's powers? Well, he's "nigh- 
invulnerable," though that seems to mean only that 
he can withstand a lot of punishment. He also has 
increased strength, speed, and jumping ability, and 
the feelers on his mask keep him balanced. 
Arthur's moth suit enables him to fly. The Tick's ral- 
lying cry is "Spoon!", while Arthur's more plaintive 
battle cry is "Not in the face!" Tick rarely uses 
super-gadgets, but he does have a Secret Crime 
ViewFinder (a View Master toy), the Mighty Diner 
Straw, the Pez Dispenser of Graveness, and a Hyp- 
notic Secret Identity Tie. 

On September 10, 1994, Fox debuted an ani- 
mated series of The Tick for Saturday mornings. 
The characters closely followed their comic incarna- 
tions, and the multi-layered, parodically inclined sto- 
ries were enjoyed by adults as well as children. 
Townsend Coleman provided the voice of the Tick, 
while ex-Monkees star Mickey Dolenz was Arthur 
(replaced by Rob Paulsen in season two). In an odd 
state of affairs for the time, Comedy Central picked 
up the rights to The Tick in 1996 and began show- 
ing the new episodes at night, while Fox reran the 




The animated show The Tick. 

new shows mixed with older episodes. The series 
attracted an intense cult following among college 
students and adults; it also led to a line of action 
figures, bendable toys, plastic figurines, fast-food 
premiums, games, apparel, videos, trading cards, 
and other successful licensing. The animated Tick 
ended in 1997 after thirty-six episodes, though mul- 
tiple scripts for a fourth season were written; Fox 
talked about airing Tick primetime specials, but 
none ever appeared. 

In 2000, a live-action pilot for The Tick was cre- 
ated, produced, and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld 
(Men in Black). The resulting series starred Patrick 
Warburton in the title role, and he perfectly replicat- 
ed the cartoon version. Animatronic feelers and a 



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The Tick 



seamless blue latex suit gave Warburton a cartoony 
look. David Burke played Arthur, while two charac- 
ters similar to those in earlier series incarnations 
also appeared regularly: Nestor Carbonell was the 
perpetually hyper-hormonal lothario Bat Manuel (the 
new version of Die Fledermaus), while Liz Vassey 
was patriotic heroine Captain Liberty (the new ver- 
sion of American Maid), a woman who constantly 
made the wrong choices when dealing with men. 

The opening narration for The Tick set up the 
show's odd sensibility: "I am the wild blue yonder, 
the front line in a never-ending battle between Good 
and Not-So-Good. Together with my stalwart side- 
kick Arthur and the magnanimous help of some 
other folks I know, we form the yin to villainy's 
malevolent yang. Destiny has chosen us. Wicked 
men, you face the Tick!" Delayed from a midseason 
replacement in early 2001, and prior to its debut on 



Fox on November 8, 2001, The Tick was given rave 
reviews by almost every TV critic in print. Despite its 
high critical marks, the public didn't warm to the 
show nearly as well — perhaps due to poor advertis- 
ing, preemptions, and a constantly shifting sched- 
ule — and Fox canceled the series before all nine 
episodes had aired. The final show appeared on 
January 24, 2002. Fans had to wait until the Octo- 
ber 2003 DVD release to see the final Tick episode. 

Even as The Tick comics continue to appear 
periodically, creator Edlund has spent most of his 
energies in Hollywood, writing for such TV series as 
Firefly and Angel, and films such as Titan A.E. He 
also shepherded an animated script (with Richard 
Liebmann-Smith) for a big-budget Tick feature film; 
although it is not in active development, the big 
blue hero may yet reach the big screen, inspiring 
fans everywhere to yell "Spoon!" once again. — AM 



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tftxaman 



The late Eiji Tsuburaya — Japan's greatest special- 
effects master — was responsible for the visual 
effects for the early Godzilla films, beginning in 
1954 with Gojira {Godzilla, King of the Monsters). 
These films, referred to by the Japanese term kaiju 
eiga (literally, "giant monster film"), have grown in 
popularity and continue to be enjoyed in Japan and 
around the world, with new Godzilla films being pro- 
duced. Yet Tsuburaya made his mark not just in the 
movies, but also on Japanese television, where his 
work on a unique live-action science fiction series 
led to the creation of Japan's most popular live- 
action superhero: Ultraman. 

Ultraman's roots began with the television 
show Ultra Q. This twenty-eight-episode black and 
white science fiction series first aired on Japanese 
television on January 2, 1966. The premise dealt 
with three investigators — a pilot, his assistant, and 
a reporter — who explored strange phenomena that 
would lead to the revelation of a giant monster or 
an unknown creature. At the root of the appear- 
ances of such creatures would be an explanation 
grounded in science, such as environmental 
destruction or extra-terrestrial visitations. Many 
have referred to the show as a combination of The 



Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits (or one 
could call it a precursor to The X-Files). Not every 
episode of Ultra Q featured a giant monster, but the 
series scored high ratings, and its popularity would 
have a strong influence on Ultraman. 

Tsuburaya's desire was to create a show that 
had giant monsters and a force powerful enough to 
defeat them. At the same time, the show had to fit 
within a thirty-minute time frame. The result of this 
work, a series titled Ultraman, premiered on July 
17, 1966, on Japanese television, and was an 
immediate success. The original Ultraman series 
only ran for thirty-nine episodes, but in the nearly 
forty years since the character first appeared, the 
many television shows, movies, comics, and addi- 
tional merchandise have gained Ultraman a world- 
wide recognition on par with Mickey Mouse and 
Charlie Brown. 

At first glance, Ultraman appears to be a robot, 
with his red and silver body, bullet-shaped helmet 
(and its fin), yellow eyes, and giant stature — he 
stands forty meters tall and weighs 35,000 tons. 
However, he is actually a living being, an interstellar 
law enforcement officer from a planet located in 
Nebula M-78. He is part of a galactic law enforce- 
ment team consisting of many beings similar to 
him — all are called "Ultras." Each episode is set in 



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Ultraman 



the present day or the near future. The first Ultra- 
man series began with the title character pursuing 
the criminal Bemlarto Earth. Ultraman accidentally 
collides with a craft piloted by Hayata of the Sci- 
ence Patrol, killing him. In response (and as a way 
to make amends), Ultraman revives Hayata and 
gives him the "Beta Capsule"; by raising the device 
and pressing the button, Hayata transforms into 
Ultraman to battle giant beasts. The hero's main 
weapon is the "specium ray," an energy beam fired 
when Ultraman crosses his arms in a "plus sign" 
manner. There is a catch — Ultraman can only 
remain in his giant form for three minutes while on 
Earth. This time limit would become the standard 
for future shows. The battles between Ultraman and 
the various enemy creatures were performed by 
actors in costumes filmed on sets with detailed 
miniature buildings, hills, and mountains. Prominent 
villains of the original Ultraman series include Bal- 
tan-seijin (an insectiod alien monster), Red King, 
and Zetton, an alien dinosaur. 

Ultraman became a major success, scoring 
high ratings and interest. Children were the show's 
largest fan group, although older viewers enjoyed 
the show too; it was also the first color television 
show in Japan made for children. With his immense 
size and strength, Ultraman is truly a larger-than-life 
superhero, a defender of Earth (even if the majority 
of the action took place in Japan). There are some 
similarities to American superheroes: Ultraman is a 
powerful alien who uses a human "disguise" to 
hide his identity (like Superman), and changes size 
to battle monsters (like Giant Man of the Avengers). 

In 1967, Tsuburaya Productions decided to 
develop a new series called Ultraseven. This series 
introduced a new agent from M-78 who takes on 
the human identity of Dan Moroboshi while on 
Earth. The TDF (Terrestrial Defense Forces) repre- 
sent humankind's line of defense against alien 
invaders or monsters. The new series, at forty-nine 
episodes, was darker in tone and dealt with more 
serious issues than the original series. (In fact, the 
twelfth episode caused a major controversy in 



Japan and was banned from television due to its 
portrayal of aliens whose appearance recalled radi- 
ation poisoning as in Hiroshima.) Over the next thir- 
ty-five years, Ultraman would continue through nine- 
teen television shows in Japan as well as more 
than a dozen live-action theatrical films. Each new 
series featured a new Ultra, and in Ultraman Ace, 
two people — Seiji Hobuto and Yuko Minami — 
become Ultraman Ace by touching their "Ultra 
rings" together. 

In 1996, the fifty-two-episode Ultraman Tiga 
introduced an Ultra who uses different "modes" to 
utilize in combat: a default "Multi type," a more pow- 
erful "Power type," and a "Sky type" that is faster, 
but not as powerful as the previous two modes. Tiga 
was also the first Ultraman to have colors other than 
red and silver — his "Sky type" mode is blue in color 
with silver trim. The series itself is set in the year 
2007, but in a different universe than the previous 
shows in the franchise. Tiga was followed by its light- 
hearted sequel Ultraman Dyna, but the next series 
Ultraman Gala was set in yet another universe differ- 
ent from Tiga or Dyna. Ultraman Gala focused pri- 
marily on the conflicting beliefs of the two Ultras 
who were the main characters: Gaia wants to save 
the earth and humanity, but Agul (who is blue in 
color) wants to save only the planet — he is not par- 
ticularly concerned if humanity is wiped out in the 
process. Another change that was apparent in the 
Ultraman series of the mid- to late 1990s was that 
the Ultras are not from Nebula M-78, but are instead 
guardians of Earth. 

The most recent series, Ultraman Cosmos, ran 
on Japanese television from 2001 to 2002. With 
sixty-five episodes — and two movies — it is the 
longest-running series in the Ultraman franchise 
(despite a brief interruption in broadcasting). Cos- 
mos also represents a shift in attitude toward vio- 
lence in the media in Japan; as an Ultra, Cosmos 
has "gentle" and "strong" modes that are used to 
defeat the enemy, but gone are the bloody fights 
with enemies being hacked apart that were so pop- 
ular on the earlier shows. 



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Despite being a unique Japanese hero, Ultra- 
man is well known in America. The original series 
was dubbed into English and syndicated on Ameri- 
can television in the late 1960s. Ultraseven was 
dubbed into English by Ted Turner's TNT cable chan- 
nel in 1985, but the bad dubbing and writing was 
also combined with major edits. While the dubbed 
version of Ultraseven was shown during the early 
morning hours on TNT, it was not the entire run of 
the original forty-nine episodes. However, in 1987, a 
unique project was created by Tsuburaya Produc- 
tions and Hanna-Barbera Productions. Called Ultra- 
man: The Adventure Begins (or Ultraman USA), the 
animated pilot dealt with three U.S. Air Force 
pilots — Chuck Gavin, Beth O'Brian, and Scott Mas- 
terson — who join forces with three Ultras from M-78. 
Now known as Ultra Force, the three heroes battle 
alien monsters from the destroyed planet Sorkin. 
The pilot episode was the first Ultraman show to 
have a female Ultra as a prominent main character. 

The joint Tsuburaya/Hanna Barbera pilot 
episode never made it to a full-fledged television 
series. However, there were other efforts to create 
Ultraman shows outside Japan (but with the full 
cooperation of Tsuburaya Productions). In 1991, 
Ultraman: Towards the Future (the title was changed 
to Ultraman Great when it was shown on Japanese 
television) ran for thirteen episodes on American 
syndicated television. This was the first Ultraman 
series to be made in English, and was filmed in 
Australia. The live-action series followed the adven- 
tures of former astronaut Jack Shindo, now a mem- 
ber of the UMA (Universal Multipurpose Agency) 
who became Ultraman to battle monsters created 
by the alien Gudis virus. The series boasted 
improved visual effects and miniatures, and was 
backed up by a merchandising campaign that 
included action figures and a sequel comics series 
produced by Harvey Comics in 1993, the same year 
the series was released on home video. Dwayne 
McDuffie wrote the limited series, with art by Ernie 
Colon and Alfredo Alcala. Bandai produced a 
videogame that was released in the United States 




Ultraman #1 ™ and © 1993 Tsuburaya Productions Co. Inc. 

COVER ART BY KEN STEACY. 



for the Super Nintendo game console; called Ultra- 
man, it featured the main hero and the villains from 
Ultraman: Towards the Future. 

A second attempt at an English-language live- 
action Ultraman series was 1994's Ultraman: The 
Ultimate Hero. While the series' main character, 
Ken-ichi Kai, is Japanese (making U: TUH one of the 
few American shows to have an Asian American as 
the main character), the production was primarily 
done in the United States, under the supervision of 
Tsuburaya Productions. In this series, Kai is a mem- 
ber of the W.I.N.R. (Worldwide Investigation Network 
Response) team that defends Earth from malevo- 
lent aliens called Baltans. Major Havoc Entertain- 



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merit in California filmed the principal photography 
and the creature effects, as well as many of the 
visual effects. The design for Ultraman was modern- 
ized and redefined; his "eyes," while blue (instead 
of yellow), turn red during periods of intense com- 
bat. The series was shot on 35mm film (which is 
standard for motion pictures, not television). Unfor- 
tunately, the thirteen-episode series was never 
released officially in the United States; it was 
released in Japan under the title Ultraman Powered. 
Reaction to the series was mixed; while viewers 
lauded the creature designs and visual effects, 
many felt that this Ultraman series was a pale 
remake of the original 1966 series. 

There would be no further attempts to make an 
English-language Ultraman series after U: TUH, but 
Ultraman Tiga was dubbed into English by 4Kids 
Entertainment, and was first broadcast on American 
television in 2002. Dark Horse Comics adapted the 
Hong Kong comic book for Tiga beginning in August 
2003; popular artists Tony Wong and Khoo Fuk 
Lung created the ten-issue series. Nearly ten years 
earlier, Dark Horse, as part of its "Comics' Greatest 
World" line of comics, created the character Hero 
Zero, an obvious homage to Ultraman. Zero is the 
alter ego of teenager David MacRae, who becomes 
the size-changing hero. He can also communicate 
with a voice that only he can hear. Writers never 
revealed how David becomes Hero Zero. In the 
1990s, Viz Comics released an English-language 
adaptation of the manga Battle of the Ultra Broth- 
ers, featuring Ultraman and his comrades against 
their standard array of villains. — MM 

Otiravevse Heroes 

New superhero universes come and go, but few 
have had the flash-bulb success of the Ultraverse, a 
line of titles from Malibu Comics. Its diverse pan- 
theon of heroes, including Prime, Mantra, the 
Strangers, the Night Man, and UltraForce, would not 
only garner press attention, but also spawn a line of 



toys, a cartoon, and a live-action television series, 
and set up a buy-out from one of the world's most 
successful comic-book publishers. 

Malibu Comics was founded by Scott Rosen- 
berg in 1986, but the company didn't hit it big until 
1992. That's when a distribution deal with the just- 
beginning Image Comics brought Malibu a huge 
financial windfall, enabling it to start work on a 
shared superhero universe to be called the Ultra- 
verse. Unlike Image's art-based comics that some- 
times lacked strong storylines, the Ultraverse was 
built by a group of writers — Mike W. Barr, Steve 
Englehart, Steve Gerber, James D. Hudnall, Gerard 
Jones, James Robinson, Len Strazewski, and famed 
science fiction writer Larry Niven — who worked out 
how all their concepts and "Ultra" characters would 
fit together as a seamless whole. The line debuted 
in June 1993 with Prime, Hardcase, and The 
Strangers. Malibu put posters in city bus stops, and 
advertised on television, both marketing elements 
which had never been done in the comics world. 

Biggest amongst the Ultraverse heroes (in 
terms of both size and sales) is Prime. Costumed in 
red and gold, and with hugely muscled arms, Prime 
is reminiscent of Captain Marvel. The superstrong 
adult hero is really teenager Kevin Green, whose 
Ultra-body often becomes unstable and melts into 
protoplasmic glop. Prime eventually gains a side- 
kick known as Turbo Charge, an African-American 
gay teen, and battles villains such as Primevil, Doc- 
tor Vincent Gross, Maxi-Man, and the Aladdin orga- 
nization. Prime was translated for video games, and 
optioned as a feature film by Universal, with scripts 
having been written by Doug Chamberlin, Chris 
Webb, Don Calame, and Chris Conroy. 

Hardcase is an actor who gained Ultra-pow- 
ers. Fighting crime for a while with three other 
Ultras in a group known as the Squad, Hardcase 
decides to retire when the other Squad members 
are killed or made comatose by the robotic NM-E. 
He plays a hero in the movies, but eventually Hard- 
case decides to become a hero again in real life. 



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Villains he faces include Rex Mundi, Dirt Devil, 
and Hardwire. 

The Strangers are a group of heroes whose ori- 
gin is an accident that affects each of them. When a 
San Francisco cable car is struck by a blast from 
outer space (known as "the Jumpstart effect"), the 
people on it gain Ultra-powers. Seven of them join 
together as the Strangers, including target-hitting 
heroine Lady Killer, African-American teen speedster 
Zip-Zap, transforming hero Atom Bomb, shrapnel- 
shooting hero Grenade, alien woman Yrial, electrical- 
powered heroine Electrocute, and light-powered gay 
hero Spectral. One of the others affected by the 
cable car accident is Johnny Domino, who would 
develop the ability to "hear" evil thoughts from oth- 
ers, and soon gained his own series, The Night Man. 

Other heroes soon followed with their own 
books. Mantra featured the adventures of a male 
sorcerer reincarnated into the body of a modern sin- 
gle mother. Freex followed the adventures of a 
group of underground teenage Ultras who felt disen- 
franchised from humanity. Prototype saw a young 
video game player taking over the super-armor of a 
corporate Ultra hero. Firearm showcased a tough 
guy with an uncanny shooting ability; in addition to 
his own comic, he was featured in a Malibu-pro- 
duced thirty-minute live-action video adventure. 

At its height, the Ultraverse published fifteen 
monthly titles, including Ex/7es, Firearm, Sludge, 
Solitaire, The Solution, Warstrike, and Wrath. An 
ageless evil vampire named Rune was also given 
his own series, written and drawn by comics legend 
Barry Windsor-Smith. 

In November 1994, Marvel Comics purchased 
Malibu and all of its assets, including characters 
from the Ultraverse as well as other properties such 
as Men in Black, and a top-level computer-coloring 
department. For a brief period, it seemed as if Mar- 
vel would keep the Ultraverse a popular property, 
but the company quickly stumbled. Prices rose dra- 
matically higher, and the comics were taken away 
from newsstand distribution and placed solely in 




Prime #1 © 1993 Malibu Comics. 

the direct market of comics specialty shops. Editori- 
al interference with the writers and art teams also 
led to wavering quality. Although Marvel crossed its 
own characters over into the Ultraverse — titles 
included Rune/Silver Surfer (April 1995), Night Man 
vs. Wolverine (August 1995), and Avengers/Ultra- 
Force (October 1995) — the line began to hemor- 
rhage both sales and fans. 

One of Malibu/Marvel's most popular titles 
was UltraForce, a series drawn by fan favorite 
George Perez. UltraForce teamed up many popular 
Ultras, including Prime, Hardcase, and Prototype, 
with newer heroes Topaz, Ghoul, and Contrary. In 
October 1995, DIC produced thirteen episodes of a 
syndicated UltraForce animated series, with strong 



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Ultraverse Heroes 



ratings. A Galoob UltraForce toy line also premiered. 
Once the Malibu/Marvel merger was complete, 
however, even deals that were in place prior to it 
were in danger. Both the series and toys were killed 
due to internal politics. 

As the Marvel Ultraverse titles continued, the 
quality slipped further. The creators and original writ- 
ers were replaced. Characters were also replaced — 
Mantra changed from a mother to a valley girl — and 
fans rebelled. In 1996, Marvel made a number of 
drastic cuts, including canceling a number of books. 
Prime, Rune, and UltraForce were among the final 



hold-outs in publication, but each of them died by 
December 1996. The final Ultraverse publication 
was Ultraverse: Future Shock (February 1997), a 
one-shot that attempted to wrap the universe up. 

As of early 2004, the last appearance of any 
Ultraverse hero was NightMan, a live-action syndi- 
cated television series from Tribune, that aired forty- 
four episodes from fall 1997 through 1999 (in 
2004, it is in syndication in some markets). The 
Ultraverse is remembered by fans today as an 
entertaining experiment that could have been big ... 
and almost was. — AM 



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Valiant Heroes 

Valiant is a company that looms large in the land- 
scape of 1990s comics as a symbol — depending 
on whom you ask — of either the best qualities or 
the worst tendencies of the medium. 

At a time when it seemed that every publisher 
was raiding comics history for dormant characters to 
build a universe around, Valiant took perhaps the 
least fashionable of all — the 1960s heroes of the 
mostly kiddie-oriented Gold Key Comics — and devel- 
oped one of 1990s comics' slickest and hippest 
worlds. As it became vogue for comics lines to con- 
nect all their books in an intricate "continuity" that 
often required readers to have bought every issue of 
a given title — and all the ones related to it — to know 
what was going on, Valiant worked out an involved, 
universe- and time-spanning scenario of the type 
that delights devoted fans but which others blame 
for driving away comics' more casual mass audi- 
ence. Valiant also pioneered the simultaneous use 
of its characters in other properties such as video 
games, which some see as the future of the medi- 
um and others see as a distraction of reader inter- 
est and creator talent from the comics themselves. 

For the comics, Valiant specialized in both 
state-of-the-art treatments of popular themes and 



inventive reworkings of familiar concepts. The three 
main characters it acquired from Gold Key in 1990 
were Solar, Man of the Atom; Turok, Son of Stone; 
and Magnus, Robot Fighter, 4000 A.D. 

Solar had been a scientist who (like Charlton's 
Captain Atom before him and Dr. Manhattan in Alan 
Moore's Watchmen much later) literally pulls him- 
self together after a catastrophic nuclear accident, 
and finds he has obtained awesome powers in the 
process. In Valiant's reworking, these powers get 
out of hand, resulting in the destruction of his 
entire universe. He then travels to "ours," deter- 
mined to make amends by becoming a champion of 
humanity (and in this he has his hands full, with, 
among other menaces, a race of "spider aliens" 
bent on subjugating Earth that he battles across 
the world and through time). 

Turok was originally a pre-Columbian Native 
American who stumbles upon — and gets trapped 
in — a mystical valley where dinosaurs still dwell. 
First appearing in 1954, this scenario can be 
assumed as the source for everything from the mid- 
1970s kidvid hit Land of the Lostto Marvel's Ka-Zar 
character, so by the time of the 1993 Valiant 
relaunch (retitled Turok, Dinosaur Hunter) an over- 
haul was in order. In this version, the valley was 
actually an alien dimension, where Turok fought 
technologically enhanced, intelligent "bionosaurs." 



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X-0 Manowar#7 © 1992 VALIANT™, a division of Voyager 
Communications Inc. 

COVER ART BY FRANK MILLER. 



Magnus was a citizen of "North Am" (a sprawl- 
ing high-tech city covering most of the North Ameri- 
can continent) in the far future. A highly trained mar- 
tial artist able to best mechanical beings with his 
bare hands, he wages war on the renegade robots 
who have turned against the human race. In 
Valiant's 1990 version, the "evil" robots turn out to 
merely be those who have developed free will, and 
Magnus rebels against the same society that would 
enslave them. 

Among the many new characters Valiant devel- 
oped to accompany its Gold Key acquisitions, X-0 
Manowar (debuting in 1992) compensated for his 



clumsy name with an elegant twist on the immortal 
warrior/reincarnated hero concept. Beginning as a 
fifth-century Visigoth named Aric Dacia, he was 
abducted by spider aliens seeking to enslave the 
mighty warrior. When a time-traveling Solar attacks 
the aliens, Dacia escapes their ship and steals one 
of their sophisticated weapons, the Manowar Class 
X-0 Armor, which grants enhanced strength, blasts 
bolts of energy, and supplies almost immortalizing 
life-support. Unfortunately, 1,600 years have 
passed on Earth in the subjectively short time 
Dacia has been on the aliens' faster-than-light ship, 
and he must adapt to the twentieth century. 

Valiant also developed some inventive spins on 
Marvel's X-Men concept. In Valiant's universe, those 
who represent the next step in human evolution are 
known not as mutants but "Harbingers." The power- 
ful telepath Toyo Harada establishes the Harbinger 
Foundation (in Harbinger #1, 1992) to recruit other 
such superbeings and help him in a vision of saving 
the human race from suicide by taking it over. 
Expectedly, there are both Harbingers who side with 
him and oppose him, along with the "H.A.R.D. 
Corps" (Harbinger Active Resistance Division), sol- 
diers "recruited" from the ranks of coma patients, 
who are given special "psi-borg" implants to boost 
their brain activity and match the mind powers of 
the Harbingers (whom they battle on pain of being 
returned to their semi-living state). 

The world of Valiant was also crisscrossed by a 
war between "geomancers" (sorcerers who protect 
the earth by drawing on its own energy) and Necro- 
mancers (their nihilistic opposites). 

Valiant prospered, and fixated its fans, with 
companywide events that would tie all these con- 
cepts together in intricate knots. The definitive one 
was "Unity," a 1992 epic in which Mothergod, a 
woman from Solar's original reality who gains similar 
powers in the same accident as he, seeks to rewrite 
history so that her own universe can live again, at 
the known Valiant cosmos' expense. In this storyline 
readers learn that she is the one who first fitted the 
ordinary dinosaurs of Turok's "Lost Land" with the 



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Vertigo Heroes 



implants that made them murderous bionosaurs; 
that Magnus was actually the superstrong child of 
two twentieth-century Harbingers; that a geomancer 
then placed him in the year 4000 to protect 
humankind at a later date — you get the idea. 

By 1997, Valiant (and its parent company Voy- 
ager Communications) was acquired by Acclaim 
Entertainment. As the backbone of the company, 
Acclaim's videogames garnered more of a focus 
than its comics, and the latter medium started 
drastically losing audiences to the former. Acclaim's 
comic output grew sporadic, though all of comics 
fandom anticipated a new crossover epic called 
Unity 2000 (1999), which was projected for six 
issues but only shipped three. 

Today Acclaim's website commits to no more than 
occasionally issuing "'special edition' comic maga- 
zines to support some of our time-valued [videogame] 
brands," but these games remain valuable indeed — 
especially those involving Turok, who has starred in 
several, and remains so highly in demand that in 2002 
Acclaim's marketers scored by surreally offering 
$10,000 in savings bonds to the first child born on 
Labor Day (what else?) whose parents had agreed to 
legally name it "Turok" for one year. 

Clearly, the Valiant universe's guardians have 
an interest in keeping the concepts warm for a 
devoted fanbase that could one day swell into a 
mass public again. Valiant remains one of the most 
fondly remembered players in what was, in its hey- 
day, a very crowded field. And as fans nurtured on 
the company's mythos of time-traveling, death-cheat- 
ing warriors will tell you, anything's possible. — AMC 



Vertigo Heroes 

"We've been called horror, mature, sophisticated, dark 
fantasy, cutting-edge, and just plain weird," editor 
Karen Berger said in Vertigo Preview (1992). "Tired of 
tired misnomers, and not even having a collective 
name, we decided to define ourselves." The name 




Animal Man #1 © 1988 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY BRIAN BOLLAND. 

chosen for DC Comics' imprint of off-kilter books was 
Vertigo, and its publications were christened a "bold 
new line of comics for mature readers." 

The genesis of Vertigo began in the 1980s 
when writer Alan Moore revitalized DC swamp mon- 
ster/sometime-superhero book Saga of the Swamp 
Thing, beginning with issue #20 (January 1984). 
Moore's take on the story existed in a darker corner 
of the DC universe, where monsters and shadows 
were far more horrifying than any supervillain 
attack. Although Swamp Thing interacted occasion- 
ally with DC heroes such as the Justice League, 
Superman, and Batman, the sentient plant was 
eventually revealed to be an "Earth elemental," 



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Vertigo Heroes 



whose powers were akin to a force of nature. With 
the success of Swamp Thing, other avant garde, 
dark and revisionist takes on DC heroes were soon 
put into motion, including Animal Man, Sandman, 
Black Orchid, Doom Patrol, and Shade the Changing 
Man. Like Moore, the writers for all of the series 
came from the British Isles (though Vertigo would 
eventually employ American writers as well). 

Animal Man (1988-1995) starred a nearly for- 
gotten 1960s hero who could take on the powers of 
animals around him. Reinvented by writer Grant 
Morrison, family man Buddy Baker attempts to 
revive his superhero career, discovering that his 
connection to animals runs deeper than he had pre- 
viously thought, thanks to his alien-initiated link to a 
"morphogenic field" generated by all living things. 
By the end of Morrison's run with issues #25-#26 
(July-August 1990), Baker even realized that he 
was a comic-book character. Future issues contin- 
ued the exploration of Baker's connection to nature, 
as well as animal rights issues, suicide, and reli- 
gion. Animal Man became a Vertigo title with issue 
#57 (March 1993). 

Sandman (1989-1996) was the redefinition of 
a 1942 hero previously redefined by Joe Simon and 
Jack Kirby for Adventure Comics, who had also 
enjoyed adventures with the Justice Society of 
America. Revived (in name only) in 1974, the older 
hero became more of a superheroic guardian of 
dreams for a short-lived series. When writer Neil 
Gaiman reinvented Sandman in 1989 for another 
series, he was now Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, 
and one of seven supernatural beings called the 
Endless. Though a few stories touched base with 
the DC superhero universe — even explaining Mor- 
pheus' connection to the previous Sandmans of 
comic-book history — most of the stories were dark 
fantasy, myths, and fairy tales, set in many different 
time periods with ever-changing casts. Sandman 
became a Vertigo series with issue #47 (March 
1993), and soon became one of the most presti- 
gious titles in DCs publishing history, winning 



Gaiman accolades for his writing, including a World 
Fantasy Award. 

Black Orchid (1993-1995) was the most for- 
gotten of the Vertigo characters when she was 
revived. Debuting in Adventure Comics #428 
(August 1973), she was a superstrong flying woman 
whose identity and origin remained a mystery. Neil 
Gaiman revived her in 1988 for a miniseries paint- 
ed by Dave McKean, in which her origins were 
revealed, and Batman guest-starred. A short-lived 
Vertigo series debuted in September 1993, and 
lasted until June 1995. 

Doom Patrol (1987-1995) was initially the 
most famous of the Vertigo-to-be titles, based as it 
was on a 1963 superhero team of adventurers — 
giantess Elasti-Girl, radioactive Negative Man, brain- 
in-a-metal-body Robotman, and wheelchair-bound 
genius the Chief— from the pages of My Greatest 
Adventure and their own title. The series was 
revived in 1987 with a partially new cast of super- 
characters, but with issue #19 (February 1989), 
writer Grant Morrison arrived to make things more 
unusual. The Doom Patrol had been called comics' 
strangest heroes, and Morrison upped that ante, 
turning Negative Man into the hermaphroditic 
Rebis, and adding in multiple-personality heroine 
Crazy Jane, monkey-faced girl Dorothy Spinner (who 
could bring things from her imagination to life), and 
Danny the Street, a sentient transvestite street that 
could teleport! Morrison's run included villains such 
as the Scissor Men, the Brotherhood of Dada, and 
the anagram-speaking men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. 
Morrison left with Doom Patrol #63 (January 1993), 
and new writer Rachel Pollack took over with the 
first Vertigo issue, #64 (March 1993). Pollack con- 
tinued the surrealistic tone that Morrison had by 
now made infamous with readers. 

Shade the Changing Man (1990-1996) was a 
strange Steve Ditko-created concept from 1977, in 
which an other-dimensional alien with an illusion-pro- 
jecting M-vest was on the run. After eight issues it 
disappeared, but the concept was revived in 1990 by 
writer Peter Milligan. As before, Rac Shade is on the 



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The Vigilante 



run, and his M-vest (now called a "madness vest") 
helps him in his adventures as he traverses America 
on a strange road trip. Shade inhabits the body of a 
killer, and his companion on the trip just happens to 
be the daughter of his victims. The series was surre- 
alistic to begin with, and obsessed with pop culture, 
and with #33's switch to Vertigo (March 1993), 
Shade and friends settled down to live in a hotel that 
attracted strangeness. Inventive to the end, Shade 
remained more of an experimental superhero series 
than a crime-fighting adventure book. 

As with Shade and the others, the switch to 
Vertigo, in fact, almost completely erased the super- 
hero concept from most titles. Sandman Mystery 
Theatre (1993-1999) told adventures of the 1940s 
hero but was more pulp adventuring than flashy 
costumes. Hellblazer (1988-present) was a Swamp 
Thing spin-off about chain-smoking magician John 
Constantine and his brushes with the occult; it was 
released as a 2004 film starring Keanu Reeves in 
the title role. The Books of Magic (1990-1991 and 
1994-2000) detail the adventures of bespectacled 
British pre-teen magician-to-be Timothy Hunter (to 
whom the later Harry Potter bears a striking resem- 
blance); Hunter was mentored by DC occult heroes 
such as the Phantom Stranger, Mr. E, Constantine, 
and Dr. Occult. Kid Eternity (1991 and 1993-1994) 
revived a 1946 Quality Comics adolescent who 
could summon historic heroes to help him; the 
series updated him to be a bitter adult whose sum- 
monings brought demons instead. 

Although Vertigo remains one of DCs most pop- 
ular imprints, the stories have become less and less 
connected to the realm of superheroes as time has 
passed. To name two of the most talked-about 
series since the line's earlier reinvented-superhero 
days, psychedelic adventures filled the pages of The 
Invisibles, while Preacher presented a man, who can 
channel the voice of God, sharing adventures with 
his girlfriend and a redneck vampire. But two con- 
stants have remained since Vertigo's founding: Many 
of the writers are British, and all of the books are as 
off-kilter as the imprint's name suggests. — AM 



The tigflante 

It will probably surprise even the most devoted 
comics fans to learn that one of the longest-lasting 
heroes of the Golden Age of comics (1938-1954) 
was not Captain America, the Flash, or the Green 
Lantern, but the Vigilante. This character was a 
backup feature in Action Comics from late 1941 
(issue #42) onward, created by legendary DC editor 
Mort Weisinger and pioneering artist Mort Meskin. 
The first adventure relates how Sheriff Sanders is 
gunned down by a band of outlaws led by one Judas 
Priest, in the dying days of the Old West. Vowing 
vengeance, his son Greg Sanders systematically 
hunts down the killers, one by one, and decides to 
become a permanent "vigilante." Sanders soon 
becomes a successful country singer with his own 
radio show but, by donning a blue cowboy costume 
topped off with a white Stetson and a red scarf to 
cover his mouth, the "Prairie Troubadour" becomes 
the crime fighter known as the Vigilante. 

In one of his earliest tales, the Vigilante came 
upon a crime scene in Chinatown, where a young 
boy's parents had been killed by gangsters. Our 
hero quickly decided to adopt the lad — seemingly 
known only as "Stuff" — as his ward and crime-fight- 
ing partner. It is worth noting, incidentally, that 
"Stuff" was the first significant Asian hero in 
comics history. The strip was in many ways an 
updated Western, with Greg Sanders and Stuff 
roaming the country from one radio show or concert 
to the next, invariably coming across wrongdoers 
wherever they went. The Vigilante rode a motorcycle 
rather than a horse, but relied on his lariat or six- 
guns to get him out of trouble. In more traditional 
superhero manner, he built up a stable of his own 
arch-villains, including the Fiddler, Dictionary, and 
the murderous, top-hatted midget, the Dummy. 

The Vigilante strip had barely started before 
the character was recruited to the ranks of DCs 
second superhero group, the Seven Soldiers of Vic- 
tory (in Leading Comics #1-#14 from 1941 to 



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The Vigilante 



1945), along with the Star-Spangled Kid, Stripsey, 
Green Arrow, Speedy, the Shining Knight, and the 
Crimson Avenger. The team was relatively short- 
lived, which perhaps indicates that the chief appeal 
of the Vigilante strip was its punchy brevity. 
Weisinger came from the pulps and had a real gift 
for packing his short, ten-page stories with both 
action and plot, and his strip was usually a highly 
entertaining read. Meskin was one of comics' first 
superstar artists, with a true talent for movement, 
and his artwork really flew off the page. 

By the 1950s, Greg Sanders had moved onto 
television and his Vigilante alter ego had acquired a 
very modern-looking, jet-powered "vigi-cycle." The 
strips were still well written and stylishly drawn (by 
Flash Gordon artist Dan Barry, among others) but in 
late 1954, after over 150 episodes, the strip was 
finally laid to rest, a victim of Action Comics cutting 
its page count. The character was reintroduced to 
comics readers years later in a 1970 issue of Jus- 
tice League of America; it seems that he had simply 
been in temporary retirement. A few new, well-craft- 
ed strips slipped out later in the decade, in the 



pages of Adventure Comics and World's Finest, 
revealing a strangely ageless Sanders still plying 
his trade on the concert circuit. The last of these 
stories (which appeared in World's Finest #248 in 
1978) killed off the unfortunate Stuff (now a grown 
man) and introduced his son, Stuff Jr., who was last 
seen riding off into the sunset with the Vigilante. 

In 1995, the Vigilante was finally given his own 
comic — albeit only a four-issue miniseries — 
although this featured an "untold" tale from the 
1940s rather than a new set of contemporary sto- 
ries. In the interim, another, wholly different Vigi- 
lante had risen from the pages of the Teen Titans 
and enjoyed a degree of success in his own self- 
titled mid-1980s comic. This character was Adrian 
Chase, an ex-district attorney by day and a ruthless 
killer by night, hunting down the criminals whom the 
law could not touch ("It's time for the little man to 
win"). This Vigilante was one of numerous so-called 
anti-heroes who sprang up in the wake of Marvel's 
Punisher, but many readers would prefer to remem- 
ber the gentler, more heroic singing cowboy of the 
1940s. — DAR 



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Warbird: See Ms. Marvel 



TbeVtasp 

The Wasp has spent most of her long comics career 
in the shadow of her (sometime) husband, Hank 
Pym/Ant-Man, but as a member of the Avengers 
she has become one of Marvel's more resilient and 
enduring stars. Whereas companies such as DC 
Comics and Fawcett had a history of female part- 
ners to male superheroes — in the form of such 
heroines as Hawkgirl and Bulletgirl — Marvel had 
never created a major one of its own until the 
advent of the Wasp. She was introduced in Tales to 
Astonish #44 (1963) to pep up the Ant-Man strip, 
which had become somewhat moribund barely a 
year into its existence. In the tradition of Robin, 
Bucky, Kitten et al., creators Stan Lee and Jack 
Kirby felt that their hero needed someone to talk 
to — and occasionally rescue. 

In the strip itself, the driven, obsessive scientist 
Hank Pym is feeling the need for a partner, too, and 
is experimenting with wasp cells, just in case some- 
one promising comes along. Cue fellow scientist Dr. 
Vernon Van Dyne, looking for help in contacting alien 
life, and his beautiful but bored young daughter, 



Janet. Inevitably, Dr. Van Dyne falls prey to the first 
alien life form that he connects with — an escaped 
convict from the planet Kosmos, who kills the poor 
doctor merely by looking at him. Investigating the 
crime scene, Ant-Man is struck by Janet's steely 
determination to avenge her father's death, and then 
and there offers her the chance to be his partner in 
crime fighting. Pym implants his willing victim with 
bioengineered wasp cells just below her skin, and 
finds that, when she shrinks down to wasp size (with 
the help of his shrinking potions), she sprouts wings 
from her back. Fashioning her with a nifty costume, 
complete with pointy cap, antennae, and wrist 
stingers, Pym flies off into battle along with Janet 
(now christened the Wasp), defeating the evil mon- 
ster. The Wasp thereupon falls head-over-heels in 
love with her knight in tiny armor. 

For the next couple of years, the Wasp shared 
Ant-Man's adventures in Tales to Astonish and the 
newly formed Avengers (of which she was a found- 
ing member), mixing crime fighting with domestic 
bliss and countless shopping expeditions at fiance 
Pym's side. While usually portrayed as a pluckily 
fearless combatant, albeit not a powerful one, the 
Wasp was rather clearly a pre-women's lib heroine 
and was forever fixing her hair and nails between 
her perpetual costume changes. Following a year's 
sabbatical from the Avengers in 1965, and the can- 



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Watchmen 



cellation of their strip in Tales to Astonish, Pym 
(now known as Giant-Man/Goliath) and Van Dyne 
returned to active membership in the group and 
were mainstays for the rest of the decade. In issue 
#60 they married while Pym was undergoing a psy- 
chotic episode in the guise of Yellowjacket; clearly, 
Van Dyne was not going to let a little thing like mad- 
ness come between her and her man. 

By 1970 the couple's domesticity was perhaps 
wearing a little thin with readers and they left the 
team, next surfacing in a short Ant-Man series in 
Marvel Feature (issue #4-#10 in 1972), which saw 
the unfortunate Wasp temporarily turn into a horrific 
wasp/girl creature. The late 1970s were a kinder 
period for the Wasp, as she and Pym (back in his 
Yellowjacket guise) re-entered the Avengers. When 
her husband left again a few years later, the Wasp 
stayed, asserting her independence for pretty much 
the first time. The 1980s were a traumatic decade 
for the pair, as Pym's constant working and mental 
instability led to his assaulting her. His subsequent 
fall from grace (The Avengers #213) culminated in 
divorce (possibly a first for comics). Perhaps in 
response to this, the Wasp became a stronger char- 
acter, going on to chair the Avengers for a number 
of years and taking a prominent role in the popular 
Secret Wars series in 1984; this rather implausibly 
saw the Wasp defeat the X-Men single-handedly. 
Later in the decade, the Wasp transferred to the 
West Coast Avengers title for a couple of years, and 
enjoyed a reconciliation with the semi-retired Pym. 

As the 1990s progressed, the Wasp (with Pym, 
initially as Giant-Man once more) rejoined the main 
Avengers title and settled back into being a team 
member again. There have been the occasional set- 
backs — losing her powers and once more trans- 
forming into a hideous insect creature, for 
instance — but Marvel's writers have clearly appreci- 
ated the character's resilience, consistently promot- 
ing her as an assertive heroine. With the exception 
of a short-lived backup feature in Tales to Astonish 
(which merely involved her narrating old mystery 
stories), the Wasp had never starred in her own 



comic, and indeed might not have had the depth to 
support one. Nevertheless, she has contributed to 
making The Avengers one of Marvel's top comics, 
and with any luck will continue to appear in that title 
for years to come. — DAR 

Watchmen 

The year 1986 was a momentous one for both DC 
Comics and the comics industry as a whole, thanks 
to the release of the four-issue miniseries Batman: 
The Dark Knight Returns and the twelve-part Watch- 
men, which sold in enormous numbers and attract- 
ed unheard-of critical acclaim. Watchmen was the 
brainchild of the British creative team of writer Alan 
Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, who were estab- 
lished stars in their home country and were already 
beginning to make an impact in the United States. 
The original plan was to produce a twelve-issue 
miniseries using the Charlton Comics line of super- 
heroes that DC had just licensed, but Moore's radi- 
cal reworking was deemed too controversial (and 
too terminal in some cases), so the decision was 
made to create a miniseries using an all-new cast, 
set in a separate, subtly different world. Watchmen 
heroes borrow from the Charlton cast, however; for 
example, hero Rorschach is based on Charlton's 
the Question. Watchmen ran for twelve issues from 
September 1986 to October 1987. 

Moore's script was set in a parallel universe 
from the early 1940s to the mid-1980s. Opening with 
a murder mystery and closing with a thwarted nuclear 
holocaust, Watchmen posited what it would be like if 
superheroes were real, how they would affect the 
world around them, and how everyday people would 
react to them. Moore created a world previously 
unexplored: superheroes who were morally ambiva- 
lent. What set Watchmen apart from typical super- 
hero comics of the day was the insight of Moore's 
scripting — though Gibbons' elegant, detailed artwork 
made an enormous contribution as well. Moore craft- 
ed a complex story with layers of meaning and depth 



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of characterization never before seen in the super- 
hero genre, drawing heavily on irony, symbolism, and 
multiple perspectives to tell his tale. Meant "to be 
read on a number of levels," according to Moore, "dif- 
ferent little threads of continuity are effectively telling 
the same story from different angles." 

In many respects, Watchmen was effectively the 
first postmodern superhero comic, examining the 
motivations, foibles, and desires that might drive 
people to don garish costumes and risk their lives 
each time they went on patrol. When describing his 
hero Rorschach, Moore admitted he "was to a 
degree intended to be a comment upon the vigilante 
super hero, because I have problems with that 
notion. I wanted to try and show readers that the 
obsessed vigilante would not necessarily be a play- 
boy living in a giant Batcave under a mansion. He'd 
probably be a very lonely and almost dysfunctional 
guy in some ways." The series asked the question, If 
you had immense power, how would you use it? In 
the case of the sadistic Comedian and the sociopath 
Rorschach, power amplified and fed the characters' 
natural violence. For Dr. Manhattan — a being with 
almost limitless powers — it led to a growing isolation 
and indifference toward both his girlfriend (the reluc- 
tant superheroine Laurie Juspeczyk, a.k.a. Silk Spec- 
tre) and his fellow men; this alienation was well 
demonstrated by his move to Mars. For the 
"smartest man alive," Ozymandias, power forced on 
him the messianic role of the world's savior; indeed, 
in the series' denouement, he does prevent an 
impending apocalypse, albeit in a shocking way. 

Watchmen was very much a product of its 
time, set against the background of the cold war 
and the ever-present real-life threat of nuclear dev- 
astation, but nevertheless it is still compelling read- 
ing in the twenty-first century. Within a year of the 
series' completion, it was released as a book and, 
multiple printings later, is still in print in 2004. 
Together with The Dark Knight Returns, it laid the 
foundations for the graphic novel explosion and the 
massive growth of book collections that have trans- 
formed the industry. It also prompted the release of 




Watchmen #8 © 1987 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY DAVE GIBBONS. 



Watchmen posters, portfolios, badges, and T-shirts. 
There have been persistent rumors of a film, though 
the comic's complexity is probably too daunting for 
a motion picture to come to fruition, the critic Dou- 
glas Wolk insightfully noting in 2003 that "Watch- 
men ... has been notoriously resistant to attempts 
to adapt it into a workable screenplay: its narrative 
about aging superheroes and nuclear panic is so 
deeply rooted in the comics form that it could no 
more be filmed than, say, Citizen Kane could be 
adapted into a novel." 

Moore and Gibbons became instant celebrities 
and still enjoy enormous popularity in the field, 
though both have refused all requests for a sequel, 



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Watson, Mary Jane 



preferring to let the original comic stand on its own. 
In its wake, however, Watchmen has inspired such 
series as Kurt Busiek's Astro City, Alex Ross and 
Mark Waid's Kingdom Come, and countless other 
comics. Indeed, the Watchmen's deconstruction of 
the superhero myth was so seductive that it had a 
profound impact on the industry as a whole. — DAR 

Watson, 
Mary Jane 

Aside from Peter Parker (Spider-Man)'s indefatigable 
Aunt May, the woman with the most long-term signifi- 
cance in the life of Spider-Man is undoubtedly Mary 
Jane Watson. Though she is by no means the web- 
spinner's first serious romantic interest — that honor 
belongs to the late, lamented Gwen Stacy — Wat- 
son's on-again/off-again relationship with Parker rep- 
resents the hero's most serious love affair. After sev- 
eral teasing cameo appearances in which she is 
either "off-panel" (Parker's Aunt May and Watson's 
custodial Aunt Anna Watson are determined to intro- 
duce their respective teenage charges to one anoth- 
er) or is depicted with her face obscured, Watson 
(often referred to simply as MJ) was finally unveiled 
in 1966 to an eager comics audience in Amazing 
Spider-Man (vol. 1 #42), the creation of editor- 
scripter Stan Lee and plotter-artist John Romita, Sr. 

MJ quickly assumes far more importance 
among Spider-Man's dramatis personae than her 
creators could foresee, according to Lee: "Johnny 
[Romita] and I always planned for Peter to be in love 
with gorgeous Gwen and one day end up marrying 
her. But somehow, Mary Jane was the one who 
seemed to come alive on the page. She crackled 
with energy, excitement, sex appeal. Much as we 
tried, we couldn't make Gwen as appealing as MJ." 
From the start, MJ — who works as a go-go dancer 
and fashion model — is the epitome of the devil-may- 
care 1960s "party girl," her flame-topped sex 



appeal and innocent hedonism embodying the zeit- 
geist of the era and making an indelible impression 
on generations of male Spider-fans. Unlike other 
significant others to superheroes, MJ was never a 
fawning, demure figure who existed only to be res- 
cued, and her first scene-stealing words to Peter 
Parker have attained four-color immortality: "Face it, 
Tiger ... you just hit the jackpot!" Although Parker is 
already seriously dating Stacy at the time, he is 
immediately smitten after his initial encounter with 
MJ, who soon becomes the girlfriend of Harry 
Osborn, Parker's college roommate. 

MJ's relationship with Osborn doesn't last, 
however; she breaks up with him in 1971 shortly 
before a drug habit threatens to ruin his life. During 
the months following Gwen's murder by the Green 
Goblin in 1973, MJ offers the grieving Parker her 
sympathy, only to be rebuffed. Despite their mutual 
attraction, both MJ and Parker remain reticent 
about getting seriously involved with each other for 
the next several years. But with the inevitability of 
gravity, the two are eventually drawn together; MJ, 
whose fun-loving attitude masks her dysfunctional 
upbringing in an alcoholic home, is apparently both 
attracted to and frightened by Parker's responsibili- 
ty-driven stability, while MJ's "party girl" persona 
represents to Parker an irresistible sense of free- 
dom that he typically can experience only while in 
wise-cracking, slam-bang action as Spider-Man. 

Parker finally "pops the question" to MJ in 1978 
(Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #182); she returns his 
proffered engagement ring one issue later, explaining 
that her "free spirit" approach to life won't allow her 
to settle down with just one man. Afterward, MJ dis- 
appears from Spidey's life for several years (to the 
immense disappointment of legions of male fans), 
leaving Parker dating women such as the plain-vanilla 
doormat Debra Whitman and Felicia Hardy, the excit- 
ing-yet-dangerous erstwhile second-story woman also 
known as the Black Cat. 

But MJ's estrangement from Parker clearly was- 
n't meant to last; she returned in 1983 (Amazing 
Spider-Man vol. 1 #242), having lost none of her 



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Watson, Mary Jane 



visual sex appeal under the artistic ministrations of 
John Romita Jr., the son of the first illustrator to 
bring her to life on the printed page. MJ and Parker 
quickly recover their earlier intimacy, growing close 
enough to prompt her to confide that she has known 
his secret dual identity for a long time, and to reveal 
the uncomfortable details of her dysfunctional 
upbringing. Despite their renewed attachment, Park- 
er dithers for a few more years before again propos- 
ing marriage. She refuses an issue later, but 
changes her mind the issue after that; the wedding 
takes place shortly thereafter in 1987 (Amazing Spi- 
der-Man Annual #21), followed by a (decidedly G- 
Rated) honeymoon (Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 
#7) and domestic bliss in an apartment owned by 
old friend (and sometime supervillain) Harry Osborn. 
Reflecting the 1980s and its preoccupation with 
success and stability, the 1960s "party girl" had at 
last matured and settled down. 

But as longtime readers — and those old 
enough to remember the late Stacy — are well 
aware, Spider-Man's milieu is all too frequently 
incompatible with "happily-ever-afters." About a year 
after setting up the new Parker-Watson household, 
Mary Jane is briefly abducted by a wealthy stalker 
named Jonathan Caesar, who — in spite of being 
captured and imprisoned — manages to freeze MJ 
out of the modeling business. A survivor by long 
habit, MJ (whose visible likeness often resembles a 
Melrose Place cast member more than a 1960s 
icon) subsequently realizes her lifelong dream of 
acting by landing a role on a daytime soap called 
Secret Hospital. Again paralleling society as a 
whole, by the late 1980s and early 1990s the hip- 
pie "party girl" continues her maturation into a 
career-oriented "material girl" who might teach 
Madonna a thing or two about success. Despite her 
professional accomplishments, life continues to be 
complicated for MJ, including a terrifying run-in with 
the insane, spider-powered villain Venom; a brief 
almost-affair with a soap-opera colleague; the tem- 
porary return of her old smoking habit; and the reve- 
lation (later proved false) that her husband was a 



mere clone of the "real" Peter Parker. Throughout 
the latter half of the 1990s, MJ feels herself grow- 
ing increasingly restive about being married to a 
danger-loving superhero, a situation analogous to 
being the wife of a police officer. 

Following the resolution to the above-men- 
tioned "clone saga" of the mid-1990s, MJ becomes 
pregnant, prompting Parker's brief retirement from 
crime-fighting; the expectant couple relocates to 
Seattle, Washington, in search of a "normal" exis- 
tence. This respite from danger turns out to be 
short-lived, ended by the return of the original Green 
Goblin and MJ's apparent miscarriage, though the 
child (named May, after Parker's aunt) appears to 
have been abducted by an operative of the Green 
Goblin. MJ and Parker subsequently seek counsel- 
ing to save their marriage, which later becomes 
strained both by MJ's increasingly successful return 
to modeling and by yet another broken promise by 
Parker to hang up his webs forever. MJ is menaced 
by yet another stalker, who apparently causes her 
death in a plane crash in 2000. Spidey later learns 
that the stalker has actually captured MJ, and res- 
cues her; too traumatized by the incident to contin- 
ue living a life of danger at Parker's side, MJ leaves 
and the couple separates in 2001. Though their 
future together remains up in the air, MJ continues 
to miss Parker. 

Over in the best-selling, youth-oriented Ultimate 
Spider-Man comic the couple (or a teenage parallel- 
universe version of them) remain together as high- 
school sweethearts (with MJ already aware of Park- 
er's double life), and in the Spider-Man film fran- 
chise the romance has barely begun, while in the 
long-running Spider-Girl title, which extends the ear- 
lier storyline of the Parkers as parents, MJ and 
Peter remain happily married, middle-aged subur- 
banites with a crime-fighting daughter carrying on 
the family business. MJ's popularity was also 
shown by her starring role in a prose novel for 
young adults, Mary Jane by Judith O'Brien, in 2003. 
Clearly, whatever becomes of the famous Spidey-MJ 
relationship, it is certain that Mary Jane Watson will 



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WildC.A.T.S 



have an enormous effect on Spider-Man's life (and 
on his readers) for many years to come. — MAM 

VMdCAXS 

Brought together by the multi-billionaire Lord Emp 
and the mysterious Void, a group of humans, half- 
humans, and alien Kherubim warriors protect Earth 
against the host-possessing aliens known as Dae- 
monites. Emp's group, WildC.A.T.S, is a Covert 
Action Team, and its members include Spartan, 
Zealot, Maul, Voodoo, Grifter, and Warblade. Millen- 
nia ago, the warring Kherubim and Daemonites 
crashed on Earth, and their battle continues to this 
day. Now, the WildC.A.T.S will end the Daemonite 
threat or die trying. 

Lord Emp (Jacob Marlowe) was a diminutive 
homeless man until Void helped him learn his true 
identity as a powerful Kherubim warrior who had 
lost his way. Becoming rich and founding HALO, Inc. 
in New York City, Emp worked with Void to gather 
the WildC.A.T.S team. Void (Adrianna Terishkova) is 
the silver-skinned manifestation of a dead Russian 
cosmonaut, combined with the Void essence which 
traveled back in time both to warn Marlowe about 
the Kherubim/Daemonite conflict, and to help him 
assemble the WildC.A.T.S team. Her computer-like 
mind, teleportation and telekinetic powers, and lim- 
ited knowledge of future events are invaluable. 

Spartan (Hadrian 7) is actually the soul and 
memories of a dying Kherubim warrior that has 
been transplanted into the body of a superstrong 
cyborg by Void and Marlowe. He can fire biomolecu- 
lar blasts through his hands, and create plasma 
shields, and his Central Processing Unit can be 
downloaded into other bodies, making him nearly 
unkillable. Zealot is a thousand-year-old Kherubin 
warrior who is an extraordinarily skilled fighter in the 
Coda techniques developed by a group of female 
warriors. She uses her weapons, including the Clef 
Blade, against the Daemonites. 



Maul (Jeremy Stone) is the brilliant son of an 
archeologist who was really a "Gifted One"/cross- 
breed: part-human, part-Daemonite. He can grow to 
immense sizes, but his intelligence and self-control 
wane the larger he gets. Voodoo (Priscilla Kitaen) is 
another crossbreed, and was once an exotic dancer. 
The curvaceous heroine can recognize Daemonites 
in any form, and can fire mental energies from the 
focal jewel she wears on her forehead. 

Grifter (Cole Cash) is one of the most popular 
members of the team. With no real superpowers, 
this ex-con man and intelligence operative has 
turned his life around as a hero, using his uncanny 
marksmanship and Coda-trained fighting skills to 
right wrongs. Green-haired Warblade (Reno Bryce) is 
a computer-programming crossbreed who can 
morph his hands into metal claws or other razor- 
sharp devices. 

In their war against the Daemonites, the 
WildC.A.T.S have used a warplane known as MIRV 
(Multi-purpose Intercept/Reconnaissance Vehicle). 
They have also allied themselves with other heroes, 
including 1960s hero Mr. Majestic, the tactical 
response team Black Razors, the StormWatch 
team, gay techno-whiz Noir, Gen 13, and Zealot's 
sister, Savant. Villains they have faced include Coda 
assassin Artemis; four-armed Daemonite enforcer 
Karillion; body-stealing Dockwell and the other Dae- 
monites (whose real appearance is somewhat rep- 
tilian); shape-changer Mr. White; the sorceress 
Tapestry; and Lord Hellspont, the flame-headed 
telekinetic leader of the Daemonites. 

In early 1992, a sextet of extremely popular 
artists left their books at Marvel Comics en masse, 
and formed their own independent comic book com- 
pany, Image Comics. One of the most popular of the 
group was Jim Lee, ex-artist of Alpha Flight, Wolver- 
ine, Punisher, and X-Men. He released his first 
book, WildC.A.T.S in August 1992, providing the art 
and co-writing with Brandon Choi. Despite plots that 
were difficult to follow, the series was a success. 
Fifty issues and an annual were produced by Lee's 
Image imprint, WildStorm Productions, before the 



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WildStorm Heroes 




WILDC.A. T.S: Covert Action Teams #1 < 

COVER ART BY JIM LEE AND BRANDON CHOI. 



1992 Jim Lee. 



series was canceled in June 1998; although Lee 
had quit producing the art, some issues were writ- 
ten by star author Alan Moore, and detailed artist 
Travis Charest provided a vigorous follow-up for Lee. 

The second Wildcats series dropped the 
acronym and periods in its title, debuting in March 
1999, after DC Comics bought the WildStorm line. 
Twenty-eight issues and an annual were published 
and the series was again retired in September 
2001. A third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, debuted 
in October 2002. In this latter series, a retired Spar- 
tan heads a multinational company called the Halo 
Corporation, and deals with the power such a group 
can wield, for evil or good. 



In addition to the regular WildC.A.T.S series, 
numerous sourcebooks, specials, miniseries, and 
one-shots were produced. Crossovers with other 
publishers included WildC.A.T.S/Aliens (with Dark 
Horse) and multiple WildCA.T.S/X-Men stories (with 
Marvel). Spin-off series were also produced, includ- 
ing miniseries for Grifter, Zealot, Voodoo, Backlash, 
and others. In September 1994, CBS debuted Jim 
Lee's WildC.A.T.S cartoon series, which lasted thir- 
teen episodes and inspired an "animated style" 
comic book called WildC.A.T.S Adventures that ran 
for ten issues (1994-1995). Merchandising for the 
various comic-book series has included action fig- 
ures, T-shirts and other apparel, statues, model 
kits, and more. — AM 

VMdStorm Heroes 

What if a coup were staged and everyone left? That 
was the question asked and answered in the 
comics medium in early 1992, when a sextet of 
extremely popular artists left their books at Marvel 
Comics en masse, and formed their own indepen- 
dent comic-book company, a collective known as 
Image Comics. One of the most popular of the 
group was Jim Lee, ex-artist of Alpha Flight, Wolver- 
ine, Punisher, and X-Men. Although his initial offer- 
ings did not have a sub-imprint name, and were 
copyrighted to Aegis Entertainment, Inc., the line of 
books Lee and his crew oversaw eventually became 
WildStorm Productions. Unlike some others of the 
Image group, WildStorm Productions would be 
incredibly prolific, pumping out dozens of series and 
spin-offs, all in an increasingly Byzantine and inter- 
connected universe. 

Lee's first book, WildC.A.T.S, debuted in August 
1992, and it set the backdrop of the whole Wild- 
Storm universe to come. Millennia ago, the warring 
Kherubim and Daemonites crashed on Earth, and 
their battle continues to this day. Kherubim are 
essentially good warriors, while the Daemonites are 
reptilian creatures that can take over human host 



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Wolverine 



bodies for their nefarious plans. Almost every char- 
acter that appeared in WildStorm books was some- 
how related to Kherubim or Daemonites. Those that 
weren't outright aliens themselves were often half- 
human crossbreeds, or they were created to fight 
them or join them. The other cohesive factor of the 
WildStorm universe was a vaguely sinister secret 
United States government organization known as 
International Operations — or I/O — which dabbled in 
covert special operative teams; bioengineering 
superhumans with the Gen Factor; and the study of 
psionics and quantum mechanics. 

Besides WildC.A.T.S and its various spin-offs — 
Voodoo, Zealot, Grifter, Warblade, and others — Wild- 
Storm had special operative books that combined 
crime, war, and superheroes in one package. These 
included Deathblow, about an elite gun-wielding 
anti-hero; Team 7, about the special ops team that 
does the government's dirty work; and Wetworks, 
about a group of symbiotically armored operatives 
who combat the vampire nation. Gen 13 was origi- 
nally one of the most popular WildStorm titles, 
detailing the adventures of a group of Gen-Active 
teenagers who escaped from l/O's control and 
fought villains while still trying to fit into the world 
as semi-normal adolescents. 

Union told the adventures of an alien Protec- 
torate member from the planet Aegena who is 
tricked into going through an astral gate, and is now 
stranded on Earth. Using his plasma energy staff 
and powers of flight and strength, he sometimes 
aids StormWatch. Cosmic radiation from a comet 
that passed near Earth years ago has imbued many 
people with unusual powers. A number of them 
have banded together as the United Nations peace- 
keeping force known as StormWatch. A later incar- 
nation of StormWatch led to the realignment of the 
team for a book known as The Authority. 

Periodically, imprint-wide crossovers in the Wild- 
Storm universe — "WildStorm Rising," "Fire from 
Heaven" — shook up the status quo of the various 
books, resulting in cast changes, power changes, 
and deaths. The company tried to change with the 



times as well. Though it had been an early instigator 
of multiple covers and variant editions, it slacked off 
those marketing gimmicks by the end of the century. 
It also tried new ideas editorially, resulting in such 
experimental series as Planetary, with its intricate 
storylines about "mystery archeologists" who uncov- 
er the secrets of the world, many of them involving 
familiar superhumans of the twentieth century. Wild- 
Storm also partnered with superstar writer Alan 
Moore to create a new sub-imprint known as Ameri- 
ca's Best Comics (ABC), an ironic sobriquet given 
that they were created by an Englishman. 

In early 1999, DC Comics bought WildStorm 
and all of its properties. Over the following year, 
several of the superhero series ended, then were 
relaunched with new directions and new creative 
teams. Although the WildStorm offices stayed in 
California, the imprint now had the selling power of 
DC Comics, and by extension, the AOL Time-Warner 
media conglomerate. Today, founder Jim Lee still 
does a comic every now and then for WildStorm, 
but the diverse line enjoys success with a very big 
brother backing it up. — AM 

Vfolvevim 

The most popular member of the mutant X-Men 
team, the claw-bearing Wolverine is "the best there 
is at what he does," according to him, but what he 
does isn't pretty ... just pretty violent. A grumpy 
loner by nature, Wolverine is short, extremely hairy, 
and possesses a combination of mutant powers 
and scientific enhancements. His past has been — 
until the 2000s — shrouded in mystery, with false 
implanted memories and a century-plus lifespan 
complicating matters. 

Introduced in The Incredible Hulk #180-#182 
(October-December 1974), Wolverine was created 
by writer Len Wein at the behest of Marvel's then 
editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who wanted a Canadian 
hero to bring in more north-of-the-border sales 



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potential. Although artist Herb Trimpe drew the Hulk 
stories, it was Marvel art director John Romita Sr. 
who designed the costume and clawed look of 
Wolverine. The yellow-and-blue costume didn't 
exactly remind readers of the ferocious woodland 
animal, but the trio of claws Wolverine could pop 
out of the back of each hand (with a "snikt" sound 
effect each time), and the character's surly, violent 
attitude, made him stand out from other new 
heroes of the time. 

As would eventually be shown, Wolverine is a 
dangerous loner in the tradition of the Western anti- 
hero; he has no compunctions about killing, and 
treats the helpless well as long as they don't give 
him a tougher time. He is, in short, Clint Eastwood 
with tights and claws. Unlike many traditional 
heroes, Wolverine is flawed, but it is his battles with 
those flaws — and an occasional "giving in" to his 
nastier impulses — that make him a popular charac- 
ter, especially among male fans. 

Wolverine was soon transferred to the pages of 
the revitalized X-Men series with Giant-Size X-Men 
#1 (Summer 1975), where he stayed in the back- 
ground until artist John Byrne came onboard to 
work with writer Chris Claremont (X-Men #108, 
December 1977). Claremont and Byrne soon devel- 
oped the scrappy character further, revealing that 
his mutant powers included tracking abilities, plus a 
healing factor that also slowed his growth; those 
powers had enabled him to survive an as-yet unex- 
plained process whereby his entire skeleton had 
been coated in the Marvel Comics uber-metal 
known as adamantium. The creators also showed 
that he had previously been a Canadian operative 
of Department H, and that he had worked with the 
Canadian supergroup Alpha Flight. Wolverine devel- 
oped a crush on red-headed teammate Jean Grey, 
although he eventually fell in love with a Japanese 
woman known as Lady Mariko Yashida. Even as he 
found love, though, Wolverine still batted to control 
the violent "berserker rages" that threatened to 
break out of his unconscious and turn deadly for 
those near him. 




Wolverine #27 © 1990 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY JIM LEE. 



The Japanese connection was explored further 
with the first Wolverine miniseries in 1982, in a 
much-lauded story by Claremont and artist Frank 
Miller. It was clear that Wolverine — whose name 
had already been revealed to be Logan, and whose 
costume had been changed to a more animalistic 
brown and tan — had experienced both martial arts 
and samurai training in his past. In November 
1988, Wolverine was awarded his own regular 
monthly series, at which point the character spent 
more time on the Pacific island of Madripoor, run- 
ning a bar while disguised as a ruffian known as 
"Patch." The anthology series Marvel Comics Pre- 
sents debuted in September 1988, featuring a 



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Wonder Warthog 



Wolverine serialized story in almost every issue. 
The most famous of those serials — a story known 
as "Weapon X" — ran in issues #73-#84 
(March-September 1991). This story showed the 
experiments by which Wolverine's skeleton was cov- 
ered with adamantium. 

Bits and pieces of Wolverine's mysterious past 
were doled out throughout the 1980s and 1990s, 
but while many things were established as facts, 
others were shown to be falsified memory implants. 
It was clear that Wolverine had fought in the 1937 
Spanish Civil War, and that he had also fought 
alongside Captain America and others during World 
War II, but he seemed older than that. His frequent 
foe Sabertooth (alternately spelled Sabretooth), 
another feral animalistic fighter, was perhaps 
Logan's father, brother, or teammate, depending on 
which story fans read. 

In X-Men #25 (vol. 2, October 1993), the 
mutant villain Magneto forcibly removed the 
adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton and claws; 
the anti-hero struggled without his indestructible 
skeleton, but used the bone-claws that jutted from 
the backs of his hands just as effectively. The villain 
Apocalypse eventually re-bonded adamantium to 
Wolverine's bones. Still a loner, Logan has taken 
time out of his brooding, violent solo adventures to 
mentor some of the younger X-Men members such 
as Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, and others. He's also contin- 
ued his pursuit of Jean Grey, much to the frustration 
of Grey's boyfriend, Scott Summers (better known 
as fellow X-Men member Cyclops). 

Almost thirty years after he first appeared, the 
backstory for Logan was finally revealed in the six- 
part Origin miniseries (November 2001-April 
2002), which was set near the end of the nine- 
teenth century. Born James Howlett in Alberta, 
Canada, he is the sickly heir to a fortune. With a 
completely withdrawn mother and a busy father, 
James is cared for largely by a hired playmate, a 
red-haired girl named Rose. James has a peculiar 
relationship with "Dog," the rough-hewn son of the 
wild-haired family gardener, Thomas Logan, but as 



time wears on, the relationship spoils. After the gar- 
dener kills James' father, bony claws protrude from 
young James' hands for the first time, resulting in 
the death of Thomas (and leading to the suicide of 
James' mother). To save him from further trauma, 
Rose takes James to a mining colony to grow up, 
giving him the name Logan. As he enters puberty, 
James' mutant powers begin to manifest them- 
selves more, but a later confrontation with the now- 
feral adult "Dog" leads to tragedy. 

While Origin gave the foundation for Wolver- 
ine's past — including the fact that his healing ability 
helps to block out memories and mental trauma as 
well as heal physical wounds — many more ques- 
tions remained to be answered. Did Dog become 
Sabertooth? How did Logan become involved with 
the CIA, covert operations, military forces, and 
samurai over the next several decades? The Marvel 
Comics writers and artists will have plenty of time 
to tell these stories; Wolverine and X-Men remain 
among their most popular titles, and guest-appear- 
ances by the scrappy Canadian furball guarantee 
strong sales in any comic. Multiple "alternate 
future" titles have postulated that Logan will be one 
of the last survivors among Marvel's heroic pan- 
theon as well. Finally, the popularity of Wolverine in 
the X-Men feature films and animated series, as 
well as action figures and other merchandising, 
means that Logan's claws will be popping out for 
many years to come. — AM 

Vfotider V/aiUwg 

The idea of the humorous superhero dates back to 
the 1940s, with characters like the original Red Tor- 
nado and Superduperman of MAD magazine fame, 
but Wonder Warthog became the first regularly pub- 
lished superhero satire strip. Legend has it that 
Texas cartoonist Gilbert Shelton thought up the 
character while strolling down New York City's 
Avenue of the Americas in 1961; he certainly 
unleashed him on an unsuspecting audience early 



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the next year, in the off-campus humor magazine 
Bacchanal. Wonder Warthog, or the "Hog of Steel" 
(and sometimes the "Pig of Tomorrow") as he was 
also known, was an eight-feet-tall, 900-pound fight- 
ing machine of sinew and muscle, clad in a dashing 
red and green costume. Like another well-known 
crime fighter, he had a secret identity as a mild- 
mannered reporter, in this case Philbert Desanex of 
the Muthalode Morning Mungpie. He was similarly 
an alien, cast out of his planet Uranus to find 
refuge on Earth, though unlike Superman he suf- 
fered from one unfortunate deficiency: He was a 
hideous giant pig with an attitude problem. 

Surprisingly, this most unprepossessing super- 
hero began to gather a feverish fan base as he 
appeared throughout the early 1960s in college 
magazines and newspapers such as Yahoo, The 
Charlatan, and The Ranger. As its fame spread, the 
strip was soon picked up by the national satire mag- 
azine Help!, while T-shirts, posters, and rave 
reviews in Mademoiselle and Esquire helped make 
the strip one of the era's hippest comics. Following 
the sad demise of Help!, the strip soon found a reg- 
ular berth in the cult magazine Drag Cartoons. What 
the fans were picking up on was the fact that Shel- 
ton was a terrific cartoonist with a gift for wickedly 
funny writing. It also helped that the strip special- 
ized in the lamest villains in history, including Pie 
Man, Superhypnotist, Psuper Psychiatrist, the 
Zymotic Zookeeper, and Superfool. 

After two years of success in Drag Cartoons, 
publisher Pete Miller decided to give the hog his 
own comic, and the first issue appeared in 1967. 
As early as 1962, Shelton had used the strip to sat- 
irize more controversial subjects, such as segrega- 
tion in Alabama, and he continued that in Wonder 
Warthog magazine. Unfortunately, the world was not 
ready for strips about a bare-knuckle-fighting Lyndon 
Johnson, drug pushers in the ghetto, Vietnam, and 
the Mafia, and the title sold barely one-third of its 
print run, bringing down Miller's publishing empire 
along with it. A chastened Shelton briefly turned to 
drawing music posters before a copy of R. Crumbs' 



legendary Zap Comix inspired him to publish on his 
own, and he became one of the growing band of 
underground cartoonists. 

His comic, Feds 'n' Heds, introduced a new 
creation, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and 
featured a new Wonder Warthog strip in which the 
Hog of Steel travels to San Francisco and meets 
Janis Joplin. Now something of a counterculture 
star, the Hog turned up in such "family favorites" as 
Radical Amerika Comix, Hydrogen Bomb Funnies 
(co-starring one Richard M. Nixon) and even Zap 
itself. In Zap, he finally acquires a girlfriend, Lois 
Lamebrain, but it was his last appearance for quite 
some time. Shelton concentrated on his million-sell- 
ing Freak Brothers comic until, in 1977, he brought 
back the Hog for a series of great strips in Ripoff 
Comix. Stories such as the Pig of Tomorrow's 
attempt to become a football player and to open his 
own superhero school showed that he was as rele- 
vant in the 1970s as ever, but sadly his paperback, 
Wonder Warthog and the Nurds of November 
(1980), was to be his swansong. With the Freak 
Brothers appearing all over the world, there was 
simply no time for Shelton to draw any more super- 
hero strips, and so after twenty years the Hog of 
Steel finally hung up his cape. — DAR 



Wonder Woman 

As the legend at the beginning of each story tells 
readers, she is "beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as 
Athena, stronger then Hercules, and swifter than 
Mercury." In her patriotic costume, she has fought 
the forces of evil since her 1942 debut, whether the 
threat came from Nazis, aliens, super villains, the 
Greek pantheon of gods, or those who would seek 
to oppress womanhood. In her sixty-plus-year histo- 
ry, her adventures have almost exclusively been told 
by men, and yet she is one of the most recogniz- 
able icons of the feminist movement. She is Won- 
der Woman, Amazon princess from Paradise 



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Wonder Woman #22 © 1988 DC Comics. 

COVER ART BY GEORGE PEREZ. 



Island/Themyscira, and the most famous super- 
woman in world history. 

Wonder Woman was created by psychologist 
Dr. William Moulton Marston, using the pseudonym 
of "Charles Moulton." Marston was a bit of a maver- 
ick in the scientific community, in which he is credit- 
ed as the main inventor of the lie detector test, and 
in his private life, in which he lived with his wife and 
another woman, and fathered children with both. 
Marston had written about comics in the early 
1940s, and created Wonder Woman thereafter. She 
first appeared in a backup story in All-Star Comics 
#8 (December 1941-January 1942), then took the 



cover spot in Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942). 
She proved popular enough that a second series of 
her own soon appeared in summer 1942, titled 
Wonder Woman. 

Details of Wonder Woman's origin changed 
many times over the years, but the main plot mostly 
stayed the same. Air Force pilot Steve Trevor's 
plane crashes on the uncharted Paradise Island, 
home of the immortal Amazons. The raven-haired 
Princess Diana finds Trevor and the Amazons nurse 
him back to health. A tournament is held, officiated 
by Queen Hippolyta, for a champion of the Amazons 
to take the pilot back to "Man's World," but Diana is 
forbidden to enter. Disguising herself, she engages 
in the games — including the deadly "Bullets and 
Bracelets" ritual — winning them and being awarded 
the costume of Wonder Woman by the queen. Diana 
takes Trevor back to America in her invisible plane, 
and trades places with a look-alike army nurse 
named Diana Prince, who needs money to join her 
fiance in South America. The new Diana Prince 
soon becomes Trevor's assistant, and yet he never 
suspects that she is also the "beautiful angel" 
Wonder Woman who constantly helps him on his 
missions against spies and saboteurs. 

In her first forty years of adventures, Wonder 
Woman wore a red bodice with gold eagle, a blue 
skirt with white stars (quickly discarded for blue 
shorts with stars), red boots with a white center 
stripe and upper edge, a gold belt and tiara, and 
bracelets on each wrist. The bracelets could deflect 
bullets or other missiles, while hanging from the 
belt was a magic golden lasso, which compelled 
anyone bound by it to tell the truth or obey her com- 
mands. Wonder Woman had prodigious strength, 
speed, and leaping abilities, and could send out 
"mental radio calls" that a mental radio device 
received. She was often aided in her adventures by 
corpulent Etta Candy and her Holliday College soror- 
ity sisters, the Holliday Girls. 

Wonder Woman was popular with readers for 
many reasons. For a nation engulfed in World War II, 
her unwavering patriotism was welcome. Male read- 



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ers enjoyed adventures with a scantily clad woman 
who often was put into bondage by male or female 
villains (and occasionally, by her fellow Amazons). 
Critics such as Fredric Wertham would later note 
that not only was Wonder Woman a lesbian fantasy 
figure, but that the series was rife with bondage; 
the former point would not be addressed until 
1990, while the latter was not even debatable, as 
almost every story Marston wrote included bondage 
(sometimes called "loving submission" in the 
comics). Finally, female readers liked the series 
because it presented a strong and confidant 
woman, who often gave lectures to others about the 
strength and power of womanhood, and the need 
for a strong sisterhood. In an industry wherein too 
many superheroines were used as either cheese- 
cake titillation or adjuncts to their more powerful 
and popular male counterparts, Wonder Woman 
was a leader. 

Wonder Woman's villains often included women 
such as Dr. Poison (Princess Maru masquerading 
as a man), Baroness Paula von Gunther (a Nazi who 
was later reformed by the Amazons), catlike villain- 
ess the Cheetah, and female gorilla-turned-human 
Giganta, as well as males like craggy war god Mars 
and short misogynist Dr. Psycho. Besides her 
appearances in her own two series, Wonder Woman 
was a featured member of the Justice Society of 
America, over in the pages of All Star Comics. 

Marston wrote Wonder Woman until his death in 
May 1947, with almost every adventure being drawn 
by artist Harry G. Peter. Robert Khaniger succeeded 
Marston as writer in 1948, but the popularity of 
comics was crashing in the postwar years. The hero- 
ine last appeared with the Justice Society in All Star 
Comics #57 (February 1951), and was gone from 
Sensation after issue #106 (November-December 
1951), leaving her bimonthly series as the sole Won- 
der Woman adventure source. Wonder Woman began 
featuring her in stories wherein she wrote advice 
columns, went to Hollywood, faced aliens and 
dinosaurs, fought to protect her secret identity, and 
entertained marriage proposals from monsters. Peter 



was replaced by artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposi- 
to, among others. 

Khaniger also introduced many elements into 
the mythos that mucked with established continuity, 
including adventures of a younger Wonder Woman 
as Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot, and featuring origins 
for everything from the robot plane to her magic 
tiara. Romantic suitors for the various ages of Won- 
der Woman were no longer limited to Trevor, as 
Khaniger added Merman/Merboy, Birdman/Bird-boy, 
and even the gooey Glop. Villains tended toward the 
bizarre, as in the case of the giant Chinese egg 
known as Egg Fu, diminutive Mouse Man, wispy 
Paper Man, or multi-legged Crimson Centipede. 

Wonder Woman was a founding member of the 
Justice League of America, appearing in their first 
story in The Brave and the Bold #28 
(February-March 1960). A few years later, Wonder 
Girl joined the Teen Titans in The Brave and the Bold 
#60 (June-July 1965), though this version of the 
teen heroine was not a younger Wonder Woman, but 
a girl named Donna Troy, whom Wonder Woman had 
rescued as a baby, and who had been raised on Par- 
adise Island. In 1968, Khaniger left the writing 
reigns of Wonder Woman, and eventually writer 
Denny O'Neil and artists Mike Sekowsky and Dick 
Giordano came on board. With issue #178 (Septem- 
ber-October 1968), Diana Prince was stripped of her 
superpowers and costume, and she became a mod- 
dressed undercover adventure heroine partial to 
wearing white zippered leather suits and thigh-high 
boots. Mentored by a blind man named l-Ching in 
martial arts, Prince dealt with the death of Trevor (he 
was later resurrected, then killed, then resurrected, 
etc.), fought Catwoman and Dr. Cyber, and dealt with 
feminist issues of the times. Famed science fiction 
author Samuel R. Delaney scripted issues 
#202-#203 (September-December 1972), the lat- 
ter of which was cover-bannered as a "Special! 
Women's Lib Issue." 

That issue would also prove to be the last of 
the powerless Wonder Woman issues as well. Femi- 
nist leader Gloria Steinem had cover-featured the 



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heroine on the July 1972 debut issue of Ms. maga- 
zine, and had helped assemble a 1972 hardcover 
collection of Wonder Woman's adventures. Her intro- 
duction in that book promised, "In 1973, Wonder 
Woman comics will be born again, I hope with the 
feminism and strength of the original Wonder 
Woman — my Wonder Woman — restored." Issue 
#204 did just that, reintroducing the heroine's cos- 
tume and powers; it also introduced a black Amazon 
named Nubia as a sometime foe of Princess Diana. 

Wonder Woman's profile grew during the 
1970s, largely due to the media. Besides 
Steinem's feminist support, Wonder Woman 
appeared as an animated character on ABC's 
Super Friends, beginning in 1973 and continuing 
for thirteen seasons. She also appeared in 1974 
in a badly received TV movie starring Cathy Lee 
Crosby that had little to do with the comic-book 
character; much stronger was the series that 
began the following year, which starred Lynda 
Carter. The statuesque former Miss World USA per- 
fectly embodied the Amazing Amazon, and early 
scripts were very faithful to the World War II 
comics; later seasons, moving the time frame to 
the 1970s, were less faithful to their progenitors, 
but Carter was never anything less than spectacu- 
lar to watch as she embodied the world's most 
famous superheroine. 

Some of the 1970s Wonder Woman comics 
shifted stories back to World War II to match the 
television show, but DC continuity established that 
the World War II Wonder Woman was actually living 
on Earth-Two, a parallel world on which she had 
begun her adventures in the 1940s and joined the 
Justice Society. The Earth-One version was younger, 
and began her team adventures with the Justice 
League. Occasionally, the characters would meet, 
generally in the pages of Justice League of America. 

In Wonder Woman #288 (February 1982), the 
costume of Wonder Woman was significantly 
altered. The gold eagle on the bodice was replaced 
with a stylized double-W symbol. The move marked 
not only the character's fortieth anniversary, but 



also the establishment of the new Wonder Woman 
Foundation, a charitable organization created by DC 
Comics President Jenette Kahn. 

Due to what they felt was increasingly convolut- 
ed continuity, DC launched a twelve-issue series 
called Crisis on Infinite Earths in April 1985. The end 
result of the series was that the DC universe would 
be "reset" to have only one Earth, and one version of 
every hero and heroine. Wonder Woman #329 (Febru- 
ary 1986) featured the wedding of Wonder Woman 
and Steve Trevor, but it was to be the end of their 
happiness. Crisis wiped out their continuity and exis- 
tence, and Wonder Woman would be reinvented. A 
retro-style miniseries called The Legend of Wonder 
Woman, drawn by Trina Robbins, was released in 
May-August 1986; it was the first time a female 
artist had drawn a Wonder Woman book (Dann 
Thomas co-scripted February 1983's issue #300, 
and was thus the character's first female writer). 

A grand relaunch of Wonder Woman occurred 
with issue #1 of a new series in February 1987. 
Superstar artist George Perez (also the Crisis illustra- 
tor) signed on to guide the new series, initially work- 
ing with writers Greg Potter and Len Wein before tak- 
ing over the writing reigns himself. The relaunched 
Wonder Woman shared a similar origin to her prede- 
cessor, though the backstory of the Amazons and 
involvement of the Greek gods were a stronger part 
of the series. Here, as before, Queen Hippolyta had 
formed her daughter as a clay statue, whom the gods 
brought to life. Diana is raised on Themyscira (the 
renamed Paradise Island), and possesses gifts given 
to her by the gods, including superhuman strength 
and speed, and the ability to fly. When the war god 
Ares threatens the Earth, the pantheon decrees that 
the Amazons send a champion out into the world to 
oppose him; after winning a tournament, Diana 
becomes that champion. Outfitted with a costume 
inspired by a female aviator the Amazons had known 
in the past (Diana Trevor, mother of Steve Trevor), 
Wonder Woman ventures out into the world. 

Perez and company established a number of 
new details for Wonder Woman as well. She was 



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now a latecomer to the hero world, joining a later 
incarnation of the Justice League (Black Canary 
took her spot in history). She lived in Boston, with 
Greek history professor Julia Kapatelis and her 
daughter Cassie. She had no invisible plane, though 
her "Lasso of Truth" (woven from the Girdle of 
Gaea) still compelled people to tell the truth. She 
had no secret identity, but existed as an ambas- 
sador from Themyscira to the world, attempting to 
teach lessons of love, peace, and the power of 
womanhood. Steve Trevor was now a much older 
man who eventually married Etta Candy. Although 
she engaged villains such as Cheetah, Silver Swan, 
or Doctor Psycho, Diana was just as often in conflict 
with mythological threats to humankind from Ares, 
the witch Circe, Eris the goddess of discord, or 
other forces of evil. 

The stories in the revamped Wonder Woman 
were densely plotted, and refused to shy away from 
controversy. A gay man first appeared in issue #20 
(September 1988) before the Amazons' Sapphic 
sexuality was addressed in issue #38 (January 
1990), while issue #46 (September 1990) dealt 
with the fallout from a teen suicide. Perez was also 
keenly aware of the lack of female involvement in 
Wonder Woman's history; though his editor was a 
woman, Karen Berger, he also wrote the 1989 Won- 
der Woman Annual stories to be drawn by female 
artists, and he eventually worked with co-writer 
Mindy Newell and artist Jill Thompson on the series. 

Following Perez's departure with issue #62 
(February 1992), Wonder Woman went through a 
series of creative teams, each of which attempted 
to put their own mark on the heroine, for better or 
worse. Brian Bolland signed aboard to do fantastic 
covers, but the 1992-1995 issues are remem- 
bered by most as the era that featured Wonder 
Woman in space, Wonder Woman taking a job at 
Taco Whiz, Wonder Woman being replaced by rogue 
red-headed Amazon Artemis, and Wonder Woman 
changing from shorts to a star-spangled thong. 

Popular writer-artist John Byrne took over the 
series with issue #101 (September 1995), moving 



Diana to Gateway City, replacing her supporting cast 
with similar characters Helena Sandsmark and 
daughter Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark, killing 
half the Amazons, and pitting her against villains 
such as Fourth World ruler Darkseid, Arthurian witch 
Morgan Le Fay, Dr. Psycho, Cheetah, and others. 
Byrne reintroduced the invisible plane, and turned 
Cassie into a new Wonder Girl, then killed Diana, 
had her resurrected as the Goddess of Truth, and 
had Hippolyta take over her role as Wonder Woman. 
Continuity was a casualty in the following storylines 
in which Hippolyta-as-Wonder Woman was inserted 
backward in time to World War II adventures with the 
Justice Society, and Donna Troy (the ex-Wonder Girl, 
now Troia) was given an extraordinarily convoluted 
origin — the latest in her long line of origin revisions. 

Diana became Wonder Woman again in Byrne's 
final issue (#136, August 1998), followed by a few 
years of rotating creative teams. With Wonder 
Woman #164 (January 2001), writer-artist Phil 
Jimenez came aboard to revamp the title yet again, 
but his stories harkened back to the strength of the 
Perez run. Jimenez attempted to straighten out the 
by-now-again-convoluted history of Wonder Woman, 
while pitting her against such villains as the Joker, 
Silver Swan, Circe, a new male Cheetah, Giganta, 
and others. He also introduced a new male love 
interest, an African-American man named Trevor 
Barnes. Unfortunately, Jimenez's work was affected 
by a number of companywide crossovers mandated 
by DC, including one — Our Worlds at War— which 
forced upon him the death of Hippolyta. Later, 
Jimenez reintroduced the concept of Wonder 
Woman spinning into her costume (a staple of the 
1970s comics and the TV series), and even utilized 
some costume elements from the television show. 
His final issue, #188 (March 2003) was a virtual 
love letter to every incarnation of Wonder Woman 
throughout her sixty-one-year history. 

Following a six-issue semi-return to the non- 
powered jumpsuit-wearing Wonder Woman, the 
series rebounded with another new creative team. 
In issue #195, novelist Greg Rucka and artists 



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Wonder Woman in the Media 



Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder came aboard to rede- 
fine the character. Gone were elements that the 
team felt demeaned the heroine, as Wonder Woman 
published an autobiographical book of essays 
(titled Reflections) and embarked on a proactive 
stance on making the world a safer and better 
place. Behind the scenes, Ares, Doctor Psycho, and 
others are plotting to bring the heroine down, but it 
is unlikely that DCs female figurehead will be best- 
ed easily. 

Over six decades, Wonder Woman's likeness 
and logo have appeared on apparel; dolls and action 
figures; puppets; puzzles; school supplies; kitchen- 
ware; costumes; lunch boxes; candy dispensers; 
night lights; music boxes; telephones; cake pans; 
model kits; valentines; Christmas ornaments; and 
even packaged macaroni. Audio adventures of the 
heroine have appeared on record and tape in the 
1960s and 1970s, while a daily newspaper strip 
saw print in 1944-1945. Today, she appears weekly 
in the animated adventures of Cartoon Network's 
Justice League, and a Wonder Woman feature film 
has been in development for years. 

Although she is not the first superheroine, 
Wonder Woman is the most famous, the longest- 
lived, and the most popular. Appealing to a vast 
demographic, she is the paragon not just of patrio- 
tism, but of womanhood itself. Whether preaching 
the loving submission and strength of sisterhood of 
her early years, or the diversity, tolerance, and love 
for humankind of her current incarnation, Wonder 
Woman has — as her TV theme asserted — arrived to 
change the world. And we are all the better for hav- 
ing her in it. — AM 

Wonder Woman in 
the Aflec/fa 

"Wonder Woman! Wonder Woman! All the world is 
waiting for you, and the power you possess. In your 



satin tights, fighting for your rights, and the old red, 
white and blue!" No superheroine before her had so 
dominated the public consciousness, so it seemed 
that the theme song for ABC's Wonder Woman 
series wasn't strictly hyperbole. All the world was 
waiting for her, but it would be a long time after her 
January 1942 debut in All-Star Comics #8 that Won- 
der Woman would rule the airwaves. 

Although some efforts had been made to inter- 
est Hollywood in a Wonder Woman serial in the 
early 1950s, it wasn't until 1967 that any filmed 
version of Wonder Woman existed. With the suc- 
cess of the campy Batman series on ABC, in 1966 
that series' executive producer William Dozier com- 
missioned a script for a Wonder Woman pilot for 
Greenway Productions and Twentieth Century-Fox 
Television. Writers Stan Hart and Larry Siegel wrote 
a silly tale called "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?" It 
told not only a revised version of Wonder Woman's 
origin, but included a plot about computer sabo- 
teurs as well. 

Director Les Martinson shot almost five min- 
utes of pilot footage, using comedienne Ellie Wood 
Walker in the title role, with Maudie Prickett as her 
whiny suburban mother. When the plain Walker 
would look into the mirror, she saw herself as a gor- 
geous version of Wonder Woman — the narrator 
intoned "And who thinks she has the beauty of 
Aphrodite" — played in the mirror by busty actress 
Linda Harrison. The never-aired mini-pilot wasn't 
enough to generate interest in a regular series, 
however, and a live-action Wonder Woman would 
take almost another decade to appear. 

Instead of live versions, Wonder Woman did 
become an animated staple, beginning in 1972. 
She first appeared in Filmation's The Brady Kids 
on ABC, guest-starring as both Diana Prince and 
Wonder Woman in a time travel story that found 
each of the Brady children competing at the 
ancient Olympics. The following year, Wonder 
Woman was a founding member of the Super 
Friends on ABC's new Hanna-Barbera superhero 
team series for 1973. Teamed with Batman, 



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Wonder Woman in the Media 




Lynda Carter stars in Wonder Woman. 

Robin, Superman, and Aquaman, Wonder Woman 
fought aliens, androids, and an occasional 
supervillain. Her voice was provided by Shannon 
Farnon, and her slightly simplified costume design 
was by comics legend Alex Toth. 

SuperFriends evolved almost yearly, changing 
titles and formats as it went, but Wonder Woman 
reamained a constant. It became The All-New Super 
Friends Hour (1977-1978), The Challenge of the 
Super Friends (1978-1979), The World's Greatest 



Super Friends (1979-1980), The 
Super Friends Hour 
(1980-1981), The Super Friends 
(1981-1984), Super Friends— 
The Legendary Super Powers 
Show (1984-1985), and, finally, 
The Super Powers Team: Galactic 
Guardians (1985-1986). A few 
Wonder Woman concepts made it 
onto the small screen, including 
Paradise Island, Queen Hippoly- 
ta, the villainous Cheetah and 
Giganta, and love interest Steve 
Trevor. The last two incarnations 
of the series also incorporated 
the new "double-W" design of 
Wonder Woman's comic-book 
bodice, and B. J. Ward took over 
as Wonder Woman's voice. 

Even as Super Friends 
brought young viewers to know 
Wonder Woman, plans were afoot 
for a live-action television launch. 
Unfortunately, the first effort was 
a worse offering than the 1967 
pilot. ABC aired the first Wonder 
Woman telefilm on March 12, 
1974, but viewers barely recog- 
nized comics' premiere super- 
heroine. Blame fell on produc- 
er/screenwriter John D. F. Black, 
who cast blonde Cathy Lee Cros- 
by in the title role, dressing her in 
blue boots and tights, and a red-white-and-blue jack- 
et and mini-skirt combination that didn't flatter 
Crosby or the camera. 

In addition to being forced to follow a donkey 
around to get clues, Crosby faced multiple "perils": 
twin spies who knew her secret identity (as did 
everyone else in this film); a melting wall of multi- 
colored Silly Putty; a rogue Amazon (Anita Ford); and 
finally Ricardo Montalban as Abner Smith, the vil- 
lainous leader of a supposed international spy ring. 



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Wonder Woman in the Media 



Virtually no stunts or special effects were used, and 
the low budget was painfully obvious. And while 
plans for further Cathy Lee Crosby as Wonder 
Woman projects were quickly squashed, ABC 
remained interested in the concept. 

Spurred on by the success of Police Woman and 
the Bionic Woman's appearances in The Six Million 
Dollar Man, ABC ordered up a new telefilm in Novem- 
ber 1975. This film's script, meticulously researched 
by writer Stanley Ralph Ross, was — in most critical 
and fan opinion — the perfect treatment for Wonder 
Woman. Set during World War II, the movie featured 
Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner), General Blankenship 
(John Randolph), the Amazon Queen Mother (Cloris 
Leachman), and Nazis galore. The role of Wonder 
Woman went to newcomer Lynda Carter. 

The nearly six-foot-tall brunette seemed born for 
the role. Carter was tall, shapely, beautiful, and looked 
right in the star-spangled costume, which designer 
Donfeld had taken almost directly from the comics, 
with the exception of a red-white-and-blue cape Carter 
wore for special occasions. Carter had been a singer, 
dancer, variety show performer, and former Miss World 
USA before landing the role. Although her acting was- 
n't rock-solid as the series began, Carter gave the role 
a sense of seriousness; she made the viewer believe 
she was Wonder Woman. 

The New, Original Wonder Woman debuted 
on November 7, 1975, and was an instant suc- 
cess. High ratings told ABC that it was on the 
right track. It ordered a series of further one-hour 
specials, keeping the flavor of the 1940s 
comics; in them, Wonder Woman met Baroness 
Paula von Gunther (Christine Belford) and Fausta 
"the Nazi Wonder Woman" (Lynda Day George). 
There was no shortage of villains, as spies and 
Nazis were always on the loose, and Steve Trevor 
was always captured. 

The shows had a sense of realism to their 
superhuman stunts; the heroine deflected bullets 
with her bracelets, hurled her tiara like a 
boomerang, and used her magic lasso to rope vil- 



lains and force them to tell the truth. Perhaps the 
most spectacular stuntwork involved the "wonder- 
jumps," performed mainly by stuntwoman Jeannie 
Epper. Wonder Woman jumped over tanks, build- 
ings, and other assorted obstacles with the great- 
est of ease. The invisible plane was used a few 
times, then abandoned, but one aspect that was 
kept was Diana Prince's transformation to and from 
Wonder Woman; she would spin around, and in a 
burst of light, portions of her civilian clothing would 
be replaced by her costume. 

In the fall of 1976, ABC scheduled the retitled 
Wonder Woman as a regular series. It began with a 
two-part episode called "The Feminum Mystique," 
which introduced a new young starlet named Debra 
Winger in the part of Drusilla, Wonder Woman's 
younger sister, a.k.a. Wonder Girl (clad in a cos- 
tume remarkably like that of her comic-book coun- 
terpart). Popular with viewers, Wonder Girl appeared 
again, and a spin-off series was planned, but 
Winger bowed out, citing difficulties behind the 
scenes. Another popular episode guest-starred Roy 
Rogers, but by early 1977, ABC had decided not to 
renew the show, despite high ratings. 

In an unusual move, rival network CBS snapped 
up the series for its fall 1977 schedule. Under the 
title The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, a new 
telefilm on September 16 updated the story for a 
more modern setting. The premiere episode showed 
young Steve Trevor Jr. (Waggoner again) crash-landing 
near Paradise Island, to which Wonder Woman had 
retired almost thirty years prior. Princess Diana once 
again fell in love and returned to "Man's World" to 
become a superheroine. There she flew an updated 
plane, wore an updated costume (skimpier, with a dif- 
ferent star-pattern on the shorts and a different chest- 
eagle and bracelets), and sported an updated hairdo. 

Wonder Woman eventually got two additional 
skin-tight spandex costumes: one for riding a motor- 
cycle and one for swimming. Both were all-blue and 
star-studded, and she wore either boots or flippers 
depending on the situation. A skateboarding outfit — 



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Wonder Woman in the Media 



complete with helmet and knee-and-elbow-pads — 
also made one appearance. The new Diana Prince 
worked alongside Steve at the Inter-Agency Defense 
Command (IADC), an intelligence network linked with 
the White House. She would often go on specialized 
missions alone, leaving Steve in Washington with the 
talking IRA (Internal Retrieval Associative) computer. 

Although villains on the series sometimes had 
superpowers, none were from the comics. The hero- 
ine fought a vengeful, telekinetic Japanese veteran 
who was obsessed with her; black Amazonian Won- 
der Woman counterpart Carolyn (Jayne Kennedy); 
magician Count Cagliostro (Dick Gautier); insect- 
controlling Formicidia (popular mime Laureen 
Yarnell); a psychic disco vampire; the mind-stealing 
alien Skrills; and a dastardly toymaker who had cre- 
ated an evil, life-size Wonder Woman robot. 

Despite strong ratings and a deluge of fan mail, 
the network put The New Adventures of Wonder 
Woman on hiatus during its second CBS season, air- 
ing the final three episodes in the fall of 1979. One 
episode of the final trio was actually intended as a 
relaunch for the show's third season, moving Diana 
Prince to the Los Angeles IADC offices, and dumping 
Lyle Waggoner for a supporting cast that included a 
superstrong male co-worker, a cute African-American 
kid, and a monkey. Given this revamp, perhaps it's 
best that the third season wasn't produced. 

Although not on the air nearly as long as her DC 
friends Superman and Batman, the Wonder Woman 
series has remained a favorite in syndication and 
video release, and almost thirty years after its 
debut, licensed material featuring Lynda Carter as 
Wonder Woman is still sold. Direct references to the 
series have shown up on The Naked Truth and Frasi- 
er, and Carter is still a popular guest on talk shows. 

Although her live-action adventures ended in 
1979, Wonder Woman hasn't been idle in the animat- 
ed arena. She guest-starred in an episode of 1988's 
Superman series on CBS, in which Themyscira (the 
renamed Paradise Island) and her post-Crisis on Infi- 
nite Earths comic-book continuity were referenced. In 



1993, producer-director Boyd Kirkland began work on 
a Wonder Woman and the Star Riders pilot, which 
would have helped promote a series of Mattel toys 
that teamed the heroine up with Dolphin, Ice, Starlily, 
and Solara against the evil Purrsia. Only a minute of 
test animation was produced before the project was 
canceled (due to low orders for the toys), but Kirk- 
land also developed a more serious Wonder Woman 
cartoon a few years later; it did not sell. 

Meanwhile, in 1997-1998, a much-publicized 
plan to return Wonder Woman to live-action for an 
NBC series was underway. Deborah Joy Levine, who 
had successfully developed Lois & Clark: The New 
Adventures of Superman, was brought aboard to 
oversee the series and write the pilot script. Her 
version found Prince as a UCLA professor of Greek 
history. A nationwide casting call began, with appli- 
cants encouraged to show up at certain Warner 
Bros, stores in December 1997 and January 1998 
with photos and acting resumes. Although casting 
eventually narrowed down to a few Hollywood new- 
comers, development on the series was shut down 
before any filming began. 

On November 17, 2001, the Cartoon Network 
debuted a new animated Justice League weekly 
series, from the same Warner Bros, animation crew 
that worked on the Batman and Superman shows. 
On the series, Wonder Woman (voiced by Susan 
Eisenberg) is a no-nonsense warrior who has been 
exiled from her home on Themyscira/Paradise 
Island. Some episodes have shown Queen Hippoly- 
ta, World War II hero Steve Trevor, villainess Chee- 
tah, and renegade Amazon Aresia. New episodes 
featuring Wonder Woman are still airing as of 2004. 

Since the late 1990s, Warner has had plans to 
shoot a big-budget feature film, with Silver Pictures and 
producers Jon Peters and Leonard Goldberg. Multiple 
scripts have been written, including passes by Kimber- 
lee Reed (1999), James R. Harnock and Eve Marie 
Kazaros (1999), Jon Cohen (1999), Todd Alcott (2001), 
Becky Johnston (2002), Philip Levens (2003), and 
Laeta Kalogridis (2003). Ivan Reitman had been set to 



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World War II and the Superhero 



direct since 1996, but he eventually left the project. 
Although Jennifer Aniston and several other actresses 
were rumored for the lead role, the only person the part 
had been locked to was Sandra Bullock; she eventually 
dropped out of the project following statements she did 
not want to wear the traditional costume. 

Whenever Wonder Woman does reappear in live 
action, the costume won't be the most difficult aspect 
for the lead actress to master. The most challenging 
task will be to replace the image of Lynda Carter as 
Wonder Woman in the public's mind. Although her 
time as the character only lasted four years, the 
appeal of the series cemented Carter's image as the 
Amazing Amazon for almost three decades. "You're a 
wonder, Wonder Woman!" indeed. — AM 

World V/ar \\ and 
the Superhero 

"Nazis and Japs, you rats! Beware! The Hangman is 
everywhere!" This copy, grossly politically incorrect 
by contemporary standards, is plastered above the 
logo of MU Publications' superhero comic, Hang- 
man #3 (1942). And no words could better summa- 
rize the sentiment of a galvanized nation. 

PATRIOTIC PPOPA&ANPA 

Hangman #3 is far from unique. The jingoistic 
jargon and flag-waving images of dozens of comic- 
book covers printed before and during World War II 
rival the pro-war posters displayed in public buildings 
during the era. Yankee Doodle Jones, Dandy, and 
Major Victory march toward the reader, playing 
drums and fife, on the patriotic cover of Yankee 
Comics #2 (1941). The Man of Steel rides a U.S.- 
dropped bomb (presumably heading toward an Axis 
nation) on the cover of Superman #18 (1942), with 
a stirring promotional blurb: "War Savings Bonds 
and Stamps Do the Job on the Japanazis!" Speed 



Comics #19's (1942) cover depicts Captain Free- 
dom, fists clenched, sneaking up on a yellow- 
skinned, buck-toothed Japanese soldier donning a 
Captain Freedom costume. A fortress labeled 
"Hitler's Berchtesgaden" is stormed by gargantuan 
versions of Captain America, the Human Torch, and 
the Sub-Mariner — their size metaphorically symboliz- 
ing the superiority of the Allies — on star cover artist 
Alex Schomburg's All Select Comics #1 (1943). 
Superheroes had only been in existence for a few 
short years — since the premiere of Superman in DC 
Comics' landmark Action Comics #1 (June 1938) — 
but comic-book publishers wasted no time in exploit- 
ing their greatest superpower: propaganda. 

World War II may have a bleak chapter in 
human history, but for superhero comic books, it 
was the lifeblood of a period now acknowledged as 
the Golden Age (1938-1954). As Adolf Hitler's Ger- 
man forces blazed a devastating path across 
Europe in the late 1930s, Americans fretfully pon- 
dered if — or worse, when — the conflict would 
involve the United States. This escalating global 
conflict, however, offered the budding medium of 
superhero comics a perfect villain. 



TA/TPOPUCW& TH£ SHIBLP 

"We were fighting Hitler before our government 
was fighting Hitler," stated Marvel Comics mogul 
Stan Lee, on the History Channel documentary 
Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked (2003). Ger- 
man spies tiptoed into the pages of American 
comics as early as Pep Comics #1 (cover-dated Jan- 
uary 1940, but hitting newsstands in December 
1939, two years before Japan's sneak attack on 
Pearl Harbor). Pep #1, a product of MLJ Publica- 
tions (soon to be known as Archie Comics) intro- 
duces the Shield — the first comic-book character 
whose costume was patterned after the U.S. flag — 
the son of an assassinated FBI agent who applies a 
solution of his father's design onto his person, 
boosting his strength and stamina. As the Shield, 



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World War II and the Superhero 



he vanquishes the German infiltrators and engages 
in Nazi-busting for years to come. 

Before long, the Shield was no longer the Unit- 
ed States' sole superheroic protector. Guarding the 
United States from Axis invaders and saboteurs 
became a recurring theme in comics stories and on 
comics covers. Look magazine published a special- 
ly commissioned 1940 comic supplement featuring 
Superman arresting Hitler and Joseph Stalin for war 
crimes. Sales of superhero comics had been strong 
since their inception, but when covers portrayed 
patriotic motifs, their circulations escalated. 

Anti-Axis sentiment exploded from subtlety to 
ubiquity by 1941. Superman, Captain Marvel, Miss 
Fury, and Sub-Mariner were among the superheroes 
encountering German, and soon Japanese, soldiers 
in their stories. Wrote Maurice Horn in The World 
Encyclopedia of Comics, Volume 1 (1999), "The 
titles of some of the books published in this period 
suffice to give a clue as to their character: Spy 
Smasher, Commando Yank, Major Victory, Captain 
Flag, The Fighting Yank, The Unknown Soldier ..." 

SUPZBPAmiOTS INACTION 

Almost every Golden Age superhero, at one 
time or another, was an Axis-basher, but none were 
more blatant than the cadre of red-white-and-blue- 
clad patriotic superheroes, whose multitude nearly 
outnumbered the stars on the U.S. flag itself: Uncle 
Sam, Captain Victory, the Flag, Yankee Doodle 
Jones, Yankee Eagle, the Star-Spangled Kid and 
Stripesy, Super-American, Captain Courageous, the 
American Eagle, the Spirit of 76, American Crusad- 
er, Captain Fearless, Flag-Man, Minute-Man, the Lib- 
erator, and Mr. America were among their number, 
as were their female contemporaries, Miss Victory, 
Pat Patriot, Yankee Girl, Liberty Belle, and Miss 
America. Fawcett Publications' Spy Smasher's garb 
was rather mundane when compared to these 
flashy freedom fighters: He sported an aviator's hel- 
met, Khakis, a bomber jacket, and a crimson cape. 
But with his noiseless Gyrosub — plane, submarine, 
helicopter, and speedboat rolled into one — Spy 



Smasher crippled saboteurs' vessels and ferreted 
out enemy agents, flying into his own twelve-chapter 
movie serial in 1942. 

In case any young reader doubted the capabili- 
ties of these patriotic paragons, their comics some- 
times included reminders that the military was 
always on watch, as in Feature Comics #42's 
(1941) story starring the superheroine USA (a.k.a. 
the "Spirit of Old Glory"); as USA is poised protec- 
tively on a coastline, the opening caption proclaims, 
"The security of American shores is well guarded, 
as our Navy patrols far-flung waters and warns 
aggressors of the power of democracy." Rest easy, 
Americans! The superheroes and the U.S. military 
are here! 

The most popular star-spangled superhero of 
World War II was Captain America, first seen in his 
own title published in March 1941 by Marvel (then 
known as Timely) Comics. "The whole reason we 
put Captain America out was that America was in a 
patriotic frenzy," recollected Joe Simon, who created 
the hero (and many others) with Jack Kirby. The 
cover to Captain America #1 has "Cap" delivering a 
haymaker to the jaw of none other than Hitler him- 
self — and the United States' involvement in the war 
was still almost a year away! 



HmZZ TAKZS ON THB H£ZO£S 

The Fuhrer was the perfect patsy and the per- 
fect antagonist for comic book artists of the day. 
Hitler's pasty complexion, greasy hair, distinctive 
moustache, and patented furrowed brow made him 
ripe for caricature. His rather comical proportions 
and body language stood in ironic contrast to the 
Aryan ideal that he promoted so vehemently with 
his Master Race theory. Equally ironic, if not more 
so, was the image of most of the American super- 
heroes, perfect physical specimens who also epito- 
mized the fascist mindset of the superiority of 
aggression. Paradoxically, superhero readers and 
creators did not seem to notice. 



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World War II and the Superhero 



Hitler was made aware of the impact of Ameri- 
can superheroes, and set his own public-relations 
machine in motion. Hitler's spin doctor Joseph 
Goebbels once made anti-Semitic attacks toward 
Superman's co-creator, writer Jerry Siegel, citing 
Superman comics as "Jewish propaganda" and call- 
ing Siegel "physically and intellectually circumcised." 

Real-life German and Japanese soldiers 
inspired fictional foes in Golden Age comic books, 
including Captain Nazi, the Red Skull, Baron 
Gestapo, Captain Nippon, and Captain Swastika. 
The Claw, a jaundiced "Oriental" with fearsome 
fangs, appeared in Gleason Publications' Daredevil 
series, as did Hitler himself, in the legendary Dare- 
devil Battles Hitler #1 (a.k.a. Daredevil #1) in 1941. 

Beyond the cover pinups, the Axis was pum- 
meled and ridiculed in the comics stories them- 
selves. Thick, stereotyped accents were afforded to 
both German and Japanese characters in most 
Golden Age comics. In "The Human Torch and Sub- 
Mariner Fighting Side By Side" in Marvel Mystery 
Comics #17 (1941), a Nazi soldier brags, as the 
unconscious Sub-Mariner is being strung up, "He 
iss our symbol of victory! Unvard!" 

Even the most obscure superheroes fought the 
enemy, including Marvel's Citizen V: "Single-handed, 
Citizen 'V bursts into the Nazi camp and with pow- 
erful fists flying, drives his enemies to cover!" reads 
the opening caption to the hero's adventure in Com- 
edy Comics #9 (1942). 

COMICS SBU MIUIONS 

Golden Age comic books provided amusement 
and patriotism in one ten-cent, sixty-four-page pack- 
age. Millions of comics sold each month during 
World War II. Comic-book houses worked at break- 
neck pace to meet the demand of a growing audi- 
ence. Many publishers were akin to sweatshops, 
with original art pages shuffled down assembly 
lines of artists, each with his or her own task: One 
would letter the word balloons, one would ink faces, 



one would ink figures, and one would ink back- 
grounds. Artists and writers of the era sometimes 
huddled collectively into New York City apartments 
for an entire weekend of all-nighters, grinding out 
pages at a frantic pace. Many of these creators 
were happy to have the work, having survived the 
unemployment of the Great Depression. Others 
realized the importance of superheroes as mouth- 
pieces of democracy. "I believe in the brotherhood 
of man and peace on Earth," comic-book and sci- 
ence-fiction author Gardner Fox once asserted. "If I 
could do it with a wave of my hand I'd stop all this 
war and silly nonsense of killing people. So I used 
superheroes' powers to accomplish what I couldn't 
do as a person. The superheroes were my wish-ful- 
fillment figures for benefiting the world." 

Voraciously reading these comics were millions 
of American boys. The medium spoke to them, its 
superheroes offering inspiration during a trying 
time. Captain America, striking an "Uncle Sam 
Wants You" recruitment pose, was featured in 
house ads encouraging young readers to join his 
"Sentinels of Liberty" club, "... and wear a badge 
that proves you are a loyal believer in American- 
ism." Not to be outdone, Superman enticed readers 
to become one of the "Supermen of America." Boys 
would regularly congregate for "swaps," haggling 
trades of their well-read comics among one another. 
Popular titles like Captain Marvel Adventures, 
Superman, and Captain America would command 
more trading value among these young negotiators. 

Entertainment-starved American servicemen 
also read comics. Historian Mike Benton claimed in 
his book Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The 
Illustrated History (1992) that a remarkable 44 per- 
cent of U.S. soldiers undergoing basic training were 
regular comic-book readers. "At PXs, comic books 
outsold Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Reader's 
Digest combined by a ratio often to one," Benton 
added. Once these GIs were stationed overseas, 
superhero comics were sent to them, as part of 
their care packages from home. 



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World War II and the Superhero 



While the war reinforced the popularity of 
superhero comic books, war-related rationing posed 
a serious threat to their production. Paper short- 
ages curtailed the expansion of the medium, keep- 
ing many would-be publishers from entering the fray, 
and paper drives led to the donations of used 
copies of Golden Age comics, explaining their 
scarcity in the contemporary collectibles market. 

P'PAYFOB SUPBBHZZOeS 

Americans naturally celebrated when the Allies 
won their victory, but the war's end delivered a 
death blow to superheroes. They instantly fell out of 
favor, and sales steeply plummeted. Titles were 



canceled, publishers closed their shops, and only 
the strongest (Superman, Batman, and Wonder 
Woman) survived. 

Superheroes received a second lease on life, 
beginning with comics' Silver Age (1956-1969). Some 
of the superheroes who fought for freedom in the 
1940s have returned to active duty, and "retro" series 
set during World War II continue to explore the super- 
hero's role as the superpatriot; examples include Mar- 
vel Comics' The Invaders (1975-1979) and DC 
Comics' All-Star Squadron (1981-1987). In the 
2000s, DC sustains use of a few of its stalwarts of 
World War II, including the Flash and Green Lantern 
(now known as Sentinel) in an incarnation of the WWII- 
era Justice Society called JSA (1999-present). — ME 



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639 




XAIer? 



To the world at large the X-Men have been an 
overnight success on the back of two well-received 
movies, when in fact their rise has been a forty-year 
crawl, punctuated by false starts and protracted edi- 
torial caution in initially expanding the franchise. 

Since their 1963 introduction the X-Men have 
served as a metaphor for cultural intolerance. This, 
though, is predicated on the shaky foundation that 
the humans populating Marvel Comics' psuedo- 
Earth are bigoted toward those with inherent super- 
human abilities — otherwise known as mutants — 
while reserving their acclaim for superheroes whose 
powers were accidentally acquired or technologically 
conferred. The concept of a mutant as a simultane- 
ously persecuted and amazingly unique creature hit 
home to readers in the turbulent 1960s, and was a 
concept that any non-Anglo reader could personally 
relate to. Created by the prolific Stan Lee and Jack 
Kirby, the first issue of X-Men introduced half a 
dozen characters still appearing regularly forty years 
later, and a villain, Magneto, who has been a main- 
stay of Marvel Comics since his inception. 

The guiding light of the X-Men is the distinctive- 
ly bald and (until 2003) wheelchair-confined Profes- 
sor Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X. A dis- 



ability was of minor consequence to the world's 
most powerful telepath, who engineered a dream of 
guiding other mutants to use their abilities for the 
betterment of humankind. His means for doing so 
was founding Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters 
in Westchester County, New York, away from the pry- 
ing eyes of the public. His first pupil was Scott Sum- 
mers, cursed through emitting concussive force 
blasts from his eyes, beams that are mysteriously 
contained by the ruby quartz visor he permanently 
wears. As Cyclops he was field leader of the original 
X-Men, and plays a major role to this day. In the 
2000s he is married to Jean Grey, the first mutant 
actually treated by Professor X. Now second only to 
Xavier in terms of extra-mental ability, over the years 
she's had a rough ride. It was retroactively decided 
that as Marvel Girl in the original X-Men the Profes- 
sor had limited her prodigious abilities to telekine- 
sis, considering her not mature enough to cope with 
the full range of her blossoming powers. She also 
spent several years cocooned beneath Jamaica Bay, 
initially replaced by a powerful extraterrestrial entity 
called the Phoenix Force, over which she maintained 
an element of psychic control while it masqueraded 
as her. She eventually convinced it to commit sui- 
cide to save the universe. The late 1970s stories 
featuring Phoenix, as the entity was originally known, 
are still considered landmark X-Men issues. 



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Hj 



X-Men 




X-Men #104 © 1977 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY DAVE COCKRUM. 



Hank McCoy's brutish, almost simian form and 
athletic ability resulted in his being called the Beast, 
a code name that belied a prodigious intellect, both 
artistic and scientific. During a period when the X- 
Men had disbanded he took a job as research scien- 
tist, experimenting on himself with a compound that 
induced further genetic mutation. He transmuted 
into a form more in keeping with his name and now 
resembles an upright blue furry dog. Bobby Drake, 
alias Iceman, was the mirror image of long-standing 
Marvel hero the Human Torch. Initially a mobile 
snowman, he has been refined into a sleeker ice- 
covered hero, and among other abilities is able to 
generate sheets of ice from his hands on which he 
travels. Bizarrely, having no connection with Spider- 



Man in the comics, Iceman was one of the "Amazing 
Friends" from Spider-Man's 1980s cartoon show 
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The original 
team of X-Men was rounded out by Warren Worthing- 
ton III. This rich playboy carried a secret in the form 
of giant wings, which remained strapped to his back 
in civilian guise. His major trauma was the amputa- 
tion of his wings, and their subsequent replacement 
by razor-sharp metal ones courtesy of the villain 
Apocalypse. It took some while before the original 
wings re-established themselves. 

The original incarnation of the X-Men started 
strongly, but disintegrated among mediocre plots 
and never really fired comic readers' enthusiasm. 
Perhaps the theme of outsiders was inherently off- 
putting in an early 1960s America where cold war 
politics were still high on the agenda, and anyone 
not allowed at the front of the bus was better off 
not boarding in the first place. Toward the end of 
the 1960s, though, the comic sported some fine 
graphic realism from artist Neal Adams, and intro- 
duced two intriguing new heroes who never quite 
lived up to the excitement of their introduction. Alex 
Summers is brother to Scott, and as Havok chan- 
nels solar energy into devastating blasts, while his 
partner, Lorna Dane (who eventually adopted the 
name Polaris), is able to control magnetic forces, 
although the reason for her striking green hair 
remains a mystery. 

In the early 1970s X-Men survived by reprinting 
old stories, while the team members made sporadic 
guest appearances elsewhere, the Beast even 
maintaining his own short solo run in the pages of 
Amazing Adventures. The lack of activity didn't deter 
hardcore fans demanding the team's return, and in 
a period of expansion for Marvel in 1975 Giant-Size 
X-Men #1 appeared with little promotional fanfare. 
With the X-Men captured, Professor X traveled the 
globe to recruit a new team of mutants to rescue 
them. Raised in Egypt, but of deeper African ances- 
try, Ororo Monroe can fly and control the weather as 
Storm. Colossus was found on a remote Ukranian 
farming collective, and the athletic, teleporting 



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Nightcrawler was rescued from a German mob chas- 
ing him due to his demonic appearance. The Native 
American Thunderbird, alias John Proudstar, had 
superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and agility, 
none of which prevented him from being an early 
casualty, and the pint-sized Wolverine had previous- 
ly been seen using his metal claws to fight the Hulk 
with no indication of any mutant abilities. The team 
was rounded out with two characters who had 
fought the X-Men in the 1960s. Sean Cassidy, the 
Banshee, had employed his psionic screams under 
duress, but the fiercely nationalistic Sunfire resent- 
ed American imperialism and the atomic bomb that 
resulted in both his mutation and his mother's 
death. He flies and fires beams of intense heat, but 
while no longer an enemy, Sunfire departed after 
retrieving the original X-Men, and by many is consid- 
ered very much the third-string hero. 

The new characters had largely been designed 
by artist Dave Cockrum, some having languished in 
his sketchbooks for years, and while it was Len 
Wein who plotted the return of the X-Men (after 
some brainstorming by editor Roy Thomas), he 
turned over the writing of subsequent stories to his 
editorial assistant Chris Claremont. An aspiring 
actor, Claremont never made the stage, but in the 
manner of many of his characters, discovered an 
undreamed of talent. He delivered solid soap 
opera interaction, intriguing plots, and compelling 
new characters. As time passed his plots would 
become slimmer, with overwriting the norm, but 
credit is due Claremont for transforming the X-Men 
from also-rans to headliners. In the process he can 
be further credited for finally propelling female 
superheroes beyond Decoration Girl and Sidekick 
Lass. Claremont's refrain "Is there any reason this 
character can't be a woman?" would pass into edi- 
torial legend and he was additionally very quick to 
latch onto the success of Star Wars and introduce 
elements of space opera to X-Men. Although 
uncredited, artist Cockrum and especially his suc- 
cessor John Byrne each contributed ideas, and it 
was during Byrne's thirty-five issues that the X- 



Men's inexorable rise to their current stature as 
marketing monoliths really began. 

As soon as the X-Men were restored to their 
regularly numbered series, editors made a decision 
to slim down the cast, with all old X-Men other than 
Cyclops and Jean Grey considered surplus 
(although the Beast proved popular in The 
Avengers). Of the new characters it was Wolverine 
who quickly became the favorite, known only by his 
code name or "Logan." Cynics might claim that 
comics fans share an affinity with a man cast as a 
surly, repressed loner, and Wolverine lived out their 
fantasies by dealing with any trouble that came his 
way in particularly savage fashion. Much discussion 
ensued as to whether or not he'd murdered a guard 
off-panel in one Claremont/Byme issue, but he sub- 
sequently revealed little remorse regarding killing. 
An aura of mystery surrounded him. It took decades 
for Marvel to reveal his background, all the while 
establishing facets, then later revealing the snip- 
pets false. His mutant abilities are three-fold: a set 
of bony claws embedded in each hand, heightened 
senses, and a body capable of rapidly healing the 
most severe injuries. This ability has also 
restrained the natural aging process, Wolverine hav- 
ing been born in the nineteenth century, with record- 
ed experiences dating back to at least the Spanish 
Civil War. When Wolverine's early life was finally 
related in the Origin series it was a critical and 
artistic success, and all the more astonishing for 
being more gothic horror than superhero story. One 
final element was formative in the Wolverine who is 
popular today: his unwilling participation in covert, 
CIA-sponsored "Weapon X" experiments. His skele- 
ton and claws were bonded with an indestructible 
metal known as adamantium, and he was implant- 
ed with false memories, which, over time, have 
been established as such. His real past, however, 
remains elusive to him. 

Editors introduced the thirteen-year-old Kitty 
Pryde, able to pass through solid surfaces and walk 
on air, to restore the idea of youngsters being 
trained in the best use of their abilities. She played 



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X-Men 



a pivotal role in the Claremont/Byrne team's penul- 
timate story, set in a future where mutants were 
either murdered or interned in concentration 
camps. To prevent this scenario the adult Pryde 
exchanged minds with her teenage counterpart, 
guiding the X-Men to manipulate pivotal events to 
ensure her future never occurred. While critics and 
fans agree it was a great story in isolation, the 
unfortunate aspect of "Days of Future Past" was 
that elements would be plundered, expanded upon, 
and twisted until X-Men continuity was impenetrable 
to anyone not a regular reader. 

While sales, even under Byrne, initially failed to 
match fan fervor, they did increase to the point that 
Marvel introduced a second X-Men title in all but 
name, with New Mutants reaffirming Professor X's 
program of educating young mutants. This was fol- 
lowed by X-Factor, launched by retrieving Jean Grey 
from beneath the sea, in which the original X-Men 
operated a mutant rescue operation under the pre- 
tense of dealing with the mutant "problem." The 
principal X-Men team also continued to expand, 
adding Rogue, unable to touch anyone without 
absorbing their abilities and memories. Her first 
such encounter was with a heroine named Ms. Mar- 
vel, the legacy of which was permanent invulnerabili- 
ty, super strength, and flight. Still not allocated a 
civilian name, the distinctively southern Rogue has a 
deep affection for her fellow southerner, the 
Louisiana-born Remy LeBeau. As Gambit he charges 
inanimate objects with energy and throws them to 
detonate on impact. His has a checkered past, hav- 
ing apprenticed as a thief, and he temporarily left 
the team when it was revealed he'd led a slaughter 
of tunnel-dwelling mutants known as Morlocks. Writ- 
ers subsequently revealed he had been under the 
subtle control of the villainous Mr. Sinister. 

Over the years many other heroes joined the X- 
Men for brief periods. Created in the 1970s to tie in 
with the disco phenomenon, the Dazzler can trans- 
mute sound into light, including holographic images, 
and started her career on roller skates. She eventu- 
ally married temporary X-Man Longshot, an other- 



dimensional human able to manipulate luck in his 
favor. Forge is a genius-level inventor with vague 
shamanic abilities, Stacy X a former mutant prosti- 
tute able to exude pheromones that control others, 
and Cecilia Reyes a doctor able to generate force 
fields. Two less successful characters are Maggot, 
who housed two mutant slugs within his stomach 
from which he could absorb energy, and Marrow, 
who threw razor-sharp bones she removed from her 
body. Among the now deceased X-Men are Psy- 
locke, sister of Captain Britain with powerful psychic 
abilities; Joseph, once believed an amnesiac Mag- 
neto, but actually a clone with magnetic manipula- 
tion abilities; and Changeling, a shapeshifter who 
assumed the identity of Professor X for a consider- 
able period. For a relatively obscure character, he 
was a surprise recurring feature of the animated X- 
Men TV series, albeit in very different form. 

Claremont's first, long run on the X-Men gave 
way to other creators such as dynamic artist Jim 
Lee, under whom a second X-Men title (nominally 
distinguished from the original by the deletion of the 
word "Uncanny" from the new one's cover legend) 
was issued in 1991 to instant success under 
assorted covers. Collectively it was Marvel's best- 
selling comic ever, although many were sold to 
investors possibly still stunned that the issues they 
stockpiled are commonplace. Although Lee departed 
for greener pastures soon after, in collaboration with 
Whilce Portacio he made one lasting contribution to 
the comic by introducing Bishop, a mutant from the 
future able to absorb any energy directed at him and 
return it as force blasts. He grew up idolizing the X- 
Men, and arrived in the present by accident, aware 
one of his heroes would betray the team, but not 
knowing who. It was eventually revealed to be the 
unlikeliest suspect of all: Professor X. 

Having long appealed to the X-Men's arch-foe 
Magneto to reconsider his ways, Professor X used 
his powers to close down Magneto's mind, at which 
point the fury so much a part of Magneto's charac- 
ter was transferred to Xavier. Awakening Xavier's 
own successfully repressed hostilities, a new con- 



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sciousness formed within Xavier's mind, taking con- 
trol with devastating consequences. Only the united 
force of all Marvel's non-mutant heroes shut down 
Onslaught. Unfortunately Xavier was once again 
occupied, this time by the malign intelligence of one 
Cassandra Nova. While posing as an authority on 
mutant affairs, Xavier had always guarded the truth 
of the X-Men, but under Nova's control he revealed 
the truth to the world at large. Being forced to go 
public, though, has proved a blessing in disguise. 
It's enabled Xavier to use his vast personal wealth 
to set up global branches of X-Corporation through- 
out the world. Providing a staff position to almost 
every benign mutant who's had an involvement with 
the X-Men or affiliated groups, their brief is to offer 
shelter and aid to mutants in peril. 

This storyline was conceived by Grant Morri- 
son, who, as the writer of the newer X-Men comic 
since 2002, has stuffed a wealth of intelligent and 
radical ideas into the X-Men's world. Morrison's 
innovative contribution is exemplified by the charac- 
ter he introduced to the team, Xorn. He is a Chi- 
nese pacifist who doesn't participate in action mis- 
sions, and whose skull contains a microscopic star 
that may somehow be connected with his extraordi- 
nary healing abilities, demonstrated when he 
healed Xavier's legs. Morrison's interpretations of 
familiar cast members offer new insights, and on 
occasion his plots have been matched by top-quali- 
ty artists. Among the best of them is Frank Quitely, 
whose fine-lined delicacy and well judged poses 
combine for an extraordinarily expressive style. 

As the X-Men franchise has continued to 
expand, more titles have been added, and the most 
successful has been Ultimate X-Men, a reboot to all 
intents and purposes, that Marvel kicked off in the 
new millennium. Under writer Mark Millar and pencil 
artists Andy and Adam Kubert this comic twists 
familiar elements into new scenarios, offering a 
new audience the opportunity to read an X-Men 
comic unhindered by the baggage of decades of 
continuity. These X-Men, while sharing the names 
and identities of the familiar characters, were intro- 



duced as if new. The comic began with the founding 
of the team, mixing the cast from various eras of X- 
Men, and has since adroitly reworked themes of 
mutant isolation. 

X-titles continue to proliferate like mutant 
genes, with a publication history that has as many 
twists as the ongoing super-soap opera's plots; in 
spring of 2004 the "X-Men: ReLoad" event brought 
a raft of new or retooled series in the franchise, 
including a return (though not the first) of Clare- 
mont to writing Uncanny X-Men, and a new Aston- 
ishing X-Men series by artist John Cassady and 
writer Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire 
Slayer. —FP 

X-Men: gxcalibw 

A forerunner to the current manifestation of interna- 
tionally linked groups of X-Men, the hero team 
Excalibur stemmed in no small part from the work 
of writer and artist Alan Davis on the U.K. comic 
book Captain Britain. Continuing from the work of 
Alan Moore there, Davis applied a distinctly British 
sensibility to the trappings of American superhero 
comics for an engaging strip starring a character 
originally conceived as little more than a composite 
of nationalistic cliches. 

Davis dispensed with Captain Britain's pseudo- 
mystical origin. Instead, he established that the 
Captain's alter ego Brian Braddock's abilities were a 
genetic inheritance from his father, a refugee from 
an other-dimensional world, unimaginatively 
referred to as "Otherworld." Braddock's lover Meg- 
gan was initially shrouded in mystery, and never 
given a surname. She often modified her appear- 
ance, and was eventually revealed as a 
shapeshifter who instinctively assumed forms offer- 
ing her protection, whether this be from the ele- 
ments or from her emotions. Although critically 
acclaimed, lack of finance ended the Captain 
Britain strip in the United Kingdom, but it had an old 



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X-Men: Excalibur 



friend across the Atlantic in its co-creator, writer 
Chris Claremont, who had featured Captain Britain 
in American X-Men strips. Significantly, he also used 
Braddock's twin sister Betsy in X-Men titles as the 
powerful psychic Psylocke. 

Excalibur was formed when, believing their X- 
Men teammates to have been slain, then under- 
used X-Men Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and Shadowcat 
decided to start afresh by decamping to the United 
Kingdom, where they became embroiled with Cap- 
tain Britain and Meggan. The German Nightcrawler 
had been an early mainstay of the revived 1970s X- 
Men. His generally jocular personality belies his 
demonic appearance, complete with forked feet and 
long tail, essential for the highly developed athletic 
maneuvers his slight form is capable of. The dis- 
tinctive sulphurous smell that accompanies his 
teleporting accentuates his demonic ties, although 
editors ironically established that Kurt Wagner is a 
staunch Catholic who has considered taking vows 
of priesthood. A further ability to become invisible 
in shadow has been largely sidelined, and it took 
more than twenty years to establish that Night- 
crawler's mother is the similarly blue-skinned 
shapeshifter, the villainous Mystique. 

The Phoenix of this team was not the original 
X-Men's Jean Grey, but rather Rachel Summers, who 
arrived from the future in one of the time paradoxes 
common to X-Men continuity. She was the daughter 
of X-Men Grey and Scott Summers in a bleak mid- 
twenty-first century where mutants were hunted and 
either murdered or confined in concentration 
camps. Inheriting her mother's mental abilities 
hadn't prevented Rachel's capture by a mutant- 
hunter named Ahab, who tattooed her face, perma- 
nently identifying her as one of his mutant-hunting 
"hounds." It wasn't until she escaped to the 1980s 
that she discovered she could tap into the limitless 
abilities of the Phoenix Force, which she was able 
to use to obscure her facial tattoos. 

When introduced, Kitty Pryde was the youngest 
member of the X-Men, only of college age in 
present-day Marvel Comics continuity, almost twen- 



ty-five years after her introduction as a thirteen-year- 
old who could walk through walls. Characterization 
appropriate to her age was adroitly handled by 
Claremont, despite bruising encounters with the 
vicious alien-like aliens the Brood, and she regularly 
changed her code name, switching from Ariel to 
Sprite before settling on Shadowcat. Precociously 
intelligent, she has a technological affinity, and she 
honed her original abilities by learning how to par- 
tially solidify within machinery to disrupt it and by 
walking on air. Her acquisition of a miniature alien 
dragon she named Lockheed further established a 
unique identity. 

The team name evoked Captain Britain's dis- 
carded Arthurian origin, but also evoked connec- 
tions with X-Men titles. Excalibur based themselves 
at an offshore lighthouse, and the eccentricity of 
their headquarters was mirrored in the foes they 
faced. The Crazy Gang were lunatic but dangerous 
versions of Lewis Carroll's playing card characters 
from Alice in Wonderland, while Arcade constructed 
elaborate death-traps based on pinball machines 
and other arcade games. Holy echoes of the 1960s 
camp Batman television show! More threatening 
was Saturnyne, an other-dimensional conqueror 
with a close resemblance to Brian Braddock's previ- 
ous girlfriend Courtney Ross, whom she masquer- 
aded as, and most dangerous of all was Jamie 
Braddock, brother to Brian and Betsy. His ability to 
warp reality drove him mad, but he was no less for- 
midable for that. 

A notable early adventure was sparked by a 
fragment of sentient alien technology christened 
Widget by Pryde. It activated interdimensional and 
trans-temporal gateways that sent Excalibur on a 
prolonged tour of space, time and other dimen- 
sions. Humor was a significant aspect of the comic, 
and significantly weaker after Davis departed in 
1989, indicating his plotting input. A pastiche of 
Ronald Searle's riotous public schoolgirls from his 
St. Trinians cartoons was a brief attempt at restor- 
ing the humor that only fully returned with Davis' 
appointment as sole writer and artist in 1991. 



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The prolific Davis introduced several new char- 
acters. Kylun the Barbarian was a British schoolboy 
transported through Widget to a barbarous world 
where he grew into an accomplished fighter, 
although his mutant power to reproduce any sound 
precisely is hardly an essential combat trait. Cerise 
was, in effect, an alien recruitment agent for the 
Shi'ar Empire. Her escape from an overzealous com- 
mander brought her to Earth, where an ability to gen- 
erate malleable energy fields became useful. Feron 
was a teenage mystic, raised from birth to host the 
Phoenix Force, and when it passed him by his arro- 
gance became a source of friction within the team. 
Even Widget finally achieved the fully functional arti- 
ficial life-form he'd been building toward since arriv- 
ing on Earth, as a sentient robotic time-portal. 

Davis also incorporated characters from his 
Captain Britain days. Inept alien mercenaries Tech- 
net turned up for a period as Excalibur's tenants, 
resulting in slapstick disaster, and police inspector 
Dai Thomas was a hostile official presence. A recur- 
ring plot device, also inherited from Captain Britain, 
was the existence of thousands of extradimensional 
Earths, each with a counterpart of Captain Britain. 
On one alternate world the Nazis had won World War 
II, resulting in a Hauptmann Englande, while other 
simulacrums included a pith-helmeted Victorian, a 
hippy, and a reptile! Particularly prone to interfering 
in the affairs of Captain Britain was Roma, the impe- 
rial guardian of Otherworld. While benign, she isn't 
above indulging in manipulation to produce results 
her innate sorcery can't affect directly. 

Post-Davis Excalibur comics entered a protract- 
ed five-year decline to cancellation. Davis' creations 
were largely ignored or completely forgotten, and 
the characters introduced to replace them were 
largely cast-offs from other books. Writers trans- 
ferred the Russian Colossus from the X-Men (long 
revealed as not dead after all), adding raw power to 
the team in his organic metal form. Piotr Rasputin 
was a gentle giant, the object of a teenage crush for 
Pryde, and an artist as well as a fighter. He would 
later sacrifice his life to spread the cure for the 



Legacy Virus. This affected only mutants, lying dor- 
mant before activating with fatal consequences, 
and one victim had been Piotr's sister llyana. For- 
mer secret service agent Pete Wisdom was a far 
more cynical and manipulative type than Scottish 
agent Alistaire Stuart, who'd previously accompa- 
nied the team. The chain-smoking Wisdom could 
fire off "knives" of burning energy from his fingers, 
and had a sordidly unhealthy passion for the 
extremely young Pryde, who welcomed his 
advances. Also incoming, from New Mutants, was 
British native Rahne Sinclair, alias Wolfsbane. 

Making way for the new characters was 
Phoenix, who was shuffled off into the timestream 
where she landed in another alternative future and 
helped to raise X-Force leader Nathan Summers. 
Here she called herself Mother Askani, and eventu- 
ally died at a ripe old age. Death, however, has 
rarely proved a hindrance to Marvel superheroes, 
and time paradoxes have enabled her subsequent 
appearance in various incarnations. 

Excalibur's last writer was Ben Raab, who was 
considerate enough to end the comic in 1998 by 
revealing the whereabouts of all cast members for- 
gotten by interim scripters, and to give the audience 
what they wanted by featuring the wedding of Meg- 
gan to Brian Braddock in the final issue. — FP 

X-Men: 
Generation X 

The term Generation X, made famous by author 
Douglas Coupland in his book of the same name, 
defined an entire generation in the mid-1990s. A 
shorthand label that acquired pop culture ubiquity, 
"Gen-X" applied to, in Coupland's words, that twen- 
ty-something "category of people who wanted to 
hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and 
social climbing that so often frames modern exis- 
tence." Often referred to by commentators as 



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X-Men: Generation X 




Generation X #61 © 2000 Marvel Comics. 

COVER ART BY TERRY DODSON. 



"slackers" and "the generation without a name," 
this core demographic of 47 million was ripe for 
catering to, lampooning, and generally just trying to 
figure out. The comic book industry was one that 
attempted to meet this burgeoning market, and in 
1994 Marvel Comics began publishing Generation 
X. With a ready-made title of high recognition that 
dovetailed neatly with its growing line of X-Men-relat- 
ed comics, Marvel soon found an audience for this 
groundbreaking book. 

Generation X reworked a theme established in 
the earliest days of X-Men, that of mutants being 
schooled in the use of their abilities. Unlike previ- 
ous attempts at a school environment for mutants, 



though, this title had a brazen contemporary per- 
spective. Co-creator Scott Lobdell had honed his 
writing skills submitting gag material to The Tonight 
Show, and produced snappy dialogue for convincing 
teenagers while initial pencil artist Chris Bachalo 
combined appealing character designs with dynam- 
ic modern storytelling. His was a talent none of the 
succeeding pencilers could match. 

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was 
based in the Berkshire Mountains of western Mass- 
achusetts, removed from the dangers of the X- 
Men's Westchester County, New York, headquar- 
ters, and the instructors were a decidedly odd cou- 
ple. The urbane and sexually charged Emma Frost 
had used her powers of mental manipulation to 
move within high society, rising to the position of 
White Queen among the X-Men's foes the Hellfire 
Club, where she trained a group of villainous 
mutant teens, the Hellions. Their deaths caused 
her to re-evaluate her priorities and initiated her 
reform. The Irish Sean Cassidy concealed his 
mutant abilities as an NYPD officer before briefly 
being forced to use his powers of flight and a deaf- 
ening psionic scream in the pursuit of crime. As the 
Banshee he is always a reluctant hero, preferring to 
romance genetic researcher Moira McTaggart, in 
contrast to his daughter, Siryn, who inherited his 
abilities and grew to lead X-Force. 

The students were a multicultural group. Asian- 
American orphan Jubilation Lee (Jubilee) accompa- 
nied the X-Men and Wolverine before attending the 
school. Her pyrokinetic powers activated on encoun- 
tering a mutant-hunting Sentinel, and her sassy and 
contrary attitude caused tension with Monacan 
Monet St. Croix, alias M, whose myriad abilities 
came with a superior social status and attitude. 
Invulnerable, strong, telepathic, and able to fly, the 
storyline eventually revealed that the Monet who 
joined the school was in fact a composite being 
formed from her two younger sisters, while the real 
Monet was held captive by their brother, Emplate, 
Generation X's first and most persistent foe. He 
siphoned mutant energy and expelled it in deadly 



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X-Men: Generation X 



fashion, trapping his sister in a silent form that 
functioned on instinct, not intellect. Emplate's initial 
encounter with Generation X permitted Monet to 
escape and join them, subsequently being named 
Penance. It was some while before writers revealed 
her true identity, and the cost of regaining her body 
was trapping her sisters as Penance. 

The final female member of Generation X was 
Paige Guthrie, from a small West Virginia mining 
community, who calls herself Husk. Her brother 
Sam Guthrie had been a founding member of the 
New Mutants as Cannonball. The ambitious Paige 
accepted her mutant ability to shed skin to reveal 
different forms beneath. She became romantically 
linked with her teammate, the eccentrically spelled 
Jonothon Starsmore from England. 

Chamber's force blasts first manifested with a 
burst that decimated his lower jaw and throat, an 
area he covered with a scarf. Able to communicate 
psionically, he grew from a self-pitying loner who 
considered himself a freak into short-lived status 
among the X-Men. 

The African-American Everett Thomas, code- 
named Synch, could channel the abilities of any 
mutant within his vicinity. The team was rounded out 
by Latino Angelo Espinosa, known as Skin, who was 
raised in the barrio of East Los Angeles. As a 
teenager his skin became gray and pliable, and he 
was able to stretch it to considerable lengths, 
although no consideration was ever given to whether 
or not his muscles and skeleton also stretched and, 
if not, what effects this might have upon him. Resi- 
dent in the grounds of the Massachusetts academy 
was Gateway, an enigmatic silent aborigine able to 
open gates in the sky to elsewhere. 

Despite ostensibly being there for schooling, 
the youngsters were rapidly initiated into combat, 
although their encounters were as often as not 
prompted by relations between people at the 
school. While Emplate was their most persistent 
enemy, Emma Frost's two sisters proved every bit 
as manipulative and scheming as she. The younger, 



Cordelia, attempted to acquire Emma's former posi- 
tion as White Queen of the Hellfire Club, while the 
elder, Adrienne, was a deadlier proposition. Able to 
learn secrets from others merely by "reading" 
objects they'd handled, she offered necessary finan- 
cial aid but her true agenda was to see the school 
destroyed. Ironically she succeeded, but not in the 
fashion she had intended. These weren't the only 
antagonists in the series: A human student at the 
school, Tristan Brawn, had a grandfather possessed 
of a talisman that surrounded him with an invulnera- 
ble force field, and who headed a criminal organiza- 
tion. Banshee's villainous cousin Black Tom Cassidy 
also appeared several times, and other foes famil- 
iar to X-Men readers included Juggernaut and Toad. 

As the series progressed, there were additions 
to the cast. Firstly, the far younger Artie and Leech 
were relocated from X-Factor under what might be 
seen as less than the legal requirement for adult 
supervision. Leech could dampen or siphon away 
the abilities of any mutant within a certain radius of 
him. The silent Artie previously lived among a 
mutant community in the New York sewers, and 
communicated via sonic "holograms," essentially 
projecting pictures. Writers sparingly used the pair, 
although they took a greater role in the spin-off 
miniseries Daydreamers. The other-dimensional, 
millennia-old Gaia was rescued by the team, hung 
around for a while, and abruptly departed, having 
spent more time acting thirteen years old than hon- 
ing almost limitless powers. The Samoan Mondo 
was shuffled offstage permanently when he was 
murdered by the villain Bastion. A generally cheerful 
guy who could assume the qualities of anything he 
touched, he was rarely used during slightly more 
than a dozen issues with the team. 

Generation X pushed Marvel's mutants into new 
territory by presenting a convincing cast with whom 
the perceived audience could identify. They were not 
the clean-cut compliant teenagers who had previous- 
ly occupied Marvel titles, although they tended 
toward disobedience and mischief rather than out- 
right hostility. The blend was enough to make the 



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X-Men: New Mutants 



comic an instant success in 1994, and the Genera- 
tion X Fox TV movie was fast-tracked, screening in 
February 1996. While well produced and generally 
well received by fans, budgetary restrictions necessi- 
tated Chamber, Husk, Penance, and Synch being dis- 
carded or replaced by substitutes whose powers 
weren't as costly to simulate for television. The plot 
centered on a "dream machine" created by Emma 
Frost (played by Finola Hughes) that enabled tele- 
pathic manipulation. Frost had discarded the device, 
only for the students to rediscover it years later with 
troublesome consequences. 

As the Generation X comic continued, the tone 
became considerably darker, with the abduction of 
children one topic spotlighted. Synch was killed by 
Adrienne Frost, and Emma subsequently murdered 
her sister, an act that left vast residual guilt. With 
Sean Cassidy also self-absorbed, mourning the 
death of Moira McTaggart, the students decided 
their education was suffering, and departed the 
school, at which point their comic was canceled. 
Cassidy was next seen heading a mutant militia 
called X-Corps, brought down in very final fashion by 
some X-Men villains. He's not been seen since. The 
remaining cast is involved with the X-Corporation, 
with Frost, Chamber, and Husk joining the core X- 
Men team (though Jubilee has occasionally been 
seen in the alternate-future Spider-Girl and related 
comics as the grown-up leader of the "X-People"). 
However, the concept, if not the characters, of Gen- 
eration Xwent back in session as the new series 
Academy X joined many other new or made-over X- 
titles in Marvel's spring 2004 publishing event "X- 
Men: ReLoad." —FP 



X-Men: 

NewMvfants 

The New Mutants were the first tentative step 
toward expanding the X-Men franchise into the mar- 



keting behemoth it is today. The original 1960s 
premise of X-Men was that of a school where those 
with inherent superhuman abilities, or mutants as 
they were labeled, would hone their talents away 
from the public eye for the eventual betterment of 
humankind. The X-Men as relaunched in the 1970s 
were a diverse multicultural group, and elements 
from both incarnations were combined in the New 
Mutants. They were drawn from the global popula- 
tion of mutants, but their youth and inexperience 
helped them stand apart from the X-Men, while their 
similar costumes doubled as school uniforms. 

Writer Chris Claremont, then enjoying a sus- 
tained creative peak writing X-Men, created the cast 
in 1983. Artist Bob McLeod joined him, and the New 
Mutants were launched via the then experimental 
format of the graphic novel, only Marvel Comic's 
fourth to that point. While their title ran a 
respectable one hundred issues, none of the original 
New Mutants really caught the public imagination. 
The most popular has proved to be Cannonball, able 
to propel himself through the air with tremendous 
force, simultaneously becoming invulnerable. His 
powers manifested under extreme conditions when 
a cave-in trapped the young Sam Guthrie on his first 
day as a miner. His initial characterization was as 
unsophisticated and awed, but nowhere near as 
reserved and awkward as Wolfsbane, essentially a 
werewolf who also assumes transitional forms 
between human and wolf. Her costume shreds dur- 
ing transformation, leading to embarrassing 
moments for the already shy Rahne Sinclair. 

Confidence is no problem for Roberto DaCos- 
ta, alias Sunspot, scion of a wealthy Brazilian family 
whose ability to draw energy from the sun provides 
prodigious strength and force blasts. The some- 
times aloof Native American Dani Moonstar pro- 
jects three-dimensional images drawn from the 
minds of others. As the series progressed she also 
developed a bond with the Valkyries of Norse leg- 
end, from whom she inherited a winged horse 
named Brightwind, and learned to predict imminent 
death. She never settled on a permanent alias, 



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being known as Psyche and Mirage as often as she 
was just by her surname. Xi'an Coy Manh was older 
than her teammates, a Vietnamese immigrant who 
thwarted her Uncle's aspirations to form a criminal 
empire via her ability to have others act under her 
control. As Karma her participation with the New 
Mutants was sporadic, as her priority was always 
the welfare of her younger brother and sister. 

The initial team was relatively quickly expand- 
ed. Ilyana Rasputin, a Russian farm girl and sorcer- 
ess, was sister to the X-Men's Colossus. As Magik 
hers was a tragic story with a tragic finale. She had 
been abducted by an other-dimensional demon 
named Belasco as a child and grew to puberty with- 
in his realm, but when she escaped back to Earth 
mere seconds had elapsed. She later reverted to 
her original age, only to succumb to the Legacy 
Virus, a fatal disease afflicting only mutants. Amara 
Aquilla was retrieved from what was seemingly the 
unspoiled Roman civilization Nova Roma secreted 
within the Amazonian jungle. As Magma she pos- 
sesses assorted volcanic-related abilities. 

The early adventures of the New Mutants were 
competent, but undistinguished, and it took the 
appointment of maverick artist Bill Sienkiewicz in 
1984 to provide a unique visual identity. In his artis- 
tic debut the team confronted a demonic bear that 
Moonstar believed responsible for the disappear- 
ance of her parents. Then heavily influenced by the 
scratchy distortions of Ralph Steadman, among oth- 
ers, Sienkiewicz's bear was a sinister heaving 
mass. It transpired that the bear was Moonstar's 
parents, transformed by an ancient evil. Sienkiewicz 
also concocted the visual template for Warlock, an 
alien "techno-organic" life-form memorably con- 
veyed as a morphing parade of metallic compo- 
nents. At times Warlock would form a protective 
suit around Doug Ramsey, whose ability to commu- 
nicate with machinery as Cypher was ill-suited to 
combat, although his abilities enabled him to per- 
ceive reality as Warlock did when within his protec- 
tive cocoon. Their relationship grew deeper, and 
each began to manifest the personality traits of the 



other, a fusion halted by Ramsey's death, protecting 
Wolfsbane. Not comprehending the concept of 
death, Warlock unsuccessfully attempted to revive 
Ramsey's corpse. 

In the tradition of the X-Men, although ostensi- 
bly studying, the New Mutants stumble into plenty 
of adventures. A recurring playground is Belasco's 
dimension of Limbo. Bearing many similarities to 
conventional depictions of hell, it's populated by 
assorted demons, many of whom have aspirations 
to control the realm. Writers eventually revealed 
that Nova Roma was a civilization populated by the 
abductees of the sorceress Selene, who implanted 
false memories of a lineage stemming from ancient 
Rome. Members of the Hellfire Club provided recur- 
ring foes, the most prominent among which were 
the Hellions, mirror images of the New Mutants 
being trained by the Hellfire Club's White Queen 
Emma Frost as future mutant enforcers for the 
Club. They were joined briefly by a group of New 
Mutants rebelling against the appointment of 
reformed villain Magneto as their teacher, but came 
to an untimely end at the hands of a mutant psy- 
chopath from the future. 

Several mutants introduced in X-Factor, and 
briefly teamed as X-Terminators, later joined the 
New Mutants. Skids projects a body-encompassing 
force field, and was romantically entangled with 
Rusty Collins, who had heat-related powers, but 
rarely displayed them before his death at the hands 
of the Mutant Liberation Force. Rictor generates 
vibratory waves, while Boom Boom creates small 
parcels of detonating energy. Her later change of 
code name to Meltdown was well advised. She 
would develop a relationship with Cannonball. 
Youngsters Artie and Leech also tagged along 
before being forwarded to Generation X. 

A much-needed boost in profile and popularity 
came with the appointment of Rob Liefeld first as 
pencil artist, then as co-plotter, in 1990. Not very 
much older than some of the characters he drew, 
Liefeld brimmed with ideas and enthusiasm, and 
possessed a portfolio of superheroes he'd created 



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X-Men: X-Force/X-Statix 



since his earliest days reading comics. Foremost 
among these was Cable. A hulking brute of a man 
with muscles larger than most people's heads and 
guns the size of supermarkets, he was an imposing 
figure with cybernetic body parts and the odd robot- 
ic limb. His agenda, though, was not one of harmo- 
nious co-existence between mutants: he knew his 
enemies, and he planned to sort them out before 
they eliminated him. 

The final days of the New Mutants saw the 
departure of all long-serving team members, with 
the exception of Cannonball and Boom Boom, as 
Liefeld introduced more new and extreme charac- 
ters. One, Shatterstar, dealt with a man restraining 
him from behind by impaling them both on his own 
sword. With Cable's proactive policies and the new 
cast, little was left of the New Mutants, and their 
title was canceled in 1991 to pave the way for X- 
Force. — FP 

X-Men: 

X'Force/X-SWx 

When launched in 1991, X-Force was sold enclosed 
in a plastic bag containing a trading card featuring 
one of the team members, an additional premium 
cementing Marvel Comics' biggest new success in 
years. That it featured grossly distorted artwork and 
scant plot, both courtesy of creator Rob Liefeld, 
mattered little to the hundreds of thousands of buy- 
ers. Where Liefeld triumphed was with creative 
enthusiasm. He brimmed with ideas, many of them 
good, but ineffective editorial channeling of his 
imagination produced confusing comics. None of 
this stopped the multitude of scratchy lines and 
anatomical liberties that comprised his style from 
becoming de rigueur among better selling super- 
hero comics of the early 1990s. 

As much as Liefeld stamped his personality on 
X-Force from the beginning, so did his lead character 



Cable. Introduced in the latter issues of the X-Men 
spinoff New Mutants, Cable was an instant success. 
Direct and brutal, with enormous muscles and even 
bigger guns, Cable's mission was to prevent war 
between mutants and humankind. His is the type of 
convoluted origin, slowly released over a period of 
years, that seems inordinately popular with fans of 
Marvel's X-Men-related titles. Cable's given name is 
Nathan Summers, and he is the son of the X-Men's 
Cyclops via a woman Cyclops believed to be his 
amnesiac true love, Jean Grey. She wasn't, and their 
offspring was infected with a "techno-organic virus" 
by X-Men foe Apocalypse. The only alternative to 
Nathan's death was to send him 2,000 years into 
the future to a society torn asunder by war between 
humanity and mutants. While the virus transformed 
portions of his body into living metal, its spread was 
halted, and Summers was taught to channel his for- 
midable telekinetic abilities. Additionally, he became 
the complete soldier. 

When returned to the present day as an adult, 
Cable's self-appointed mission was to seek out and 
terminate anyone who threatened the persecution 
of mutants, thus intending to prevent the future 
he'd experienced. He initially believed this was best 
achieved leading a team, and so he co-opted Can- 
nonball and Boom Boom from the supergroup New 
Mutants and added other members. Domino is a 
successful mercenary with the mutant ability to 
manipulate luck in her favor, while Feral is a more 
aggressive and violent version of the New Mutants' 
Wolfsbane, covered in fur and possessing an ani- 
mal's heightened senses and speed. She has a 
mutually belligerent relationship with her sister 
Thornn, who is similarly gifted, and would eventually 
join the even more militant Mutant Liberation Front. 
The Native American James Proudstar blamed the 
X-Men for the death of his brother Thunderbird, and 
joined a group of villains in training under his broth- 
er's alias. In addition to flying, he performed every 
athletic feat at superhuman levels, and his anger 
dissipated, leading to a stint as Warpath in X-Force 
before joining the X-Corporation. Shatterstar was 



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genetically engineered as the perfect warrior and 
has an agenda to destroy Mojo, an other-dimension- 
al despot who creates action-driven television spec- 
taculars as a means of controlling his population. 
Writers have dropped broad hints that Shatterstar 
is the son of two X-Men, Dazzler and Longshot, who 
have spent considerable time in Mojo's dimension. 

The backstory Liefeld created for Cable provided 
plenty of foes. These included a cloned version of him 
sent from the future to ensure mutants and 
humankind did fight (Stryfe); his evil son Tyler, also 
snatched from the future (but primarily seen in 
Cable's own comic); and assorted members of 
Cable's previous mercenary team Six Pack, of which 
Domino was a member. In fact the Domino who joined 
X-Force was a shapeshifting imposter named Copycat, 
sent to infiltrate the team by Genesis, Tyler Summers. 

Cable left the team early on, and Liefeld soon 
after, and it would be years before any imagination 
was again applied to the characters. Cannonball, 
who had grown considerably from the awkward char- 
acter introduced in New Mutants, assumed the 
team leadership before temporarily ceding it to 
Siryn: The Irish Teresa Cassidy is the daughter of X- 
Man Banshee, who believed her killed as an infant 
by a terrorist's bomb along with her mother. Inherit- 
ing her father's psionic powers, she was raised by 
his cousin Black Tom Cassidy, who used her as a 
pawn in his criminal plans. Later exonerated, she 
assumed a superhero career. Several of the New 
Mutants returned to X-Force — Rictor believing Cable 
had murdered his father, Moonstar having served 
undercover to further Cable's agenda, and Sunspot 
with increased powers. Former member of Excalibur 
Pete Wisdom also led X-Force, reinforcing their cre- 
dentials as a mutant strike force. 

The comic coasted until the arrival of writer 
Peter Milligan and artist Michael Allred in 2001. 
They dispensed with the entire previous cast, along 
with the concept of a mutant militia, instead intro- 
ducing new characters in a broadly based satire of 
media manipulation and the motivations of super- 
heroes. This X-Force only shared the name with the 



previous team, and then only briefly as they were 
relaunched as X-Statix. These mutants were teen 
idols responsible for generating masses of merchan- 
dising dollars via the televising of their carefully cho- 
sen missions, always for a hefty fee. The fatality rate 
was high, and the characters largely arrogant, mer- 
cenary, self-serving, and resolutely unpleasant. 

The leadership of this in-fighting bunch fell to 
Guy Smith, code-named Orphan, a depressive who 
plays a nightly game of Russian roulette. The 
phrase "acute sensitivity" describes both his 
mutant ability and nature. He loved the latterly 
deceased teleporting U-Go Girl, who was an atypical 
heroine, having given birth as a teenager, then leav- 
ing her daughter to be raised by her mother while 
she pursued a career as a superhero. Anarchist, 
Tike Alicar, with the unlikely gift of toxic sweat, pro- 
motes the agenda of African-American militancy, 
resenting the whitebread world, but quick to exploit 
any means of making money from it, to the extent 
of organizing a stadium tour to rake in some cash. 
He is joined in this by Dead Girl, who has a mysteri- 
ous past, awakening in a graveyard after burial. She 
can "read" corpses for information and can rebuild 
her own body from any injury, continuing to animate 
severed limbs. Billy Bob Reilly posed as trailer trash 
to earn his place on the team, rightly guessing it 
would render him more media-friendly than his actu- 
al middle-class upbringing and an ability to bloat 
various parts of his body as Phat. He has also dis- 
covered his homosexuality via liaisons with team- 
mate Vivisector, a werewolf, that began as attempts 
to increase their media profile. The most mysteri- 
ous member of the team is the alien Doop, resem- 
bling nothing so much as a flying potato with arms 
and eyes who communicates via an alien language 
understood by very few. Editors established that he 
is known to other Marvel mutants, and within X- 
Force/X-Statix provides the action video feeds. 

X-Sfat/x continues the Milligan and Allred 
satire, adding Venus Dee Milo to the team, a female 
composed of pure energy who teleports and sends 
out energy blasts. Most previous members of X- 



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X-Men in the Media 



Force now have positions within the global X-Corpo- 
ration. — FP 



X-Men hi 
fjhe Media 

They are the children of the atom, their superpowers 
manifesting themselves as they enter their teenage 
years. These uncanny teens are mutants — homo 
superior — and while they are feared by the non- 
mutant public, they are also pulled in two directions. 
Will they join the side of pacifism and good, training 
under Professor Charles Xavier at his Westchester 
County private school in New York, or will they allow 
their anger and displacement to pull them toward 
the side of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil 
Mutants? So began the saga of The X-Men, created 
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and debuting in Septem- 
ber 1963. Mutant heroes Cyclops, Marvel Girl, 
Angel, Iceman, and Beast were joined in summer 
1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1 by all-new mutants 
Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Thun- 
derbird. And although it would be the latter incarna- 
tion that would gain incredible popularity in the 
comics and the media alike, the original X-Men did 
appear on television early in their career. 

In the fall of 1966, animators and producers 
Robert Lawrence, Grant Simmons, and Ray Patter- 
son — under the company name of Grantray- 
Lawrence — debuted the syndicated daily animated 
program called The Marvel Super-Heroes. Each 
weekday half-hour episode put the spotlight on a 
different hero with a three-part adventure. Captain 
America was Monday, The Incredible Hulk was Tues- 
day, Iron Man was Wednesday, Mighty Thor was 
Thursday (naturally), and Sub-Mariner was Friday. 
One three-part Sub-Mariner episode was adapted 
from Fantastic Four #6 (September 1962) and Fan- 
tastic Four Annual #3 (1965), but the producers 
could not use the actual Fantastic Four characters 



#K 



because another studio owned the animation 
rights. Instead, the X-Men were brought into the 
fray, pinch-hitting for the FF. Unfortunately, The Mar- 
vel Super-Heroes only lasted one season, so this 
version of the X-Men did not reappear (except in 
syndicated reruns of the series). 

Although the villainous Magneto made an 
appearance in a 1978 episode of The New Fantas- 
tic Four, it wasn't until NBC's Spider-Man and His 
Amazing Friends began in the fall of 1981 that the 
X-Men reappeared in animation. On this series, Spi- 
der-Man was teamed with Iceman and newcomer 
Firestar (who was later integrated into the comic- 
book Marvel universe in New Mutants and New War- 
riors). Several episodes guest-starred the X-Men or 
their friends and foes, acknowledging both Iceman 
and Firestar's past. Japanese mutant Sunfire guest- 
starred once, while Magneto gained control of New 
York another time. Episodes aired during the 
1982-1983 season — when the title was changed 
to The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider- 
Man — showed the X-Men in the origin stories for 
both Iceman and Firestar. In the third and final sea- 
son (1983-1984's The Amazing Spider-Man and 
the Incredible Hulk) the mutants guest-starred 
again, in a tale entitled "The X-Men Adventure." Pre- 
sent were Professor X, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde, Storm, 
Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird. 

Eventually, Marvel Productions felt it was ready 
for a regular X-Men series, and a half-hour Uncanny 
X-Men pilot was made in 1988. "Pryde of the X- 
Men" related the story of Kitty Pryde's first few days 
with the team of mutants (who included Professor 
X, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Night- 
crawler, and Dazzler), as they fought against Magne- 
to, the White Queen, Juggernaut, Blob, Pyro, and 
Toad. Marvel Productions hoped to sell the X-Men 
as a series, but no network was interested, and the 
cartoon went on the shelf. It was shown as part of 
the Marvel Universe syndicated show in 1988, and 
released on video in 1990. 

Carolco optioned the rights to the X-Men for 
use in a feature film in 1991, but shortly after 



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X-Men in the Media 




From left to right: Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier), Anna Paquin (Rogue), James Marsden (Cyclops), Shawn Ash- 
more (Iceman), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), Halle Berry (Storm), and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) reprise their X-Men roles 
in X2: X-Men United. 



James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment 
expressed interest in producing the film Carolco 
ran into money problems, and eventually went 
under. This film script, Wolverine and the X-Men, 
was written by Gary Goldman, and it detailed 
teenage Kitty Pryde's first days at the Xavier School 
for Gifted Youngsters. 

Margaret Loesch had worked with Marvel Pro- 
ductions from 1984 to 1990, and when she became 
head of Fox Children's Network in 1990, she bought 
a revival of the X-Men project she had championed 
in 1988. Marvel teamed with animation producers 
Saban Entertainment and Graz Entertainment to pro- 
duce the new X-Men, featuring Marvel's hottest 
mutants. A trio of animated episodes debuted in 
October and November 1992, but delays in produc- 



tion — and shoddy work by one of the overseas ani- 
mation studios — delayed the series. X-Men re-pre- 
miered in January 1993. The show immediately gar- 
nered excellent ratings, and finished its run in 1997, 
after airing seventy-six episodes. 

Fox's X-Men series was serialized, with each of 
the episodes continuing into the next, although 
most of them also stood alone as separate shows. 
The main X-Men team was Wolverine, Cyclops, Gam- 
bit, Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, and newcomer Morph, 
though a secondary team of background players 
included Beast, Professor X, and Jean Grey. Villains 
included Magneto, the Sentinels, the Morlocks, Mr. 
Sinister, Lady Deathstrike, and many others. A vast 
array of X-characters and Marvel superstars showed 
up over the course of the series. 



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Perhaps no Marvel series was as completely 
faithful to its comic-book origins as was this X-Men. 
Some storylines were adapted from the comics, 
including multi-part adventures detailing Jean Grey's 
evolution from Phoenix to Dark Phoenix, and her 
eventual redemption. Character designs and art- 
work by comic-book veterans Will Meugniot, Larry 
Houston, and Rick Hoberg (who all previously 
worked on the "Pryde" pilot) made the characters 
look like they had stepped off of the comics' pages. 

Although Carolco's X-Men film languished, pro- 
ducers Bill Todman and Joel Simon picked up the 
film rights to a Wolverine movie, but it went 
nowhere. The next X-/Wen-related project was actual- 
ly based on an X-Men spin-off comic-book series. 
Generation X was a live-action pilot telefilm that 
aired on Fox on February 20, 1996. In this version, 
Banshee (Jeremy Rathchford) and White Queen 
(Finola Hughes) ran Xavier's school, helping to train 
new teen mutants such as Jubilee, Skin, Mondo, 
and M, as well as non-comics characters Refrax and 
Buff. Although it fared well in the arenas of story 
and direction and ratings weren't too shabby, no fur- 
ther Generation X specials were completed. 

Marvel's mightiest mutants finally reached live- 
action status on July 14, 2000, the premiere date of 
20th Century Fox's big-budget X-Men feature film. 
Bryan Singer directed, from a story and script by a 
large group of writers (though credits only showed 
Tom DeSanto, Singer, and David Hayter). In this gor- 
geous drama, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and 
Magneto (Sir Ian McKellan) lock powers when Mag- 
neto plots to mutate most of New York. Many of 
Xavier's star pupils were present: Jean Grey (Famke 
Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Storm (Halle 
Berry), and Rogue (Anna Paquin). Newcomer Hugh 
Jackman stepped into the role of feral Wolverine 
after actor Dougray Scott was unable to start the 
film due to scheduling conflicts. Magneto's cohorts 
included Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Saber- 
tooth (Tyler Mane), and Toad (Ray Park), while intoler- 
ant Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison) and his 
Mutant Registration Act provided even more conflict. 



Following a film debut on New York's Ellis 
Island (a location that had been replicated for the 
denouement of the film), X-Men was an immediate 
success. Critics were rapturous, and the public 
loved the mutants, guiding X-Men to more than 
$157 million in United States box office receipts 
alone. Jackman in particular went from relative 
obscurity to immediate superstar status in Holly- 
wood. A wide variety of licensing was released, 
including action figures, statues, apparel, posters, 
and more, and two versions of the DVD were 
released to tremendous sales. Following the first 
film's success, an X-Men sequel was immediately 
put into development, but some other X-projects 
would beat it to the punch. 

First out of the gate was a new animated series 
for the WB network titled X-Men: Evolution. Debuting 
on November 4, 2000, the new series turns back 
the clock, showing the mutants as younger versions 
of their film — and comic-book — counterparts. The 
main group at Xavier's school is now Cyclops, Jean 
Grey, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Storm, Shadow- 
cat (Kitty Pryde), and new creation Spyke. Though 
they initially face Mystique and Magneto's group of 
nasty teen mutants Toad, Blob, Avalanche, and 
Quicksilver, these X-Men have also squared off 
against other familiar faces, including Sabertooth, 
Juggernaut, Apocalypse, Pyro, and Callisto. Other 
mutant heroes have joined them overtime, including 
Forge, Iceman, Beast, and Jubilee. 

Like its animated predecessor, WB's X-Men: Evo- 
lution was a ratings hit, and fans responded to the 
clean art style and strong stories. The fourth season 
began in the fall of 2003. X-Men: Evolution has gen- 
erated toy lines and fast food premiums, as well as 
apparel and multiple video and DVD releases. 

In October 2001, the syndicated Mutant X tele- 
vision series began airing, but even though it is pro- 
duced by Marvel and based on an X-Men comic 
book spin-off, Mutant X does not have anything to 
do with the X-Men continuity. Fox sued production 
company Tribune twice to make certain that the 
series would not tread too closely to its film fran- 



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X-Men Villains 



chise; Fox lost both times, and the series moved 
forward (though Tribune filed their own lawsuit 
against Marvel in late 2003). On Mutant X, a group 
of attractive twenty-something non-code-named 
mutants who are genetically engineered help other 
mutants come to terms with their powers. The cast 
includes John Shea, Forbes March, Victor Webster, 
Lauren Lee Smith, and Victoria Pratt; in its third 
season, Karen Cliche joined the Mutant Xcast. A 
recurring villain on the series is Mason Eckhart 
(Tom McCamus), the man who murdered the head 
of the government project that engineered the 
mutants. Mutant X began its third season in fall 
2003, and a line of DVDs has been released (oddly, 
a two-part comic book spin-off flopped). 

While X-Men: Evolution and Mutant X continued 
on the airwaves, filming on the X-Men film sequel 
was ongoing from spring 2002 forward. Bryan 
Singer returned to direct, reuniting most of the first 
film's cast. This time though, Magneto and Mys- 
tique are forced to aide the X-Men when insane mili- 
tary leader William Stryker (Brian Cox) invades 
Xavier's school and captures the mutant-detecting 
Cerebro device. New mutants Nightcrawler (Alan 
Cumming) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) get some 
great effects sequences — and some nice character- 
ization — while young Pyro (Aaron Stanford)'s seduc- 
tion to the side of evil is effective, and Lady Deat- 
shtrike (Kelly Hu) holds her own in a deadly battle 
against Wolverine in the laboratory where they were 
both "built." 

X2: X-Men United was released on May 2, 
2003, to acclaim and high ticket sales. Most critics 
said that this was one of the rare sequels that actu- 
ally surpassed its predecessor, and its box office 
receipts in the United States topped $214 million! 
As had the first film, X2 inspired a wide variety of 
licensing, as well as a deluxe DVD release as 2003 
drew to a close. 

Although not everyone in the cast is signed to 
reappear, development work on X-Men 3 is already 
underway. Forty-plus years after their comic-book 
debut, who knew that the mutant underdogs would 



one day rule the media? That kind of foresight 
would take powers greater than those of ordinary 
humans.... — AM 

X-Men Mains 

While the X-Men heroes have enjoyed a rich history 
and a dedicated fan following, no less have the X- 
Men villains made their mark on the pages of X-Men 
and related comics over the past forty years. Making 
his debut in 1963 along with the X-Men themselves, 
by far the most majestic and implacable foe the X- 
Men have faced is Magneto, master of magnetism. 
He is a complex individual whose thoughts about the 
co-existence of humanity with mutants veer from mili- 
tant separatism to benign compatibility. In comics 
from the early 1990s he was even an ally of the X- 
Men. Known as both Magnus (to Professor X) and 
Erik Lehnsherr, both believed aliases, he was the 
sole member of his family to survive a Nazi concen- 
tration camp, and the experience instilled an early 
belief that mutants could only survive by uniting to 
enslave humanity. To this end he formed the mutant 
terrorist group the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which 
numbered among its members the speedster Quick- 
silver and the Scarlet Witch, who could affect proba- 
bility, at the time unknown to any party as his chil- 
dren. They later reformed and became mainstays of 
the Avengers. Creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were 
obviously pleased with their imposing mutant, and he 
encountered the X-Men in just under half the issues 
Lee wrote. 

Magneto has operated from several bases over 
the years, notably genetically engineering a group of 
mutants in an Antarctic jungle, manning a headquar- 
ters in the Bermuda Triangle, operating from an 
asteroid orbiting Earth, and finally establishing the 
mutant separatist state of Genosha. He was seem- 
ingly killed when a cadre of Sentinels slaughtered 
almost the entire population. Magneto has been 
presumed dead before though, and it has not hin- 
dered his activities. 



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X-Men Villains 




Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) takes on Stryker's soldiers in X2: X-Men United. 



Magneto has served as an inspiration to a 
group of mutant refugees who allied themselves to 
him as the Acolytes, carrying out his bidding. Their 
number grew enormously, and all joined him on 
Genosha, where they presumably died. His concept 
of a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has proved surpris- 
ingly sustainable under several incarnations. The 
longest-lived member is Fred Dukes, the Blob, a 
man who cannot be moved when grounded, and 
whose enormous bulk defies injury. In the 1960s 
he was often teamed with Unus, who projected an 
impenetrable force field, and eventually suffocated 
when it ceased to admit any air. 

After Magneto it was Mystique who revived the 
team. Inexplicably blue-skinned in her natural form, 
she is able to morph into any other human shape, 
and has maintained several long-standing cover 
identities. Her real name remains unknown, and 



she spent much of her life infiltrating official organi- 
zations, the secrets she disinterred convincing her 
mutants should conquer humankind. Like Magneto, 
she is extraordinarily long-lived, having been known 
as far back as the 1930s. Her Brotherhood includ- 
ed the fire-controlling Pyro; Avalanche, who generat- 
ed vibrations from his hands; the precognitive Des- 
tiny; Post, a heavily armored assassin; and future X- 
Men member Rogue. A third incarnation of the 
Brotherhood was organized by the agile but often 
subservient Toad, a member of the original group. 
His new recruits were Phantasia, who disrupted 
mutant powers and machinery; and Sauron, or Dr. 
Karl Lykos, who had menaced the X-Men alone on 
several occasions. Driven by a desire to drain the 
life forces of others to empower himself, in his 
Sauron form Lykos is a pterodactyl with an almost 
irresistible hypnotic stare. 



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X-Men Villains 



Humanity's fear of mutants was exemplified 
very early on by Dr. Bolivar Trask, who created thirty- 
foot-tall mutant-hunting robots in attractive shades 
of purple. Trask didn't survive their first outing, but 
they've continued to menace mutants for decades. 
Self-perpetuating on occasions, the robots' greatest 
strength is their adaptive nature. Other than sheer 
brute force, one method of destroying an individual 
Sentinel will never work against another. For the 
new millennium a new breed of Sentinel emerged. 
No longer confined to the single form, this new 
breed incorporates even microscopic Sentinels that 
access the bloodstream, but are still programmed 
to destroy mutants. 

The deadliest X-Men foe is Apocalypse. Aban- 
doned as an infant five thousand years ago, he 
made his home aboard an alien vessel he discov- 
ered, learning the technology, constructing a suit of 
bio-armor and becoming, to all intents and purpos- 
es, immortal. He has battled groups of mutants 
several times over the years, often via agents he 
designated Horsemen after transforming them, 
including X-Men Angel and Wolverine at different 
periods. His purpose is to usher in a new era under 
his control, and he temporarily succeeded in insti- 
tuting the alternate reality known as Age of Apoca- 
lypse, in which mutants dominated North America. 
Familiar characters were warped here, their motiva- 
tions altered, but the familiar timeline was eventual- 
ly restored. 

Among those to benefit from Apocalypse's 
technology was nineteenth-century geneticist Natha- 
nial Evans, whose experiments resulted in expul- 
sion by his peers. He was transformed by Apoca- 
lypse into Mr. Sinister, in absolute control of every 
individual molecule of his body, allowing him to fun- 
nel energy blasts and transform his shape. In addi- 
tion, he is telepathic. Manipulating events that 
affected the X-Men for years, Mr. Sinister's object 
was to control the offspring of X-Men Scott Sum- 
mers and Jean Grey. Thwarted in this, he continues 
to menace the X-Men, maintaining a hostile collec- 
tion of mutants known as the Marauders, whose 



greatest crime included obliterating a group of Mor- 
locks, mutants who lived in the New York sewers. 
The Morlocks themselves had fought the X-Men 
several times, temporarily ceasing hostilities when 
their leader Callisto was defeated in single combat 
bytheX-Men's Storm. 

The villain behind one of the most fondly 
remembered X-Men sequences was eventually 
revealed to be Mastermind. Physically unattractive, 
Mastermind began his career as one of Magneto's 
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with his powers of illu- 
sion able to affect all senses. Later, disguising his 
appearance he romanced what he presumed to be 
the X-Men's Jean Grey. Actually, he was meddling 
with a fragment of the exceptionally powerful 
Phoenix Force masquerading as Grey, and his men- 
tal tampering unleashed her full powers, rendering 
him comatose for years. Given the civilian identity 
of Jason Wyngarde by the creative team of Chris 
Claremont and John Byrne, his visual appearance 
was very much based on British actor Peter Wyn- 
garde, best known for his role as the arch-camp 
secret service agent Jason King. He died, but not 
before passing on his powers to two daughters. 
Claremont and Byrne also tapped reality for their vil- 
lainous Hellfire Club, updating the actual eigh- 
teenth-century immorally indulgent organization fre- 
quented by bored young aristocrats of the age. The 
X-Men version, under the leadership of the formida- 
ble Sebastian Shaw, is more concerned with global 
domination through political influence. Shaw can 
absorb and redirect any energy, and fellow mem- 
bers of his Inner Circle have been equally intimidat- 
ing, if prone to plots resulting in their own downfall. 

One of the X-Men's oldest foes, the Juggernaut, 
reformed in 2003 and joined the team. Cain Marko 
is step-brother to Charles Xavier, and his abilities 
were supernaturally rather than genetically conferred 
when he picked up a mystical gem. He was trans- 
formed into an entity more than matching his cho- 
sen name, being a match for all but the strongest 
heroes in sheer physical power. His helmet blocks 
all telepathic influence, although he has been rapidly 



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X-Men Villains 



defeated on occasions when it has been displaced. 
Juggernaut has often allied himself with an Irish ter- 
rorist and mercenary named Black Tom Cassidy. 
Rather than having any consistency, his abilities 
have adapted to suit the plots he has been involved 
in. While always able to channel heat blasts through 
a cane he carries, in the 1990s creators portrayed 
him growing to giant size and controlling plant life. A 
surprisingly charming parallel-universe series about 
his son, J-2, ran for one year (1998-1999). 

Another villain who's experienced periods of 
reform among the X-Men is the vicious amoral killer 
Sabretooth, alias Victor Creed, although he has 
also been affiliated with the Brotherhood of Evil 



Mutants and the Marauders. Sabretooth has ties to 
X-Men member Wolverine, with similar heightened 
senses, healing ability, and indestructible adaman- 
tium skeleton and claws, the latter resulting from 
experimentation at the Weapon X project. At one 
time writers suggested he was Wolverine's father, 
which is not the case, but like Wolverine his memo- 
ries were wiped and false memories implanted at 
Weapon X. Beyond an abusive father, then, his true 
background remains unknown to readers. 

The X-Men have defeated myriad foes on 
numerous occasions, but a policy against killing if 
at all possible results in their inevitable return, and 
readers wouldn't have it any other way. — FP 



tffi 



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fZeAcutceb 



PeBIOPICMS ANP FANZIMS 

Alter Ego. Published monthly by TwoMorrows Publish- 
ing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614. 
www.twomorrows.com 

Anime Insider. Published monthly by Wizard Enter- 
tainment, 151 Wells Avenue, Congers, NY 10920- 
2064. www.wizarduniverse.com 

Animerica. Published monthly by Viz Communica- 
tions, 655 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. 
www.animerica-mag.com 

Back Issue. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows 
Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 
27614. www.twomorrows.com 

Comic Book Artist. Two-time winner of the Eisner 
Award. Published bimonthly by Top Shelf Produc- 
tions, P.O. Box 1282, Marietta, GA 30061-1282. 
www.topshelfcomix.com 

Comic Shop News. Published weekly by Comic Shop 
News, Inc. Available at comic-book shops or 
through Diamond Distributors, 1966 Greenspring 
Drive #300, Timonium, MD 21903. 
www.csnsider.com 

Comics Interview. Published by Fictioneer Books, 
Ltd., 52 Trillium Lane, Screamer Mountain, Clayton, 
GA 30525. 

The Comics Journal. Published monthly by Fanta- 
graphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, 
Washington, 98115. www.tcj.com 



International Journal of Comic Art. Published twice 
yearly by John A. Lent, 669 Feme Blvd., Drexel Hill, 
PA 19026. 

The Jack Kirby Collector. Published quarterly by 
TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., 
Raleigh, NC 27614. www.twomorrows.com 

Newtype USA. Winner of "Best Anime Publication, 
North America" Award at Anime Expo 2003 from the 
Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation 
(SPJA). Published by A.D. Vision, Inc., P.O. Box 
631607, Houston, TX 77263. www.newtype-usa.com 

Protoculture Addicts. Published monthly by Protocul- 
ture, P.O. Box 1433, Station B, Montreal, Quebec, 
Canada H3B 3L2. www.protoculture-mag.com 

Wizard: The Comics Magazine. Published monthly by 
Wizard Entertainment, 151 Wells Avenue, Congers, 
NY 10920-2064. www.wizarduniverse.com 



NONACTION WOBKS 



Anime 

Baricordi, Andrea, et al. Translated from the Italian 
by Adeline D'Opera and presented by Claude J. Pel- 
letier. Anime: A Guide to Japanese Animation 
(1958-1988). Montreal: Protoculture, 2000. 

Clements, Jonathan, and Helen McCarthy. The 
Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation 
since 1917. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2001. 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*I 



Resources 



Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in 
Contemporary Japanese Society. Honolulu: Universi- 
ty of Hawaii Press, 2000. 

Ledoux, Trish, and Doug Ranney. The Complete 
Anime Guide, 2nd ed. Issaquah, WA: Tiger Mountain 
Press, 1997. 

McCarthy, Helen. The Anime Movie Guide: Movie-by- 
Movie Guide to Japanese Animation. Woodstock, NY: 
The Overlook Press, 1997. 

Patten, Fred. "TV Animation in Japan." Fanfare (May 
1980). 

Poitras, Gilles. The Anime Companion: What's Japan- 
ese in Japanese Animation? Berkeley, CA: Stone 
Bridge Press, 1998. 

. Anime Essentials: Everything a Fan Needs to 

Know. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2001. 

Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga! The World of 
Japanese Comics. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha 
International, 1983. 

Comic Book Academia 
and History 

Benton, Mike. The Comic Book in America: An Illus- 
trated History, 2nd edition. Dallas, TX: Taylor Pub- 
lishing Company, 1993. 

. Masters of Imagination: The Comic Book 

Artists Hall of Fame. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing 
Company, 1994. 

Braun, Saul. "Shazam! Here Comes Captain Rele- 
vant." In Ray B. Browne, ed., Popular Culture and 
the Expanding Consciousness. New York: John Wiley 
& Sons, 1973. 

Bridwell, E. Nelson. Batman: From the Thirties to the 
Seventies. New York: Bonanza Books, 1971. 

. Superman: From the Thirties to the Seven- 
ties. New York: Bonanza Books, 1971. 

Daniels, Les. Comix: A History of Comic Books in 
America. New York: Bonanza Books, 1971. 

DC Comics. Fifty Who Made DC Great. New York: DC 
Comics, Inc., 1985. 

Duin, Steve, and Mike Richardson. Comics Between 
the Panels. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, Inc., 
1998. 

Eury, Michael. Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One 
Day at a Time. Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows, 2003. 

Feiffer, Jules. The Great Comic Book Heroes. 1965. 
Reprint, Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2003. 



Goulart, Ron. Great History of Comic Books. Chica- 
go: Contemporary Books, 1986. 

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New York: Facts on File, 1990. 

. Over 50 Years of American Comic Books. 

Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 1991. 

Harvey, Robert C. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aes- 
thetic History. Jackson: University Press of Missis- 
sippi, 1996. 

Horn, Maurice, ed. Trie World Encyclopedia of 
Comics. 1 vols. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 
1999. 

Kunzle, David. The Early Comic Strip. Berkeley: Uni- 
versity of California Press, 1973. 

Lee, Stan, and George Mail. Excelsior! The Amazing 
Life of Stan Lee. New York: Fireside, 2002. 

Nyberg, Amy Kiste. Seal of Approval: The History of 
the Comics Code. Jackson: University Press of Mis- 
sissippi, 1998. 

Overstreet, Robert M. The Overstreet Comic Book 
Price Guide, 34th ed. New York: Random House, 
2004. 

Reitberger, Reinhold, and Wolfgang Fuchs. Comics: 
Anatomy of a Mass Medium. Translated by Nadia 
Fowler. Boston: Little Brown, 1972. 

Robbins, Trina, and Catherine Yronwode. Women 
and the Comics. Forestville, CA: Eclipse Books, 
1985. 

Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe. New York: Harry 
Abrams, 1996. 

Savage, William W., Jr. Comic Books and America, 
1945-1954. Norman: University of Oklahoma 
Press, 1990. 

Simon, Joe, and Jim Simon. The Comic Book Mak- 
ers. New York: Crestwood Publications, 1990. 

Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics. 2 
vols. Reading, PA: Supergraphics, 1970, 1972. 

Wertham, Fredric. Seduction of the Innocent. New 
York: Rinehart and Company, 1954. 

Wiater, Staley, and Stephen R. Bissette. Comic Book 
Rebels: Conversations with the Creators of the New 
Comics. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1993. 

Wright, Bradford. "The Vietnam War and Comic 
Books." In James S. Olson, ed., The Vietnam War: 
Handbook of the Literature and Research. Westport, 
CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. 



tffi 



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Resources 



. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of 

Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 
University Press, 2001. 



Superhero Wit and Wisdom 

Beatty, Scott. Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the 
Dark Night. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2001. 

. JLA: The Ultimate Guide to the Justice League 

of America. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2002. 

. Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man 

of Steel. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2002. 

Benton, Mike. Superhero Comics of the Silver Age: 
The Illustrated History. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing 
Company, 1991. 

. Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The 

Illustrated History. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Com- 
pany, 1992. 

Bongco, Mila. Reading Comics: Language, Culture, 
and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books. 
New York: Garland, 2000. 

Brooker, Will. Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cul- 
ture Icon. London and New York: Continuum, 2000. 

Brown, Jeffrey A. Black Superheroes, Milestone 
Comics, and Their Fans. Jackson: University Press of 
Mississippi, 2001. 

Colon, Suzan. Catwoman: The Life and Times of a 
Feline Fatale. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2003. 

Coogan, Peter. "The Secret Origin of the Superhero: 
The Emergence of the Superhero Genre in America 
from Daniel Boone to Batman." Doctoral disserta- 
tion, East Lansing, Ml: Michigan State University, 
American Studies Department, 2002. 

Daniels, Les. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's 
Favorite Comic Book Heroes. Boston: Little, Brown, 
1995. 

. Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's 



Greatest Comics. Special collector's edition. Intro- 
duction by Stan Lee. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995. 

. Superman: The Complete History: The Life 

and Times of the Man of Steel. San Francisco, CA: 
Chronicle Books, 1998. 

. Batman: The Complete History: The Life and 



Times of the Dark Knight. San Francisco, CA: Chroni- 
cle Books, 1999. 

. Wonder Woman: The Life and Times of the 



Eury, Michael. Captain Action: The Original Super- 
Hero Action Figure. Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows, 2003. 

Fleisher, Michael L. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book 
Heroes: Volume 1: Batman. New York: Macmillan, 1976. 

. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: Vol- 



ume 2: Wonder Woman. New York: Macmillan, 1976. 

. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes: 

Volume 3: The Great Superman Book. New York: 
Macmillan, 1978. 

Jacobs, Will, and Gerard Jones. The Comic Book 
Heroes: From the Silver Age to the Present. New 
York: Crown, 1985. 

Robbins, Trina. The Great Women Super Heroes. 
Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1996. 



POCUMBNTAZIZS ANP FILMS 

Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked. Directed by 
Stephen Kroopnick. 100 min. Produced by Triage 
Entertainment for The History Channel, 2003. Doc- 
umentary. 



websites 



Amazon Princess: The Complete History. San Fran- 
cisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2000. 



AC Comics, www.accomics.com 

Anime News Network, www.animenewsnetwork.com 

Anime Web Turnpike, www.anipike.com 

Animefringe. www.animefringe.com 

Animation World Network, www.awn.com 

Archie Comics, www.archiecomics.com 

Comic Book Resources. www.ComicBookResources. 
com 

Comic Shop News, www.csnsider.com 

Dark Horse Comics, www.darkhorse.com 

DC Comics, www.dccomics.com 

Diamond Comics, www.diamondcomics.com 

Don Markstein's Toonpedia. www.toonpedia.com 

The Grand Comics Database Project, www.comics.org 

Lambiek Comiclopedia. www.lambiek.net 

Marvel Comics, www.marvel.com 

The Online World of Anime and Manga, www.ex.org 

Silver Bullet Comic Books, www.silverbulletcomic 
books.com 

World Famous Comics, www.worldfamouscomics.com 



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Resources 

ORGANIZATIONS ANP 
FAN CLUBS 

The Comics Arts Conference is a conference 
designed to bring together comics scholars, practi- 
tioners, critics, and historians who wish to promote 
or engage in serious study of the medium, and to 
do so in a forum that includes the public. Affiliated 
with the Comic-Con International, the CAC home- 
page can be found at www.hsu.edu/faculty/duncanr/ 
cac_page.htm 



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'pfofo and 9Mu&tfcificH< CtedltS 



The following materials are reprinted with permission: 

ACTION GIRL and Action Girl Comics © & ™ 2004 
by Sarah Dyer. All rights reserved. 

ASTRO BOY: TETSUWAN ATOM by Osamu Tezuka © 
2004 by Tezuka Productions. All rights reserved. 
English translation rights arranged with Tezuka Pro- 
ductions. 

ASTRO CITY © 2004 Juke Box Productions. All 
rights reserved. 

BATTLE OF THE PLANETS artwork copyright 2004 
Sandy Frank Entertainment. 

BIG BANG COMICS © 2004 Gary Carlson and Chris 
Ecker. 

COBRA © 2004 Buichi Terasawa/A-GIRL Rights. All 
rights reserved. 

Comics Code Authority seal ™ Comics Magazine 
Association of America. 

CUTEY BUNNY © & ™ 2004 Joshua Quagmire. 

DARK HORSE comics are published by Dark Horse 
Comics, Inc. Dark Horse Comics® & the Dark Horse 
logo are registered trademarks of Dark Horse 
Comics, Inc. GHOST, GO BOY 7, and THE MASK ™ & 
© 2004 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 

DNAGENTS © 2004 Mark Evanier and Will Meuge- 
niot. 

DRAGON BALL © 1984 by BIRD 
STUDIO/SHUEISHA, Inc. All rights reserved. 

FREEDOM COLLECTIVE © 2004 Rough Cut Comics. 
All rights reserved. 



HELLBOY: Mike Mignola's Hellboy 
Mike Mignola. All rights reserved. 



1 & © 2004 



MADMAN: Text and illustration of Madman Comics 
© & ™ 2004 Michael Allred. 

RISING STARS © 2004 J. Michael Straczynski and 
Top Cow Productions. Rising Stars™, its logo, and 
all related characters are ™ and © J. Michael 
Straczynski. All rights reserved. 

THE ROCKETEER © 2004 Dave Stevens. 

SAILOR MOON first published in Japan by Kodan- 
sha, Ltd. © Naoko Takeuchi; Kodansha Ltd. English 
text copyright © 1998 TOKYOPOP Inc. All rights 
reserved. 

THE SAVAGE DRAGON © 2004 Erik Larsen. 

SHADOWHAWK © 2004 Jim Valentino. 

SPAWN © 2004 Todd McFarlane. 

THE SPIRIT © 2004 Will Eisner. Reprinted courtesy 
of Will Eisner Studios, Inc. 

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES®, including 
Raphael®, Michaelangelo®, Leonardo®, Donatello®, 
and April O'Neil®, are registered trademarks of 
Mirage Studios USA. Based on characters and 
comic books created by Peter A. Laird and Kevin B. 
Eastman. All rights reserved. 

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS © & ™ 2004 John Car- 
bonaro. All rights reserved. 



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Photo and Illustration Credits 



TVANPFUM STIUS CZZPITS 

page 63: © Warner Bros./DC Comics; page 109: © 
Universal Television/CBS; page 129: ©Warner 
Bros./Filmation/CBS; page 141: © Warner 
Bros./DC Comics; page 166: Twentieth Century 
Fox/Regency/The Kobal Collection/Zade Rosenthal; 
page 235: © Stephen J. Cannell Prods./ABC; page 
264: © Universal Studios/CBS; page 266: Univer- 
sal/Marvel Entertainment/The Kobal Collection; 
page 296: © Hanna-Barbera Prods./NBC; page 306: 
© Warner Bros./ABC; page 344: © Saban Entertain- 
ment; page 380: © King Features/Hearst Entertain- 
ment; page 384: © Ruby Spears Enterprises/ABC; 
page 401: © Warner Bros./DC Comics; page 438: 
© Hanna-Barbera Prods./Cartoon Network; page 



456: Columbia/Marvel/The Kobal Collection; page 
459: Columbia/Marvel/The Kobal Collection; page 
461: © Marvel Productions/Genesis Entertain- 
ment/Fox Children's Network; page 473: © Warner 
Bros./DC Comics; page 484: © Viacom; page 491: 
© Marvel Productions/New World/Saban Entertain- 
ment; page 547: © Warner Bros./DC Comics; page 
555: © Universal Television/USA Network; page 
577: © Marvel Enterprises/Saban Entertainment/ 
Fox Children's Network; page 584: © United Artists; 
page 603: © Fox Children's Network/Sunbow Pro- 
ductions; page 633: © Warner Bros./CBS; page 
655: © Twentieth Century Fox/Kerry Hayes/SMPSP; 
page 658: Twentieth Century Fox/Marvel Entertain- 
ment/The Kobal Collection/Nels Israelson. 



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^ndex 



A Carnival of Comics, 229 

"A Day in the Life," 530 

A Distant Soil, 21 

A Touch of Silver (1997), 275 

AAA Pop Comics, 323 

Aardvark-Vanaheim, 105 

Abba and Dabba, 385 

Abbey, Lynn, 526 

Abbott, Bruce, 147 

ABC See America's Best 
Comics (ABC) 

ABC News, 565 

ABC Warriors, 441 

Abhay (Indian superhero), 283 

Abin Sur, 240, 582 

Abner Cadaver, 416 

Abomination, 259-260, 266, 
577 

Aboriginie Stevie, 583 

About Comics, 194 

Abra Kadabra, 220, 575 

Abrams, J. J., 549 

Abrams, Jeffrey, 542 

Absorbing Man, 267, 577 

AC Comics, 1, 140, 160, 210, 
212, 234, 514, 532, 560 

AC Comics Heroes, 1-2 

See also Astra, Astron, 
Black Cobra, Black Ter- 
ror, Black Venus, Blue 
Bulleteer, Bolt, Captain 
Flash, Captain Free- 
dom, Captain Paragon, 
Captain Wings, Cat- 
Man, Commando 
Yank, Dynamicman, 
Eagle, Femforce, Fight- 
ing Yank, The Flame, 
Golden Lad, Green 
Lama, Grim Reaper, 
Miss Masque, Miss 



Victory, Nightveil, Owl, 
Pyroman, Rio Rita, 
Rocketman, Scarlet 
Scorpion, Shade, She- 
Cat, Yankee Girl 
Academy X, 650 
Acclaim Entertainment, 563, 

613 
Ace, 42 

Ace Comics, 160, 378 
Ace Magazines, 427 
Ace of Space, 440 
Ace Periodicals, 77 
Ace the Bat-Hound, 59, 72, 

402, 562 
"Aces," 527 
ACG, 42 

Achille le Heel, 342 
Acolytes, 658 
Acrata (Planet DC), 282 
Acrobat, 578 
Action #23, 550 
Action Ace, 551 
Action Boy, 110, 111 
Action Comics, 41, 80, 90, 
171, 342, 440, 479, 481, 
486, 489, 495, 498, 500, 
501, 502, 509, 510, 522, 
534, 539, 550, 552, 562, 
615 

Action Comics #1 (Super- 
man's debut, 1938), 
172,229,305,313, 
427, 515, 522, 525, 
538, 539, 554, 556 
Action Comics #252 
(Supergirl's debut), 
432, 489, 534 
Action Girl, 2-3, 3 (ill.), 184 
"Action Heroes" Series, 434 
Act/on League Now!!!, 493 
Acts of Vengeance, 390 



Acy Duecey, 4478 

AD Vision, 21, 135, 156 

Adam, 97 

Adam, Allen, 117 

Adam Strange, 3-4, 317, 441, 
500, 573, 587 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 

Adamantium, 643 

Adams, Art, 16, 44-45, 107, 
254, 503 

Adams, Arthur See Adams, Art 

Adams, Jane, 62, 509 

Adams, Lee, 545 

Adams, Neal, 22, 25, 26,32, 
47, 59, 60, 94, 104, 174, 
177, 237, 240, 241, 334, 
325, 353, 366, 374, 435, 
445, 485, 502, 503, 519, 
542, 582, 635, 642 

Adapt (Australian superhero), 
283 

Adolph (1983), 36 

Adonis, 598 

Adrienne, 649 

Adult Swim (Cartoon Network), 
246 

ADV Films, 413 

Advanced Dungeons and Drag- 
ons, 514 

Adventure, 171 

Adventure Comics, 31, 80, 
103, 177, 236-237, 300, 
349, 372, 373, 385, 413, 
414, 431, 469, 470, 482, 
483, 489, 500, 501, 536, 
553, 557, 561, 614 

Adventure Comics #58 

(1941), 327 
Adventure Comics #247 
(1958), 308, 568 



Adventure Comics #253, 

586 
Adventure Comics #432, 

446 (ill.) 
Adventure Comics #482, 
180 (ill.) 
Adventurers' Club, 181 
Adventures in Babysitting, 525 
Adventures into the Unknown, 

434 
The Adventures ofAquaman 

(1968-1969), 296 
Adventures of Batman (TV 

series), 491 
The Adventures of Batman and 

Robin (1969-1970), 56, 64 
The Adventures of Batman and 

Robin (1994-1997), 56, 67, 

493 
The Adventures of Bob Hope, 

103, 502 
Adventures of Captain Africa, 

378 
The Adventures of Captain 

America (movie serial, 

1943), 112 
The Adventures of Captain Mar- 
vel (movie serial, 1941), 

127,128-129,379,509, 

575 
The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, 

502 
Adventures of Robin Hood, 

479 
The Adventures of Sock Mon- 
key, 106 
The Adventures of Superboy 

(TV pilot), 545 
The Adventures of Superboy 

(TV series), 482,484, 495, 

548 

See also Superboy 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*r 



Index 



The Adventures of Superman 

(comic book), 472, 482, 

504, 512, 515, 522, 525, 

540, 548 

The Adventures of Super- 
man #441, 551 (ill.) 
The Adventures of Superman 

(radio program), 58, 356, 

586 
The Adventures of Superman 

(TV series, 1953-1957), 

173,363,371,372,430, 

540, 544, 550, 575 
The Adventures of the Jaguar 

(1961-1963), 138 
Adventures of the Mask 

(1995-1996), 338 
Aegena, 624 

Aegis Entertainment, Inc., 623 
Aeon Flux, 494 
Aerosmith, 405 
Affleck, Ben, 164, 166 (ill.), 197 
African-American Heroes, 4-9, 

77, 154, 202, 206, 241, 

300, 309, 344-346, 471, 

472, 473, 494 

first African-American 
comic-book superhero, 
5-6 
first African-American 
superhero series 
(comic book), 7-8 
in Marvel Comics, 6 
origins of, 4-7 
as sidekicks, 4-5 
stereotypes of, 4-5 
Aga, Hidetomo, 322 
Agent America, 216 
Agent Liberty, 561 
Agents of Law, 169 
Agniputra (Indian superhero), 

283 
Agul, 606 
Ahab, 646 
AIDS in comics, 423 
Aikawa, Noboru, 135 
A.I.M., 114,364 
Aino, Minako, 412 
Air Corps, 511 
Air Man, 76 
Airboy, 194, 574 
Airplane! (movie), 392 
AIUEO Boy, 325 
Ajax Atomic Labs, 161 
Ajax Comics, 382 
Ajys (The Freedom Collective), 

284 
Aki, 597 

Akira (comic book), 20 
Akira (superhero), 22 
Aladdin, 608 



Alakazam the Great, 18 
Alan Class Company, 602 
Alanna, 4, 317 
Albert, Edward, 165 
Albert, Richard L.,324 
Alberta, Canada, 626 
Albino Joe, 349 
Albright, Red, 131, 511 
Alcala, Alfredo, 607 
Alcala, Felix Enriquez, 297 
Alcott, Todd, 635 
Aleta (Guardians of the 

Galaxy), 242 
Alexander, Joan, 545 
Alexander, Scott, 266 
Alfred Harvey Publications, 247 
Alfred Harvey's Black Cat 

(1995), 81 (ill.) 
Alfred the Butler, 56, 58, 59, 

60, 496, 518 
AM, 519 

Alias (comic book), 201, 215 
A//as (Marvel MAX), 388, 465, 

466 
Ah'as (TV series, 2001-pre- 

sent), 147, 537 
Ah'as the Spider, 480 
Alice in Wonderland, 646 
Alien, 51 
Alien Brat, 441 
Ah'ens (comic book), 167, 168 
Aliens (villains), 589 
Alizarin Crimson, 211 
Ail-American Comics, 101, 

219, 298, 532 

Ail-American Comics #16 
(Green Lantern's 
debut), 172, 239 
Ail-American Comics 

#19, 40 
Ail-American Comics 
#25, 529 
Ail-American Publications, 172 
merges with DC Comics, 
298 
All-Czarnia 9-0ctave Chime- 

Haiku Festival, 312 
All-Flash Comics, 219 
All Hero, 126 
All in the Family, 536 
All-Negro Comics, 5 
All-New Comics, 81 
All New Super Friends Hour 

(animated series), 9, 65, 

471,477,492,545 
Ail-Purpose Cultural Catgirl 

Nuku-nuku, 393 
All Select Comics, 475 

All Select Comics #2, 585 
Blonde Phantom's 
debut, 91 



All Star Comics, 40, 142, 189, 
239, 252, 298-299, 414, 
470, 499, 567, 628, 629 
All Star Comics #3, 566, 

585 
All Star Comics #7, 585 
All Star Comics #8 (Won- 
der Woman's debut), 
142, 213, 298 
All Star Comics #37, 299 

(ill.) 
All Star Comics #57 (end 
of the original Justice 
Society of America), 
299 
All Star Comics #69 
(Huntress's debut, 
1977), 270 
All Star Comics (Winter 
1940, Justice Society 
of America's debut), 
298 
return of (1976), 300 
All-Star Squadron (comic 
book), 300, 359, 404, 470, 
501, 567, 639 
Ail-Star Squadron (super- 
heroes), 177, 300 
Ail-Star Western, 299 
All Top Comics (November 

1947), 234 
All True Crime, 333 
All-Winners Comics, 356, 475 
All-Winners Squad (super- 
heroes), 284, 285, 533, 
566, 585 

See also The Invaders 
Allan, Liz, 317 

Allard, Kent See The Shadow 
Allen, Barry, 219-220, 317, 
564, 565 

death of, 220 
See also The Flash (Sil- 
ver Age) 
Allen, Gale, 440 
Allen, Irwin, 209 
Allen, Matt, 180 
Allen, Peggy, 532 
Allen, Steve, 522 
Allied propaganda (World War 

II), 172 
"Allied Earth Calendar," 596 
Allies, 514 
Allred, Laura, 322 
Allred, Michael, 107, 168, 
322, 324, 405, 505, 520, 
653 
Alpha Centauri, 241, 242 
Alpha Flight (comic book), 
282,368,622,623 



Alpha Flight (superteam), 

9-11, 34, 77, 359, 367, 

529, 567, 625 
Altar Boy, 39 

Alter Ego (fanzine), 300, 501 
Alternate realities, 208, 251, 

262, 270, 290, 294, 299, 

300, 314, 315, 568 
Alternative Futures, 11-15 
Altieri, Kevin, 227, 474 
Altman, Jeff, 296 
Alyn, Kirk, 90, 509, 540, 543, 

544, 546 
Amalgam, 590 
Amano, Yoshitaka, 22, 134, 

271, 596 
Amara Aquilla, 651 
Amazing Adventures, 86, 442, 

536 
Amazing Adventures (TV 

series), 278, 365 
The Amazing Adventures of 

Kavalier & Clay (2000), 280, 

418, 525, 528 
Amazing Amazon, 32, 510 
Amazing Fantasy, 372, 455 
Amazing Fantasy #15 
(Spider-Man's debut), 
429, 449, 451, 516, 
525 
Amazing Man (superhero), 27, 

230, 300, 359 
Amazing Man Comics, 574 
Amazing Mystery Funnies, 348 
Amazing Spider-Man (comic 

book), 206, 318, 395, 396, 

433, 451, 454, 455, 462, 

463, 456, 460, 461, 496, 

500, 501, 588, 599 

Amazing Spider-Man #2, 

450 (ill.) 
Amazing Spider-Man 

#68, 431 (ill.) 
Amazing Spider-Man 
#129 (Punisher's 
debut), 334 
Trie Amazing Spider-Man (TV 

series), 96, 579 
Amazing Spider-Man and the 

Incredible Hulk, 457, 492 
Amazing Spider-Man: City in 

Darkness, 526 
Amazing Spider-Man: Crime 

Campaign, 526 
Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem 

in Manhattan, 526 
Amazing Stories, 440 
Amazing World of Superman, 

486 
Amazo, 576 



tf» 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Amazon (superhero), 368, 

516, 627, 628, 634 
Amazon archetype, use of in 

comic books, 213, 214 
Amazon Artemis, 582 
Amazon Code, 516 
Amazon Princess, 535, 536 
Amazon Queen Mother, 634 
Amazoness, 457 
Amazonian Princess, 573 
Amazons, 487, 629 
/Amazons.', 538 
Amber, 570 

The Ambiguously Gay Duo, 106 
Ambush Bug, 105 
A-Men (Australian super- 
heroes), 283 
The American (superhero), 

561 
American Avenger, 559 
American bias in comic books 

See International Heroes 
American Comics Group 

(ACG), 434 
American Crusader, 558, 637 
American Eagle, 559, 637 
American Express, 524 
American Flagg!, 324, 351, 

502 
American Indian, 77 
American Maid, 106, 603, 

604 
American Psycho (movie), 68 
American Revolution, 559 
American Security Agency's 

Force of July, 561 
American Way, 522 
America's Best Comics (ABC), 
15-18, 275, 394, 442, 563, 
624 

and Victorian-era action 

comics, 16 
voluntary closure of, 18 
WildStorm and DC 
Comics, ties to, 16 
/America's Best Comics (comic 
book), 532 

America's Best Comics 
#19, 231 (ill.) 
America's Best Comics 
Heroes, 15-18 

See also Cobweb, First 
American, Jack B. 
Quick, League of Extra- 
ordinary Gentlemen, 
Promethea, Splash 
Branigan, Tesla 
Strong, Tom Strong 
America's Best TV Comics, 
523-524 



America's Greatest Comics, 

126 
"America's Guardian Angel," 

510 
Americomics, 93 
AmerTek, 472 
Amethyst, Princess of Gem- 
world, 537 
Amies, Christopher, 527 
Ammerperson, Connie, 52 
Amoeba Boys, 391 
Amok, 105, 109 
Amora, 89 
Amorpho, 385 
Amphibian, 33 
Amulet of Right, 119, 121 
An Evening with Batman and 

Robin See Batman and 

Robin (movie serial, 1949) 
Anarchist, 570, 653 
Anarky, 70, 580 
Ancient One, 409 
And Call My Killer . . . Modok 

(novel, 1979), 289 
Anderson, Brent, 38, 48, 390 
Anderson, Melody, 328 
Anderson, Murphy, 253, 357, 

500 
Anderson, Pamela, 169, 474, 

494 
Anderson, Richard, 145 
Andor, 601 

Andre (Blackhawks), 88 
Andre, George, 107 
Andrew, 98 
Android Kikaider, 20 
Android's Dungeon, 53 
Andru, Ross, 95, 217, 340, 

452, 501, 588, 629 
The Andy Griffith Show, 130 
A-Next, 24 
Angel (Marvel superhero), 86, 

179, 230, 332, 474, 568, 

569, 573, 654, 659 
Angel (TV series), 97, 98, 604 

in the Invaders, 286 
Angela, 445 
Angels, 132 
Anghelatos, Tina, 527 
Angle Man, 575 
Anglo, Mick, 347 
Animage (magazine), 597 
Animal Man, 138,445 
Animal Man (1988-1995), 

138, 562, 614 
The Animatrix, 22 
Anime, 391, 393, 408, 409 
henshin, 19 
second wave of, 19 
Sentai genre, 19 
start of, 18-19 



Anime and Manga, 18-23, 155 
anime henshin, 19 
anime second wave, 19 
anime Sentai genre, 19 
anime, start of, 18-19 
Animeigo, 21 
Aniston, Jennifer, 636 
Annihilist, 181 
Annihilus, 577 
Ant, 373 

Ant-Man (superhero), 23-24, 
45, 47, 213, 259, 280, 
288,315,318,334,372, 
388, 510, 564, 568, 581, 
586, 618 

See also Giant Man 
Ant-Size Avenger, 510 
Antares, 562 
Antichrist, 104 
Anti-drug Series, 24-26 
Anti-drug themes, 152 
Anti-heroes, 26-29, 172 

See also Amazing Man, 
Batman, Boston 
Brand, Comet, Dead- 
man, Elektra, Fantastic 
Four, Green Hornet, 
Grendel, Hangman, 
The Hulk, Lobo, Pun- 
isher, Question, Shad- 
ow, Spectre, Spawn, 
Sub-Mariner, Watch- 
men, Wolverine 
Anti-Life Equation, 578 
Anti-Man, 90 
Anti-Monitor, 566, 589 
Anti-Spawn, 445 
Antithesis, 591 
Anubis, 409 
Anya, 97 
Apache Chief See Manitou 

Raven 
Apapa, Mokona, 132 
Aparo, Jim, 27, 31, 144, 374, 

375,378,383,503 
Aphrodite, 627 
Aphrodite's law, 314, 516 
Apocaloff, Nikolai, 365 
Apocalypse (villain), 580, 626, 

642,652,656,659 
Apokolips (planet), 361, 362, 

363, 517, 551, 571, 578 
Apollo, 44, 369, 569 
Apparition, 563 
Appellax (planet), 294 
APPP391 

Aquababy, 30, 31, 32, 535 
Aquagirl, 30, 33, 317, 373, 
591, 592 



Aqualad, 30,31,32,317, 
373, 429, 430, 487, 565, 

567, 590, 592, 593 
See also Tempest 

Aquaman (animated series, 
1967), 295, 435, 491 

Aquaman (comic book), 373, 
501, 503, 576 

Aquaman #36, 30 (ill.) 

Aquaman (superhero), 30-31, 
34, 65, 173, 247, 294, 
296,297,315,317,373, 
429, 432, 433, 477, 478, 
482, 487, 501, 510, 517, 
529, 535, 545, 549, 565, 

568, 572, 586-588, 633 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 

Aquarius, 79, 80 

Aquasled, 572 

Aquatic Heroes, 31-34 
See also Abe Sapien, 
Amphibian, Aquagirl, 
Aqualad, Aquaman, 
Aquavenger, Aquaviva, 
Fathom, Fin, Hydro- 
man, Lady Dorma, 
Lady of the Lake, Little 
Mermaid, Man from 
Atlantis, Manta, Mera, 
Merboy, Moray, Naiad, 
Namora, Namorita, 
Pirana, Sea Devils 
(superteam), Stingray, 
Sub-Mariner (Prince 
Namor), Tempest, Tri- 
ton 

Aquavenger (English super- 
hero), 283 

Aquaviva (Iberia Inc.), 284 

Arabian Knight (superhero), 282 

Arachnid, 416 

Arad, Avi, 335 

Aragones, Sergio, 107 

Arashi, Masahiro, 425, 426 

Arcade (villain), 646 

Arcade Comics, 203 

Arcadia, 168, 488 

Arcadia (ship), 392 

Archangel, 563 

Archer (superhero), 230, 480, 
573 

Archie, 35, 434 

Archie Adventure Series 
(1984-1985), 35 

Archie as Pureheart the Power- 
ful, 103-104 

Archie Comics, 34, 103, 136, 
138, 231, 422, 427, 434, 
439, 518, 535, 556, 560, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



669 



Index 



568, 584-585, 595, 600, 

601,637 
Archie Heroes, 34-36 

See also Black Hood, 
Comet, Fly-Man, Fly- 
Girl, Hangman, The 
Jaguar, Shield, Mighty 
Crusaders, Mr. Justice, 
Steel Sterling 
Archie Meets the Punisher, 

107, 589 
Archie Publications, 554 
Archival Press, 349 
Arcudi, John, 337 
Area 52, 276 
Area 88, 324 
Ares, 630, 631, 632 
Aresia, 635 
Argent, 592, 593 
Argento Soma, 134 
Argo City, 486, 489 
Aria: The Uses of Enchantment, 

276 
Aric Dacia, 612 
Ariel, 646 
Arkadin, Mikail Denisovitch 

See Pozhar 
Arkham Asylum, 70, 485 
Arkin, Alan, 108 
Armageddon (comic book), 

589 
Armageddon 2001 (comic 

book), 118, 250 
Armor Gears, 409 
"Armor Wars" storyline, 290 
Armored Trooper Votoms, 408 
Armstrong, Dirk, 554 
Army Surplus Komikz #1 

(debut of Cutey Bunny), 154 
Arnaud, Henry, 421 
Arnaz, Desi Jr., 146 
Arno, Clive, 111 
Arnold, Everett "Busy," 83, 87, 

185, 383, 384, 385, 466, 

467, 497 
Arnold's Quality Comics, 84 
Arnott, David, 297 
The Arrow (comic book), 479 
Arrow (superhero), 479, 480 
Arrow boat, 236 
Arrow Car, 236, 572 
Arrow Plane, 236, 572 
Arrowette, 481 
Arsenal, 375, 430, 570, 582, 

592, 593 

See also Speedy 
Artemis, 412, 481, 622, 631 
Arthur (The Tick), 106, 602, 

604 
Artie, 649, 651 



Artificial Human Kikaider, 19, 

20 
Artisan Entertainment, 397 
Aruna (Planet DC), 282 
Arwyn the Archer, 582 
Asahi Network, 271 
Asaka, Morio, 134 
Asamia, Kia, 22 
Asgard, 487, 598, 599, 600 
Ash, 505, 589 
Ashmore, Shawn, 655 (ill.), 

657 
Asian Americans, internment 

of in World War II, 286 
Asimo, 38 
Asimov, Isaac, 37 
Askegren, Pierce, 528 
Asner, Ed, 460 
Asprin, Robert, 526 
Asron, 1 
Assemblers, 48 
Asseyez, Tamara, 265 
Astin, John, 64, 70, 576 
Astonishing, 331 
Astonishing Tales, 441 
Astra, 1, 39 
Astraea, 471 
Astro Boy (animated series), 

37 
Astro Boy (comic book), 18, 

38, 134, 448 

Astro Boy #1,37 (ill.) 
Astro Boy (movie), 38 
Astro Boy (superhero), 22, 

36-38, 148 
Astro Boy New Adventures (ani- 
mated series), 38 
Astro City (comic book), 

38-40, 194, 201, 368, 

399, 508, 620 

Astro City #1,39 (ill.) 
Astro City: Local Heroes 

(2003-2004), 39 
Astro Girl, 38 
Astro, Vance See Astrovik, 

Vance 
Astrovik, Vance (Guardians of 

the Galaxy), 242 
Athena, 627 
Atlantean (Global Guardians), 

281 
Atlantis, 30, 31, 32, 206, 

317, 326, 418, 487, 587 
Atlantis Attacks, 589 
Atlantis the Lost Empire 

(movie, 2001), 256 
Atlas, 373 
Atlas Comics, 95, 138, 279, 

281 
Atlas Entertainment, 400 



The Atom, 40-41, 36, 40-41, 

173, 186, 296, 297, 432, 

477,478,499,500,510, 

529, 563, 564, 566, 568, 

576, 585, 586, 587, 588, 

592 

death of, 301 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 293 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Trie Atom, 586, 587 
The Atom and Hawkman, 587 
Atom Ant (comic book), 103 
Atom Ant (superhero), 245 
Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show 

(animated series, 1965), 

223, 245, 490 
Atom Bomb, 609 
Atom Man, 544 
Atom Man vs. Superman 

(movie serial, 1950), 509, 

544, 552, 540, 575 
Atom Project, 38 
Atom the Cat, 42, 223 
Atoma, 373, 534 
Atoman, 41 
Atomas (French superhero), 

283 
Atomic, 564 
Atomic Bomb #1, 41 
Atomic Bunny, 42 
Atomic Comics, 41 
Atomic Heroes, 41-43, 216, 

233 

See also Atoma, Atoman, 
Atomic Man, Atomic 
Thunderbolt 
Atomic Knight (superhero), 

375 
Atomic Knights (superteam), 

43, 441 
Atomic Man, 41 
Atomic Mouse (comic book), 

102, 144 
Atomic Mouse (superhero), 

42, 222-223 
Atomic Rabbit, 42, 223 
Atomic Skull, 43, 579 
Atomic Sub, 74 
Atomic Thunderbolt, 41 
Atomic War, 42 
The Atomics (comic book, 

2000), 323 
The Atomics (superteam), 323 
AttabarTeru, 488 
Attanasio, Paul, 549 
Attila the Hunter, 422 
Attilan (city), 277, 487, 569 
Attuma, 178, 476 
Aunt Harriet (Batman), 59, 64 



Aunt May, 213, 318, 372, 
373, 450, 454, 456, 460, 
462, 496, 497, 518, 620 

Aunt Minerva, 297 

Auper-American, 559 

Aurakles,374 

Auro (Lord of Jupiter), 440 

Aurora, 10, 11, 367 

Aurora Borealis, 340 

Austen, 48 

Austen, Chuck, 22, 347 

Austin, Jeff, 212 

Austin Powers, 576 

Austin, Steve, 145 

Austin, Terry, 390, 502 

Australian Maid (Australian 
superhero), 282 

Australian superheroes See 
International Heroes 

The Authority (comic book), 
568, 624 

The Authority (superheroes), 
43-45, 275, 369, 446 

Automan (comic book), 146 

Automan (superhero), 146 

Avalanche, 656, 658 

Avalon, Sakura See Kinomoto, 
Sakura 

Avatar Press, 426 

Avengelyne (comic book), 203 

Avengelyne (superhero), 51, 
197, 537 

Avenger, 76, 123, 136, 491, 
564, 581 

Avenger Mansion, 507 

The Avengers (animated 
series), 24, 116 

The Avengers (comic book), 
87,115,136,178,355, 
364, 386, 465, 481, 501, 
503, 520, 535, 590, 598, 
600, 643 

The Avengers #51, 45 
(ill.) 

The Avengers (superteam), 6, 
21,23,44,45-48, 77,85, 
86, 87, 112, 113, 124, 
177,214,242,251,252, 
289,315,317,331,334, 
354, 355, 359, 390, 416, 
417, 424, 465, 487, 511, 
516, 530, 535, 563, 568, 
570, 577, 586, 588, 589, 
590, 598, 606, 617, 618, 
657 

The Avengers: Battle of the 
Earth-Wrecker, 525 

Avengers Forever, 48 

Avengers Spotlight, 251 

The Avengers: The Man Who 
Stole Tomorrow, 526 



bio 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Avengers/UltraForce (1995), 

609 
Avengers Weekly, 339 
Avengers West Coast and Force 

Works, 465 
Avenging Angel See Azrael 
Awesome Comics, 15, 203, 

563 
Awesome Entertainment, 216, 

275 
Awkwardman (Inferior Five), 

103,276,570 
Ax, 597 
Axis, 514 

Ayashi no Ceres, 133 
Ayers, Dick, 212 
Aykroyd, Dan, 105 
Azaria, Hank, 109 
Az-Bat, 49 

Azrael (comic book), 589 
Azrael (superhero), 48-49, 61, 

592 
Azrael: Agent of the Bat, 49 
Aztek (Justice League of Amer- 
ica member), 295 
Azzarello, Brian, 388, 505 



Baby and Me, 385 

Baby Huey (comic book), 249 

Baby Plas, 384 

Babylon 5, 505, 520 

Bacchanal, 627 

Bachalo, Chris, 648 

Backlash, 623 

Bad Girl Art, 51, 212 

in contrast to Good Girl 
art, 51 
Bad Samaritan, 375 
BadAzz MoFo, 8 
Baddo the Super Hypnotist, 

385 
Badge, 74, 75 
The Badger (superhero), 

51-53, 530 
Badger Goes Berserk (1989), 

52 
Badger, Mark, 330 
Badger: Shattered Mirror, 53 
Badger: Zen Pop Funny-Animal 

Version (1994), 53 
Badoon, 241-242 
Badrock (Youngblood), 202 
Badrock and Company, 

202-203 
Bagley, Mark, 48 
Baikie, Jim, 16 
Baily, Bernard, 446 
Baion Yuwon, 325 
Bair, Michael, 244 
Baker, Buddy, 138, 614 



Baker, Dee Bradley, 474 
Baker, Dylan, 460 
Baker, Flint, 440 
Baker, Joe, 209 
Baker, Kitana, 557 
Baker, Kyle, 18, 386 
Baker, Matt, 232, 234, 381, 

499, 534 
Bakshi, Ralph, 103, 221-222, 

455, 491 
Balder, 598 
Baldwin, Alec, 422 
Bale, Christian, 68, 176 
Balkan Brothers, 342 
The Ballad of Halo Jones, 441 
Ballistic, 158 
Balloon Boy, 179 
Baltan-seijin, 606 
Baltans, 607 
Baltimore, Maryland, 525 
Bambi,36 
Bana, Eric, 267 
Bananaman, 492 
Band of the Doberman, 271 
Band of the Rats, 271 
Band of the Scorpions, 271 
Bandai Entertainment, 21, 

322, 409, 607 
Bandar, 378 
B&B, 588 
Bandit (Jonny Quest's dog), 

246 
Bane, 49, 61, 70, 367,579 
Bang Babies, 345, 471 
Bangs, Sophie See Promethea 
Bankhead,Tallulah,279 
Banks, Brenda, 532 
Banks, Richard, 107 
Banner, Bruce, 26, 28, 43, 

257-263, 267, 518, 563 
as the Hulk (with gray 

skin), 262 
child abuse suffered by, 

262 
multiple personality dis- 
order of, 260-261 
rage, effect on 259 
separated from the 

Hulk, 262 
See also The Hulk 
Banner, David, 165, 264, 580 
Banner, David (Bruce's father), 

267 

See also Banner, Bruce 
Banshee, 282, 358, 643, 

648, 649, 653, 656 
Bantam, 525 
Barb Wire (movie, 1996), 169, 

352 
Barb Wire (superhero), 51, 

488, 537, 589 



Barbeau, Adrienne, 67 

Barbera, Joseph, 245 

Barbie, 110, 564 

Barb/'e (comic book), 111 

Barda, 214 

Bare, Al, 182 

Bark Bent, 545 

Barker, Clive,415 

Barks, Carl, 497 

Barnacle Boy, 494 

Barnes, Bill, 131 

Barnes, Bucky See Bucky 
Barnes 

Barnes, Trevor, 631 

Barnum!, 16 

Baron Bedlam, 375 

Baron Blitz, 494 

Baron Blood, 285 

Baron Buzz-Saw, 179 

Baron Gestapo, 638 

Baron, Mike, 52, 168, 350, 
442 

Baron Mordo, 556, 578 

Baron Zemo, 112, 577 

Baroness Blood, 534 

Barr, Jim See Bulletman 

Barr, Mike W., 287, 374, 388, 
504, 608 

Barreto, Eduardo, 330 

Barrett, David V, 527 

Barris, George, 571 

Barry, Dan, 99, 616 

Barry, Seymour, 378 

Barrymore, Drew, 538 

Bart Dog, the Canine Crusad- 
er, 54 

Bart Signal, 54 

Barta, Hilary, 16 

Bartman (comic book, 
1993-1995), 54 

Bartman (superhero), 53-54 

Barton, Clint See Hawkeye 

Barton, Peter, 146 

Basinger, Kim, 61, 66 

Bastion, 649 

Bat, 150 

Bat (English superhero), 283 

The Bat (1926), 61 

Bat Boy and Rubin, 102 

Bat glass cutter, 71 

Bat Lash, 501 

Bat Manuel, 604 

Bataranggun, 71 

Batarang, 58, 71, 580 

Batblades, 580 

Batboat, 58, 64, 505, 572 

Bat-bolo, 71 

Batcave, 58, 62, 64, 72, 505, 
506, 572 

Batcopter, 64, 505, 572 

Bat-cuffs, 58 



Batcycle, 64, 72, 572 

Bat-darts, 71 

Bates, Cary, 118, 220, 541, 
548 

Batfart (Batman parody), 104 

Batfink (animated series), 
223, 491 

Batfink (superhero), 223 

Bat-Girl See Batgirl 

Batgirl, 54-56, 55,60,64, 
67,72,78,79,94,173, 
213, 214, 316, 318, 367, 
402, 429, 486, 488, 496, 
510, 513, 534, 535, 536, 
537, 570, 572, 579, 586, 
590, 591 

Bat-Glider, 572 

Bat-grenades, 71 

Batgyro, 572 

Bat-Hulk, 103 

Bat-humvee, 72 

Batman (comic book), 55, 
366, 402, 403, 485, 500, 
503, 535, 541, 588, 589 
Batman #1 (Joker's 
debut, 1940), 57, 
140, 232, 532 
Batman #62 (Cat- 
woman's origins), 140 
Batman #404 ("Batman: 
Year One" story), 141 
Batman #428 (1988), 
60 

Batman (movie, 1966), 59, 
64, 141, 523 

Batman (movie, 1989), 61, 63 
(ill.), 66, 70, 175, 316, 352, 
485, 496, 524, 572 

Batman (movie serial, 1942), 
58, 61-62 

Batman (movie serial, 1943), 
402, 509, 522, 543 

Batman (movie serial, 1949), 
543 

Batman (newspaper comic 
strip), 58, 59 

"Batman" (Prince song), 406 

Batman (radio serial), 511 

Batman (superhero), 26, 48, 
49, 55, 56-61, 77, 78, 138, 
140, 141, 173, 177, 230, 
247, 296, 296 (ill.), 297, 
307,313,315,316,318, 
324, 327, 328, 330, 341, 
342, 353, 354, 356, 357, 
358,365,366,367,372, 
374,375,383,386,397, 
400, 423, 425, 429, 430, 
435, 441, 445, 446, 470, 
477,478,482,485,492, 
495, 498, 499, 502-507, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



** 



Index 



509, 510, 512, 515, 518, 
520, 523, 525, 526, 530, 
531, 532, 536, 537, 540, 
545, 549, 550, 553, 557, 
565, 566, 568-576, 
578-580, 585-589, 613, 
614, 635, 639 

and Azrael 48-49 
creation of, 56 
as Dark Knight, 29, 60, 
61, 141, 175, 389, 
395, 403, 445, 503, 
506, 510, 518, 571, 
589, 618 
debut of, 229 
on Earth-Two, 65, 270, 

300 
Hellboy, crossover story 

with, 256 
homosexual connota- 
tions of, 64, 151, 173 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 
origins of, 479 
on Sesame Street, 64 
in World War II, 231 
Batman (TV series, 
1966-1968), 54, 55, 59, 
61, 62, 69, 71, 78, 102, 
107, 141, 174, 245, 249, 
276,279,366,374,402, 
434, 496, 505, 515, 571, 
572,576,587,590,632 
The Batman, 68 
Batman & Robin (1997), 316 
Batman and Robin (movie seri- 
al, 1949), 62, 402, 509 
Batman and the Outsiders, 

374,375 
Batman and the Outsiders 

Annual #1, 561 
Batman and the Outsiders/The 
Outsiders (1983-1988), 8-9 
Batman and the Super 7 (ani- 
mated series), 65, 492 
Batman Beyond (animated 
series), 56, 61, 67, 68, 297, 
471, 494 
Batman Beyond: Return of the 
Joker (animated movie), 67 
Batman: Black and White, 22 
Batman: Captured by the 

Engines, 526 
Batman: Child of Dreams, 22 
Batman Family, 59, 60 
Batman Family #17, 57 (ill.) 
Batman Forever (animated 
movie, 1995), 67, 70, 367, 
380, 401, 403, 571, 580, 
590 



Batman/Grendel, 168 
Batman in the Media, 61-68 
Batman: Knightfall, 527 
Batman: Mask of the Phan- 
tasm (animated movie), 67 
The Batman Murders, 526 
Batman: Mystery of the Bat- 
woman (animated movie), 
56,68 
Batman: No Man's Land 

(2000), 528 
Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire, 

397 
Batman Returns (movie, 
1992), 61, 66, 70, 141 (ill.), 
142, 526, 537 
Batman Role-Playing Game, 514 
Batman: Son of the Demon 

(1987), 316 
Batman-Spawn: War Devil, 445 
Batman-Superman Hour (ani- 
mated series, 1968-1969), 
56, 59, 64, 366, 483, 491, 
545, 636 
The Batman/Superman Movie 

(animated movie), 67 
The Batman/Tarzan Adventure 
Hour (animated series), 65, 
492 
Batman: The Animated Series 
(1992), 56, 61, 70, 175-176, 
297, 471, 493, 505, 548 
Batman: The Dark Knight 
Returns (comic book, 1986), 
21,29,60,164,175,310, 
351, 389, 395, 403, 445, 

503, 520, 589, 618, 619 
Batman: The Killing Joke 

(comic book, 1988), 55, 60, 

504, 537 

Batman: The Ultimate Evil 

(1995), 528 
Batman: To Stalk a Specter, 

526 
Batman vs. Predator: Blood 

Match (1995), 270 
Batman vs. Superman, 590 
Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk, 

588 
Batman Villains, 68-70 

See also Bane, Block- 
buster, Catwoman, 
Clayface, Egghead, 
Harley Quinn, Joker, 
King Tut, Riddler, Mad 
Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Pen- 
guin, Poison Ivy, Ra's 
al Ghul, Scarecrow, 
Siren, Spellbinder, 
Tweedledee and Twee- 
dledum, Two-Face 



Batman: Year One, 68, 141, 
164, 504 

Batman's Weapons and Gad- 
gets, 70-72 

See also Bat-bolo, Bat- 
grenades, Bat-humvee, 
Bat-rope, Bat-Signal, 
Bat-Sub, Bat-wings, 
Batarang, Batboat, 
Batcave, Batcycle, Bat- 
mobile, Shark Repel- 
lent Batspray, Univer- 
sal Tool, Utility belt 

Batmarine, 572 

Batmen of All Nations (super- 
heroes), 281-282 

Bat-Missile, 572 

Bat-Mite, 59, 65, 402, 562 

Batmobile, 58, 64, 65, 72, 
173,432,505,571,572 

Batphone, 571 

Batplane, 58, 505, 572 

Batpole, 505 

Batpoon, 71 

Batpurse, 55, 72 

Batroc the Leaper, 114, 282 

Bat-rope, 58, 71, 580 

Batscanner, 64 

Bat-shield, 71 

Bat-Signal, 58, 432 

"Bats-Man" (Batman lam- 
poon), 104 

Batson, Billy, 125, 128, 129 
(ill.), 130, 336, 509, 516, 
518, 553 

See also Captain Mar- 
vel/Shazam! 

Bat-Squad, 587 

Bat-Sub, 572 

Battalion, 592 

Battery, 200 

Bat-Thing, 590 

Battle (comic book), 333 

Battle Angel Alita, 22 

Battle Chasers, 21, 22 

Battle of the Planets (comic 
book), 18, 19, 21, 72-74, 
73 (ill.), 275, 408, 411, 448 

Battle of the Ultra Brothers, 
608 

Batwing, 572 

Bat-wings, 71 

Batwoman, 59, 173, 213, 
316, 402, 429, 534 

Bavington, Tim, 54 

Baxter Building, 206, 507, 
567 

Beacon, 74 

Beamish, Stanley, 103, 107 

Bearclaw, Robert, 158 

Beard Hunter, 188 



Beast, 47, 179, 369, 568, 

569, 642, 643, 644, 655, 

656 
Beast Boy, 138, 188, 564, 

590, 591, 593 
Beatles, 404-405 
Beatles: Complete Life Stories, 

404 
Beatty, John, 1 
Beatty, Ned, 546 
Beaubier, Jeanne-Marie See 

Aurora 
Beaubier, Jean-Paul See North- 
star 
Beautiful Dreamer, 362, 571 
Beck, Charles Clarence 

("C.C."), 39, 75, 104, 125, 

127, 128, 131, 232, 498 
Beckum, Chuck, 347 
Bee Hive, 280 
Beetle, 451, 578 
Beetle Boy, 280 
Beetleboat, 92 

Beetlejuice (movie, 1988), 60 
Beetlemobile, 92 
Belasco, 651 
Belford, Christine, 634 
"Believe It or Not" (Scarbury), 

236 
Belmonde, Raymonde, 367 
Belmont Books, 422, 600 
Belmont, Dian(e), 414 
Belova, Yelena, 279 
Belushi, John, 105, 520 
Belzer, Richard, 548 
Bemlar, 606 
Ben-Day, 524 
Bendis, Brian Michael, 164, 

201, 215, 335, 454, 460, 

465, 505 
Bening, Annette, 66 
Bennet, Spencer, 62 
Bennett, Joe, 263 
Bennett, Steve, 155 
Bennu, 146 
Benson, "Gat," 446 
Benson, Amber, 97 
Benton, Mike, 229, 361, 428, 

516, 533, 638 
Benton, Robert, 545, 546 
Beppo the Super-Monkey, 541, 

562 
Berger, Karen, 504, 613, 631 
Berkley Books, 528 
Berkshire Mountains, 648 
Berle, Milton, 576 
Bermuda Triangle, 657 
Bernhardt, Arthur, 159 
Bernstein, Dr. Noah, 387 
Bernstein, Robert, 160 



(,1* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Berry, Halle, 142, 215, 525, 
536, 538, 655 (ill.), 656 

Bertinelli, Helena Rose See 
Huntress 

Best Man, 109 

Bester, Alfred, 239, 470, 499 

Beta Flight, 11 

Beta Ray Bill, 599, 600 

Setsy and Me, 498 

Bette Noire, 488 

Better Publications, 529 

Betty (Archie's girlfriend), 434 

Betty (Rocketeer's girlfriend), 
406, 407 

Setty Soop, 543 

Betty Clawman (New 
Guardians), 282 

Beware the Creeper, 435, 501 

Bewitched, 103 

Beyond (Captain Canuck), 122 

Beyonder, 589 

Bible, 516 

Big Apple, 507 

Big Bang Comics, 74, 75 

Big Bang Comics #4, 75 
(ill.) 

Big Bang Comics Summer Spe- 
cial, 75 

Big Bang Heroes, 74-75 
See also Atomic Sub, 
Badge, Beacon, Blitz, 
Blue Blaze, Cyclone, 
Dr. Stellar, Dr. Weird, 
Human Sub, Humming- 
bird, Kid Gallahad, 
Knight Watchman, 
Knights of Justice 
(superteam), Masker, 
Moray, Robo-Hood, 
Shadow Lady, Thunder 
Girl, Ultiman, Vita-Man 

Big Barda, 297, 362 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 

Big Bear, 362, 571 

Big Ben, 579 

Big Bertha, 48 

Big Blue, 510 

"Big Bucks in Collectible 
Comics" (news story) 525 

Big City (Dynomutt, Dog Won- 
der), 247 

Big Comics, 324 

Big D, 245 

Big Eye, 90 

Big Girl Adventures, 381 

Big-Head See The Mask 

Big Hero 6 (superteam), 282 

Big Little Books, 238, 247, 
439, 555 

"Big Red Cheese," 126 



Big Shot #1, 553 

Bigtown, 103 

bin Laden, Osama, 579 

Binary, 355 

Binder, Jack, 126, 132, 159, 

182, 421 
Binder, Otto, 39, 91, 99, 104, 
126, 132, 182, 336, 404, 
525 
Binderbeck Plaza, 39 
Bio-Booster Armor Guyver, 20, 

21 
Bio-Lord, 90 
Bionic Six, 493 
Bionic Woman (action hero), 

146, 213, 634 
The Bionic Woman (TV series, 

1976-1978), 146, 536 
Birch, J. J., 217, 244 
Bird Heroes, 75-78 

See also Air Man, Bat- 
man, Birdboy, Bird- 
man, Birds of Prey, 
Black Canary, Black 
Condor, Black Owl, 
Blackhawk, Black- 
hawks, Blue Falcon, 
Condorman, Eagle, Fal- 
con, Harvey Birdman, 
Hawk and Dove, Hawk- 
girl, Hawkman, Hawk- 
men, Hawkwoman, 
Nighthawk, Owl, Owl- 
Girl, Raven, Red 
Raven, Robin the Boy 
Wonder 
Bird Lair, 76 
Birdboy, 76, 491 
Birdman (superhero) 76, 246, 
491, 563 

See also Harvey Bird- 
man, Attorney at Law 
Birdman and the Galaxy Trio 
(animated series, 1967), 

76, 246, 434, 491 
Birdman, Harvey, 246 

See also Harvey Bird- 
man, Attorney at Law 
Birds of Prey (comic book), 78, 

79, 80, 300 
Birds of Prey (superteam), 56, 

77, 78-79, 215, 270, 506, 
531, 570 

Birds of Prey (TV series, 
2002), 56, 78, 80, 271, 
538 

Biro, Charles, 160, 497 

Birthday Bandit, 494 

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon, 
411 

Bishop, 644 



Bisley, Simon, 313 
Bixby, Bill, 165, 260, 264 

death of, 265 
Bizarre Adventures, 196 
Bizarro, 303, 307, 478, 479, 

482, 484, 541, 549, 550, 

551, 552, 576 
Bizarro Comics! (2001), 107 
BK-1, 134 
Black Adam, 131 
Black-and-white comics, 212 
Black Angel, 533 
Black Baron, 441 
The Black Bat, 529 
Black Beauty (car), 238, 508, 

511,572 
Black, Bill, 1, 140, 210, 212, 

382, 514 
Black Bison, 217 
Black Bolt (Inhumans), 277, 

278569 
Black Bow, 468 
Black Canary, 56, 79-80, 91, 

213, 237, 270, 296, 296 

(ill.), 300, 315, 318, 432, 

470, 496, 531, 533, 537, 

566, 570, 572, 631 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 299 
Black Cat (superhero, Harvey 

Comics), 80-82, 81 (ill.), 

138, 532, 533, 
Black Cat (superhero, Marvel 

Comics), 82-83, 137, 457, 

537, 620 
Black Cat Mystery (comic 

book), 81, 82, 249 
Black Cat #1, 81 
Black Cat: The Origins, 82 
Black Cat Western, 81 
Black Cobra, 2 

Black Condor (DC Comics), 77 
Black Condor (Quality Comics), 

77, 83-84, 139, 186, 499 
Black Cross, 167 
Black Doom, 447 
Black Dwarf, 529 
Black Eagle, 527 
Black Goliath (comic book), 

358 
Black Goliath (superhero), 8, 

23-24, 564 
Black Hand, 575 
Black Hood, 35, 36 
Black Hook, 569 
Blackjack (1973-1978), 36 
Black Jack Tarr, 339 
Black, John D. F.,634 
Black King, 134, 135 



Black Knight (comic book), 120 

Black Knight (superhero), 47, 
121, 257, 288, 388, 457, 
582 

Black Knight (villain), 289 

Black Knight Bat, 148 

Black Leopard, 85 

Black Lightning (comic book), 
358 

Black Lightning (superhero), 8, 
9,106,374,375,565,569 

Black Manta, 31, 32,478, 
576, 579 

Black, Marie, 109 

Black Mask, 100 

Black Musketeers, 85 

Black Orchid (comic book), 614 

Black Orchid (superhero), 536 

Black Owl, 77,356 

Black Panther (comic book), 9, 
358, 520 

Black Panther (superhero), 5, 
6, 6 (ill.), 8, 47, 84-86, 
137, 206, 210, 282, 288, 
357, 386 

Black Panthers (civil rights 
group), 85 

Black Queen, 527 

Black Racer, 362, 571 

Black Ranger, 343 

Black Rat, 100 

Black Razors, 622 

Black Rodent, 573 

Black Sabbath, 406 

Black Shadow (English super- 
hero), 283 

Black Shroud, 211 

Black Spider, 100, 279 

Black Superheroes, Milestone 
Comics, and Their Fans, 346 

Black Tarantula, 279 

Black Terror, 2, 396, 423, 522 
in World War II, 231 

Black Toad, 111 

Black Tom Cassidy, 649, 653, 
660 

Black Venus, 2, 534 

Black Vulcan, 9, 471, 477, 
478, 479 

Black Whip (English super- 
hero), 283 

Black Widow (Batman villain, 
1967), 279 

Black Widow (car), 278 

Black Widow (Space Ghost vil- 
lain), 438 

Black Widow (superhero), 37, 
47, 86-87, 162, 213, 215, 
251,278-279,282,317, 
319, 480, 496, 534, 535, 
536, 568, 578, 581 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6*5 



Index 



Black Widow #1, 87 (ill.) 
Black Witch, 181 
Black, Bill, 1, 140, 382, 514 
Black, John D. F.,634 
Black, Marie, 109 
Blackbeard, 379 
Blackbird, 507 
Blackfire, 592, 593 
Blackhawk, 83, 87-90, 185, 

186, 415 

Batman, teamed up 
with, 90 
Blackhawk (comic book), 356, 

385, 466, 509 

Blackhawk #242, 89 
(ill.) 
Blackhawk Island, 88 
Blackhawks, 77, 87-88, 297 
Blackie the Hawk, 89 
Blackie the Mystery Boy, 137 
Blackrock, 551 
Blackstone, 91 
Blade (movie, 1998), 9, 68 
Blade Blasters, 343 
Blade the Vampire Slayer, 8, 

359, 526, 557, 597 
Blade: Trinity (movie, 2004), 9 
Blade II (movie, 2002), 9 
Blaire, Alison, 170 
Blaire, Judge Carter, 170 
Blaisdell.Tex, 469 
Blake, Adam See Captain 

Comet 
Blake, Bob, 32 

Blake, Dr. Don, 530, 598, 599 
Blake, Madge, 64 
Blame!, 22 
Blanc, Mel, 247 
Blank, Buddy (Global Peace 

Agent), 442 
Blankman (movie, 1994), 9, 

108 
Blastarr, 278, 577 
Blaxploitation; 7 
Blaze See Ghost Rider (super- 
hero) 
Blaze, Johnny See Ghost Rider 

(superhero) 
Blazing Skull (Invaders), 286 
Bleeding Black, 340 
Blimp (Inferior Five), 103, 276, 

570 
Blip (Jan and Jayce's monkey), 

180, 246, 437 
Bliss (Gen 13 villain), 225 
Blitz, 74 

Blob, 578, 654, 656, 658 
Blobetta, 180 
Blockbuster, 59, 69, 576 
Bloggard, Tongue, 448 



The Blonde Phantom (comic 
book), 534 

Blonde Phantom (superhero), 
90-92, 425, 533 

Blondie (comic book), 248 

Blonsky, Emil See Abomination 

Blood, Jason, 557 

Blood Syndicate (1993-1996), 
9, 345, 368 

Blood Syndicate #17, 345 (ill.) 

BloodFly, 365 

Bloodshot, 352 

Bloodsport, 551 

Bloodstrike, 202 

Bloodwulf, 202 

Blossom, 390, 494, 567 

Blucas, Marc, 97 

Bludhaven, 488, 510 

Blue Beetle (comic book) 144, 
145, 501 

Blue Beetle #3, 93 (ill.) 

Blue Beetle (radio serial), 511, 
512 

Blue Beetle (superhero), 
92-93, 118, 144, 145, 
152,230,280,297,372, 
434, 440, 495, 568, 578 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 

Blue Blaze, 74, 332 

Blue Bolt, 439 

Blue Bullet, 285 

Blue Bulleteer, 2, 567 
See ateo Nightveil 

Blue Demon (Mexican super- 
hero), 284 

Blue Diamond (Liberty Legion), 
285 

Blue Eagle, 77 

Blue Earth, 596 

Blue Falcon (superhero), 77, 
105, 247, 492 

Blue Flame, 447 

Blue Fox, 121 

Blue Raja, 109 

The Blue Ranger, 343 

Blue Ray (Australian super- 
hero), 282 

Blue Streak, 139 

Bluntman and Chronic, 107 

B-Man (superhero), 280 

Boar, 200 

Bogdanove, Jon, 263, 390, 
472 

Bogdanove, Judith Kurzer, 390 

Bogeyman, 389 

The Boggart (Planet DC), 282 

Boiffard, Dr. Egon, 322 

Bolland, Brian, 119, 175, 504, 
631 

Bolt, 1 



Boltinoff, Henry, 223 
Boltinoff, Murray, 174, 341, 

342 
Bond, James, 26, 538, 801 
Bond, Tommy, 509, 543 
Bonehead, 493 
Bones (Australian superhero), 

283 
Bongo Comics, 34, 53, 54, 

106, 107, 281 
Bongo Entertainment Group, 

54 
Boo Boo, 107 
Booga, 583 
Booger, 324 

Books of Magic, 383, 615 
Bookworm, 64, 576 
Boom and Mirage, 471 
Boom Boom, 651, 652 
Boom Tubes, 553 
Booster Gold, 118, 297, 495 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Borden, Don, 380 
Boreanaz, David, 97 
Boring, Wayne, 499, 539 
Boris (Blackhawks), 88 
Born Normal, 369 
Borth, Al, 160 
Boston Brand, 176, 556 
Bostwick, Jackson, 128, 129 

(ill.) 
Bottle City of Kandor, 506, 

541 
Bouchey, Bill, 511 
Bouncing Boy, 308, 318 
Bounty Dog, 596 
Bowen Designs, 40 
Bowie, David, 406, 520 
Bowler, 105, 109, 168 
Box (Alpha Flight), 11 
Boy Comics, 159, 428 

Boy Comics #1,428 (ill.) 
Boy Commandos, 327, 428 
Boy of Steel See Superboy 
The Boy Wonder See Robin the 

Boy Wonder 
BPRD See Bureau for Paranor- 
mal Research and Defense 
Bradbury, Ray, 499 
Braddock, Betsy See Psylocke 
Braddock, Brian, 119, 645, 

646, 647 
Braddock, James, 119, 646 
Bradford, Brick, 439 
Bradley, Slam, 486 
The Brady Kids (animated 

series), 477, 545, 632 
Brahma (Youngblood), 202 
Brain (E-Man), 186, 188, 

199-200 



Brain Drain, 285 
Brain Wave, 298 
Brainchild, 603 
Brainex, 142 

Brainiac5, 312, 318, 477, 
478, 479, 486, 489, 506, 
517, 541, 545, 548, 550, 
551, 552, 576 
Brainmaster (Australian super- 
hero), 283 
Brainstorm, 33 
Brainwasher See Kingpin 
Brainwave, 301, 548, 573 
Brainwave Junior (Infinity Inc.), 

300, 438, 439, 441, 578 
Brak (Space Ghost Coast to 

Coast), 246 
Brak Presents the Brak Show 
Starring Brak (animated 
series, 2000), 439 
The Brak Show (animated 
series, 2001-04), 439 
Brancato, John, 458 
Brand, Boston, 28 
Brand Corp., 136 
Brando, Marlon, 546 
Brandt, Carolyn, 107 
Brant, Betty, 317 
The Brave and the Bold (comic 
book), 59, 103, 138, 152, 
217, 252, 341, 342, 357, 
358, 386, 470, 499, 502, 
587 

The Brave and the Bold 
#28 (Justice League of 
America's debut), 173, 
293, 432, 568, 586 
The Brave and the Bold 

#36, 253 (ill.) 
The Brave and the Bold 
#54 (Teen Titans 
debut, 1964), 430, 
590 
The Brave and the Bold 
#57 (Metamorpho's 
debut), 341 
The Brave and the Bold 

#58, 342 (ill.) 
The Brave and the Bold 
#60, 590 
Brawn, Tristan, 649 
The Breadmaster, 603 
Breed, 471 
Breeding, Brett, 463 
Brenda Starr, 389 
Brendon, Nicholas, 97 
Brent, Leander See Awkward- 
man (Inferior Five) 
Brevard, A'leisha, 296 
Brewer, Jameson, 72 
Brewster, Paget, 109 



bf* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Breyfogle, Norm, 48 
Brian See Destroyer 286 
Brian's Song, 7 
Bridwell, E. Nelson, 131, 276 
Brigade (1993), 202, 275, 

570 
Bright, 400 

Bright, Mark D., 287, 388 
Bright, Matthew, 399 
Brightwind, 650 
Brigman, June, 389, 390 
Brimstone, 218 
Bring Back the Bad Guys 

(1998), 580 
British Independent Film 

Awards, 358 
British League of Super- 
heroes, 527 
Broadway, 541, 545 
Brock, Eddie See Venom 
Broderick, Pat, 118, 217 
Broid, 21 

Bromfield, Mary (Batson), 336 
Branson, Charles, 29 
The Bronze (bar), 97 
Bronze Age of Superheroes 

(1970-1979), 93-96, 314, 

350, 516, 554 
"Bronze Eagle," 9 
Bronze Tiger, 359, 570 
Brood, 355, 646 
Brooks, Tony See Spyder 
Brookwood Publications, 230 
Broome, John, 219, 220, 240, 

298, 500 
Brother Blood, 580, 592, 593 
Brother Eye, 442 
Brother Power the Geek, 498 
Brother Voodoo, 8, 257, 557, 

587 
The Brotherhood {The Call of 

Duty), 201 
Brotherhood of Dada, 188, 

614 
Brotherhood of Evil, 187, 188, 

592 
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, 

187,416,465,535,569, 

654, 657, 658, 659, 660 
Brothers (manga), 322 
Brothers Grimm, 464 
Brothers, Dr. Joyce, 439 
Brown, Bob, 162, 386 
Brown, Charlie, 605 
Brown, Clancey, 549 
Brown Hornet, 471 
Brown, Jeffrey A., 346 
Brown, Len, 600, 601 
Brown, Molly, 527 
Brown, Reb, 115 
Brown, Robert, 288 



Brown, Roscoe Lee, 165 

Brozowski, Joe, 217 

Brubaker, Ed, 45 

Bruegman, Bill, 522 

Brunner, Frank, 184 

Brutale, 70, 580 

Brute, 414, 422 

Bryant, Al, 186, 233, 385 

Bryant, Edward W., 527 

Bryce, Reno, 622 

The B-Sides (2002), 107 

BS2, 134 

B'Tx, 22 

Bubbles, 390, 494, 567 

Buccellato, Steve, 390 

Suck Rogers, 500 

Buck Rogers (superhero), 439, 
440 

Buckingham, Mark, 348 

Buckler, Rich, 47 

Buckwheat, 5 

Bucky Barnes (superhero and 
Captain America's sidekick), 
5,46,111,112,270,400, 
427, 428, 494, 531, 559, 
566, 573, 585, 617 
death of, 112 
in All-Winners Squad, 

284 
in Kid Commandos 
(superheroes), 286 

Buddy (the Eagle), 559 

Buddy (Uncle Sam), 559 

Buddy Boy, 110 

Buff, 656 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV 
series), 147, 538, 645 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 
(superhero), 96-99, 214, 
558 

The Bug (insect villain collec- 
tive), 280 

Bug Boy, 281 

Bug Man and Roachboy (Aus- 
tralian superheroes), 283 

Buhalis, Lois, 504 

Bulk, 493 

Bullet Head, 510 

Bulletboy, 99 

Bulletdog, 99 

Bulletgirl, 99, 213, 315, 429, 
533, 568, 573, 617 

See also Superheroines 

Bulletman (comic book), 100 

Bulletman (superhero), 
99-100, 124, 213, 315, 
429, 533, 568, 573 

Bullock, Sandra, 636 

Bullseye, 93 

Bulls-Eye Bill, 442, 162, 166, 
196,197,481,579 



Bulma, 190 

Bumblebee, 591 

Buono, Victor, 70, 326, 576 

Burbank, 421 

Burden, Bob, 105, 109, 168 

Bureau of Extranormal Mat- 
ters, 484 

Bureau for Paranormal 
Research and Defense 
(BPRD), 254 

Bureau of Secret Projects, 
107 

Burgos, Carl, 267, 268, 269, 
332, 499, 584 

Burke, Buck, 139 

Burke, David, 604 

Burnett, Alan, 66, 297 

Burnley, Jack, 469, 498 

Burnout (Gen 13), 225, 565, 
570 

Burns, Martin, 330 

Burtis Publishing, 41 

Burton, Tim, 60, 61, 66, 70, 
142, 352, 485, 496, 524, 
537, 549, 572 

Burtt, Robert, 131 

Bury, Shon C, 390 

Buscema, John, 47, 182, 207, 
424, 436, 453, 476, 501, 
599 

Buscema, Sal, 177, 178, 242, 
287, 369, 464, 501 

Busch, Adam, 98 

Bush, George W., 520 

Bushido (Planet DC), 282 

Bushman, Ronald, 353, 354 

Bushmaster (Global 
Guardians), 281 

Busiek, Kurt, 38, 48, 179, 
194, 201, 287, 388, 423, 
454, 487, 505, 528, 620 

Butcher, 359 

Butler, Yancy, 558 

Buttercup, 390, 494, 567 

Butterfly (superhero), 280, 
405 

Buttery Pat, 603 

Buzz (superhero), 280 

Buzz Lightyear of Star Com- 
mand, 494 

Buzzi, Ruth, 297 

B'Wana Beast, 373 

Byrd, Ralph, 509 

Byrne, John, 9, 47, 105, 167, 
170, 175, 207, 254, 260, 
262,263,287,307,310, 
335, 368, 387, 424, 425, 
454, 476, 482, 490, 497, 
503,505,542,569,625, 
631, 643, 644, 659 



Byron Preiss Multimedia Com- 
pany, 527 
Byth (villain), 253 



Caan, James, 7 

Caape, James, 297 

Cable, 652, 653 

Cable, Philip R., 75 

Cadigan, Pat, 527 

Caesar, Jonathan, 621 

Cage, 9, 388 

Cage, Luke See Power Man 

Cage, Nicolas, 8, 228, 324, 
367, 387, 549 

Caidin, Martin, 145 

Cain, 70, 580 

Cain, Cassandra, 56 

Cain, David, 56, 530 

Cain, Dean, 306 (ill.), 548 

Cain Marko, 659 

Callahan, Harry See Dirty 
Harry 

Calamari, 199 

Calame, Don, 608 

Cale, 409 

Caleb, 98 

Calendar, Jenny, 97 

Calendar Man, 69, 575 

Caliber Comics, 557 

Caliber Press, 75 

The Call (2003), 201 

The Call of Duty (2002), 201 

Callan, K, 548 

Callan, Michael, 484 

Callas, Charlie, 296 

Callisto, 656, 659 

Calvert, Jim, 484 

Calvin College, 40 

Camelot, 557 

Camelot 3000, 175, 504 

Cameron, James, 458, 655 

Cameron, Joanna, 290 

Cameron, Lome, 297 

Camp and Comedy Heroes, 
101-107 

See also The Ambiguous- 
ly Gay Duo, Ambush 
Bug, Archie Comics, 
Bluntman and Chronic, 
Captain Carrot, Fat 
Fury, Fighting Ameri- 
can, Forbush-Man, Fun- 
nyman, Goofy, The 
Greatest American 
Hero, Hoppy the Mar- 
vel Bunny, Inferior Five, 
MAD, Megaton Man, 
The Mighty Heroes, 
Mighty Mouse, Mon- 
keyman and O'Brien, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6?$ 



Index 



Mysterymen Stories, 
National Lampoon, Not 
Bland Echh, Radioac- 
tive Man, Red Tornado, 
Super Rabbit, 
Superduperman, 
Supersnipe, Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles, 
The Tick, X-Presidents 
Camp Heroes in the Media, 

107-110 
Camp Sunshine, 399 
Campaign to Rejoin America's 

Principles, 113 
Campbell, Billy, 407 
Campbell, J. Scott, 226, 275, 

405 
Campbell, Joseph, 516, 561 
Campbell, Scott, 505 
Canada Post, 122 
Canadian Intelligence Security 

Organization (C.I.S.O.), 121 
Canadian superheroes, 122 
Canary Cry, 78 
Candy, Etta, 628, 631 
Canfield, Paul, 138 
Caniff, Milton, 81 
Cannell, Stephen J., 235, 236 
Cannon, 458, 548 
Cannon Films, 483, 546, 548 
Cannonball, 570, 649, 650, 

651, 652, 653 
Cannon-Thunderbolt, Peter, 

144, 434 
Canuck, Johnny, 122 
Cap, 510 

Caped Crusader See Batman 
Capes (2003), 107 
Capital Comics, 350, 52 
Capital Distributing Company, 

143 
Capitan Hispania (Spanish 

superhero), 284 
Capitan Italia (Italian super- 
hero), 283 
Capitao Marvel (Brazilian Cap- 

atin Marvel), 127 
Cap'n Hawk, 77 
Capricorn, 212 
Captain Action (comic book), 

111, 500 

Captain Action #1 (Cap- 
tain Action's debut), 
111 
Captain Action (superhero), 

110-111, 110 (ill.), 572, 

578 
Captain Action: The Original 

Super-Hero Action Figure 

(2002), 111 
Captain Adam, 42 



Captain Aero, 355, 495 
Captain Amazing, 105, 168 
Captain America (animated 
series, 1966), 263, 490 
Captain America (comic book), 
87,91,232,332,475, 
408, 500, 502, 509, 522, 

561, 638, 654 
Captain America #1 

(Captain America's 
debut, 1941), 427, 
558 
Captain America #106, 

113 (ill.) 
Captain America #217, 
331 
Captain America (movie, 

1992), 116 
Captain America (movie serial, 

1943), 115, 332 
Captain America (movie serial, 

1944), 575 
Captain America (superhero), 
6,9,29,34,35,46,47,48, 
102, 111-114, 116, 117, 
148, 215, 216, 251, 267, 
270, 358, 364, 400, 419, 
427, 434, 435, 457, 487, 
494, 510, 522, 523, 531, 
533, 558, 559, 560, 561, 

562, 566, 567, 568, 573, 
574, 577, 581, 585, 589, 
590, 615, 626, 636, 637 

in All-Winners Squad, 

284 
attempts to revive, in the 

1950s, 333 
Guardians of the Galaxy, 
crossover story with, 
242 
postwar resurrection of, 

233 
origin of, 332 
shield of, 243 
in World War II, 231 
Captain America (TV movie, 

1979), 115 
Captain America and the Fal- 
con, 114 
Captain America: Death Too 

Soon (TV pilot, 1979), 116 
Captain America: Holocaust for 

Hire, 526 
Captain America in the Media, 

114-116 
Captain America: The Great 

Gold Steal, 526 
Captain America II (TV pilot, 

1979), 116 
Captain Americat, 105 



Captain Atom (Australian 

superhero), 282 
Captain Atom (comic book), 

118, 145 
Captain Atom (superhero), 

116-119, 144, 152, 250, 

434, 578, 611 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Captain Avenger, 108 
Captain Barbell (Filipino super- 
hero), 284 
Captain Battle, 558 
Captain Boomerang, 220, 

570,575 
Captain Britain (comic book 

and superhero), 119-121, 

282, 283, 567, 644, 645, 

646, 647 
Captain Britain Corps, 119, 

121 
Captain Britain Weekly vol. 1, 

#1 (Captain Britain's debut), 

119 
Captain California, 492 
Captain Canuck (comic book 

and superhero), 121-122, 

282 
Captain Canuck Club (CCC), 

122 
Captain Canuck Reborn, 122 
Captain Canuck Reborn 
#2, 121 (ill.) 
Captain Canuck Summer Spe- 
cial, 121 
Captain Carrot and His Amaz- 
ing Zoo Crew, 105, 223 
Captain Cash, 374 
Captain Caveman (superhero), 

247 
Captain Caveman and the Teen 

Angels (animated series, 

1977), 247 
Captain Cleo, 554 
Captain Clockwork, 185 
Captain Cold, 220, 478, 575, 

579 
Captain Comet, 440, 588 
Captain Commando, 559 
Captain Courageous, 558, 

637 
Captain Crandall, 494 
Captain Dash, 440 
Captain Decency, 603 
Captain EO, 405 
Captain Fearless, 637 
Captain Fight, 558 
Captain Flag (comic book), 

637 
Captain Flag (superhero), 559 
Captain Flash, 2 



Captain Freedom, 1, 81, 248, 

553, 559, 636 
Captain Future, 440 
Captain Harlock, 391 
Captain Hero, 287, 388, 434 
Captain Kentucky, 554 
Captain Klutz, 104, 434, 523 
Captain Laser, 374 
Captain Liberty, 604 
Captain Magnet (English 

superhero), 283 
Captain Marvel (comic book), 
101, 639 

Captain Marvel #33, 

123 (ill.) 
Captain Marvel #149, 
127 (ill.) 
Captain Marvel (superhero), 8, 
34, 42, 75, 95, 96, 99, 100, 
122-124, 128, 129 (ill.), 
132, 174, 296, 296 (ill.), 
300, 347, 354, 355, 373, 
428, 437, 441, 488, 492, 
498, 503, 509, 516, 518, 
522, 524, 526, 531, 533, 
553, 563, 565, 567, 573, 
581, 608, 637 

Fawcett Comics version, 

122, 125-131 
in Golden Age 

(1938-1954), 122 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
M.F Publications ver- 
sion, 434 
Myron Fass version, 122 
Captain Marvel (TV series), 
132 

renamed Jet Jackson, 
132 
Captain Marvel Adventures, 
104, 498, 638 

Captain Marvel Adven- 
tures #18 (Mary Mar- 
vel's debut), 336 
Captain Marvel fan club, 127 
Captain Marvel Jr. (comic 

book), 499 
Captain Marvel Jr. (superhero), 
99, 100, 124-125, 126, 
131, 232, 328, 336, 428, 
488, 492, 518, 530, 531, 
567, 568, 574, 592 
Captain Marvel/Shazam! 
(superhero), 124, 125-128, 
129 

six great powers of, 125 
in World War II, 231 
Captain Marvel/Shazam! in 
the Media, 128-131 



tft* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Captain Mar-Veil See Captain 

Marvel 
Captain Midnight (radio serial), 

511 
Captain Midnight (superhero), 

131-132, 512, 575 
Captain Miracle (English 

superhero), 283 
Captain Nazi, 100, 124, 126, 

574, 638 
Captain Nic (comic book), 103 
Captain Nic (TV series), 103 
Captain Nice (comic book), 

107 
Captain Nice (superhero), 523 
Captain Nice (TV series), 434 
Captain Nippon, 125, 574, 

638 
Captain Paragon, 1, 210 
Captain Planet and the Plane- 

teers, 359, 493 
Captain Red Blazer, 559 
Captain Squid, 89 
Captain Swastika, 574, 638 
Captain Swift (Freedom 

Brigade), 276 
Captain 3-D (comic book), 249 
Captain Thunder, 128, 373 
Captain U.K., 121 
Captain Underpants, 525 
Captain USA, 560 
Captain Victory, 637 
Captain Video and His Video 

Rangers (TV series, 

1949-55), 440 
Captain Von Tepp, 88 
Captain Whammy, 491 
Captain Wings, 2 
Captain X, 33 
Carbone, Joey, 393 
Carbonell, Nestor, 604 
Card Captor, 133 
Card Captors Sakura (animat- 
ed series), 133-134 
Card Captors Sakura (comic 

book), 20, 133, 413 
Card Captor Sakura (super- 
hero), 132-134 
Card Captor Sakura: The Movie 

(1999), 134 
Card Captor Sakura: Trie 

Seated Card (2000), 134 
Card Sharks, 527 
Cardcaptors (animated series), 

20, 134 
Cardy, Nick, 30, 501, 591, 

591 (ill.) 
Carey, Dan, 349 
Carlin, Mike, 484 
Carlson, Gary S., 74, 75 
Carnaby Street, 576 



Carnage, 453, 457, 458, 463, 

580 
Carnifex, 527 
"Carnival of Fiends" storyline, 

356 
Carolco, 458 
Carolyn, 635 
Carpenter, Charisma, 97 
Carpenter, Julia See Spider- 
Woman 
Carr, Snapper, 357 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 293 
Carr, Tommy, 544 
Carradine, David, 338 
Carrey, Jim, 67, 70, 168, 338, 

439, 529, 580 
Carrier, 44 
Carrion, 580 
Carroll, Lewis, 646 
Carroll, Renee, 290 
Carter, Jimmy, 520 
Carter, Joan, 403, 404 
Carter, Lynda, 174, 536, 630, 

634, 636 
Carter Nash, 107 
Carter, Sharon, 113, 114 
Cartoon Action Hour, 515 
Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, 

20 
Cartoon Network, 176, 191, 

241, 297, 391, 403, 413, 

429, 439, 479, 493, 494, 

538, 542, 549, 564, 567, 

593, 632, 636 

Adult Swim on, 246 
Justice League (2001- ) 
on, 9 
Cartoon Network Presents 

(comic book), 439 
Cartoon Planet (animated 

series, 1997-1999), 439 
Carvey, Dana, 548 
Casanova Frankenstein, 109 
Cascabel (Triada Vertice), 284 
Case, Lenore, 238, 317 
Caseneuve, Arturo, 81 
Casey, Ben, 502 
Casey, Joe, 405 
Casey, Sam, 146 
Cash, Cole, 622 
Casper the Friendly Ghost 

(character), 524 
Casper the Friendly Ghost 

(comic book), 82, 247, 249 
Cassaday, John, 505, 645 
Cassandra, 530 
Casshan (1973), 271 
Casshan: Robot Hunter (comic 

book and superhero), 19, 

134-135, 596 



Cassidy, Paul, 403 

Cassidy, Sean, 643, 648, 650 

Cassidy, Teresa, 653 

Cassie, 631 

Cassone, John, 186 

Cassutt, Michael, 527 

Castiglione, Christie, 396 

Castiglione, Frank See Punisher 

Castiglione, Frank Jr., 396 

Castle, Frank See Punisher 

Castle Waiting, 184 

Castro, Adam-Troy, 528 

The Cat (comic book), 536 
The Cat #4, 136 (ill.) 

The Cat (superhero), 47, 
135-136, 213, 340, 488 

Cat Claw (Yugoslavian super- 
hero), 284 

Cat Heroes, 137-138 
See also Black Cat, 
Black Panther, Cat- 
Man, Catwoman, 
Cougar, Jaguar, Lynx, 
Kitten, Panthea, Puma- 
man, Streaky the 
Supercat, Tiger Boy, 
Tigra, Wildcat 

Catalyst, 488 

Catalyst: Agents of Change, 
168-169, 571 

Catarang, 140 

"Catch Me Now I'm Falling" 
(song), 116 

Catgirls from Mars, 2 

Catherine, 150 

Catman (Canadian superhero), 
122, 211, 405 

Cat-Man (superhero), 2, 137, 
139-140, 315, 428, 522, 
533 

Cat-Man #1 (Cat-Man's debut), 
139 

Catpeople, 135 

Catplane, 140 

Cat's Eye Investigations, 83 

Catshark Squad, 272 

Catt, 474 

Catwoman (comic book), 51 

Catwoman (movie, 2004), 
142, 215 

Catwoman (superhero/villain), 
55, 57, 65-70, 78, 80, 137, 
140-142, 141 (ill.), 214, 
270, 316, 402, 486, 532, 
535-537, 572, 574, 575, 
582, 629 

Catwoman: Tiger Hunt, 526 

Caulder, Niles, 187, 530, 569 

Caulfield, Emma, 97 

Cavadini, Catherine, 391 

CCA See Comics Code Authority 



Ceevee Beaumont, 107 
"Celestial Madonna," 47 
Celsius, 188 
Centaur Comics, 76 
Centaur Publications, 27, 230, 

383, 479 
Center Neptune, 73 
Central City, 433, 467, 485 
Central Computer Nexus, 506 
Central Intelligence Agency 

(CIA), 561 
Central Park Media (CPM), 21, 

22, 393 
Cerberus, the three-headed 

hound of hell, 133 
Cerebro, 507, 657 
Cereous trie Aardvark, 445 
Cerise, 647 
Certa, Joe, 328, 404 
Cetacean, 326 
CGI See Computer-generated 

imagery 
CGW See Comics' Greatest 

World 
Cha, Keu, 400 
Chabon, Michael, 280, 418, 

460, 499, 525, 528 
Chadwick, Paul, 167 
Chain Gang, 107 
Chainsaw Vigilante, 603 
Chairface Chippendale, 603 
Chalenne, 157 
Challenge of the Super Friends 

(animated series, 

1978-1979), 65, 477, 478, 

492, 545, 579 
Challengers of the Unknown 

(superteam), 142-143 
Challengers of the Unknown 

#3, 143 (ill.) 
Challengers' Mountain, 142, 

143 
Chamber, 649, 650 
Chamberlin, Doug, 608 
Chambers, Johnny, 553 
Chameleon, 65, 116, 451, 

457 
Chameleon Boy, 308, 309, 

562, 568 
Champ (superhero), 248 
Champ Comics, 248 
Champion City, 109 
Champion Comics See Champ 

Comics 
Champions (comic book), 86, 

513, 514, 568 
Champions (superteam), 86, 

162, 228, 280, 488 
Chan, Ernie, 287, 388 
Chan, Jackie, 147,391 
Chance, Christopher, 147 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



** 



Index 



Chandell, 64 

Chandler, Rev. Charles, 486 
Chandra, Elizabeth, 399 
Chaney, Lon Jr., 379 
Chang, Percival Edmund, 

"Eddy" See Grunge (Gen 13) 
Changeling, 138, 564, 567, 

591, 593, 644 
Chaos! Comics, 51 
Chaosium, 513 
Chapel (comic book), 202 
Chapel (Youngblood), 202, 

443, 444 
Chapel, Beth, 529 
Chapman, Hank, 584 
Charaxes, 70 
Charendoff, Tara, 67 
Charest, Travis, 623 
Charity Bizarre, 216 
The Charlatan, 627 
Charlie's Angels, 352 
Charlie's Angels (TV series, 

1976-1981), 536, 549 
Charlie-27 (Guardians of the 

Galaxy), 242, 441 
Charlton See Charlton Comics 
Charlton Bullseye, 118, 200 
Charlton Comics, 28, 42, 92, 

95, 102, 117, 143, 146, 

199, 222-223, 378, 404, 

434, 501-503, 530, 556, 

560, 578, 581, 618 
Charlton Heroes, 143-145 
See also Atomic Mouse, 
Blue Beetle, Captain 
Atom, E-Man, Flash 
Gordon, Judomaster, 
Nightshade, Peace- 
maker, Phantom, 
Question, Sarge Steel, 
Underdog, Watchmen 
Charlton Publications See 

Charlton Comics 
Chas, Teresa, 328 
Chase, Adrian, 616 
Chase, Bobbie, 504 
Chase, Cordelia, 97 
Chase, Danny, 592 
Chase, Professor Jonathan 

"J.C.," 328 
Chaykin, Howard, 90, 95, 221, 

281, 351, 422, 502 
Cheapo, 474 
Cheetah, 477, 574, 629, 631, 

633,635 
Chemo (villain), 341, 576 
Chen, Jo, 449 
Chen, Mike, 198 
Chenault, General Claire, 414 
Cheng'en, Wu, 189 
Cheshire, 592, 593 



Chesler, Harry "A," 279, 497, 
529 

Chiba, Mamoru See Tuxedo 
Mask 

Chichester, Dan, 164 

Chi-Chi, 191 

Chief, 188, 493, 530, 569, 614 

Chief Anderson, 73 

Chief O'Hara, 62 

Chief Skullface, 356 

Chiklis, Michael, 26 

Children of the Sun (cult), 180 

Children's Safety Network, 449 

Children's Television Work- 
shop, 64, 456 

Chiller, 180 

Chim-Chim, 448 

Chobits, 133 

Choi, Brandon, 226, 622 

Chokkei, Hayami, 156 

Chondu, 178 

Chop Suey, 355, 495 

Chop-Chop (Blackhawks), 88, 
89, 90, 356 

Christ, 541 

Christman, Bert, 414 

Christopher, Gerard, 482, 484 

Chrome (Gen 13), 226, 365 

Chronicles (2002), 185 

Chrono Trigger, 21, 190 

Chronos, 41, 517, 576 

Chrysler Imperial Crown 
(Green Hornet's Black Beau- 
ty), 238, 572 

Chu, Wong, 357 

Chuck (Blackhawks), 88, 90 

Chuck (Shazzan), 246 

Chunk (The Flash's friend), 
221 494 

Chun-Li, 156 

Church of Instrumentality, 441 

Church of Scientology, 17 

Church, Thomas Haden, 105, 
109 

Churchill, Winston, 285 

CIA See Central Intelligence 
Agency 

Ciarfalio, Carl, 209 

Cicero, Caesar, 463 

Cinnabar Flats, 168, 488 

Circe, 631 

Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger, 
Part 4 (movie, 2000), 108 

Citizen V, 638 

The City, 602, 603 

City of Tomorrow See Metropolis 

City of Yesteryear See Gotham 
City 

Civilian Heroes, 145-147 
See also Steve Austin, 
Automan, Christopher 



Chance, Dark Justice; 
Gemini Man, Invisible 
Man, Phoenix, Sable, 
Jaime Sommers, The 
Spirit, Matthew Star, 
Starman, Ultiman, 
Zorro 

CKR Productions, 121 

Claire Voyant, 534 

CLAMP Studio, 132, 133 

Clan Destine (English comic 
book), 283 

Claremont, Chris, 119, 120, 
170,226,287,335,355, 
387, 388, 464, 503, 527, 
528, 625, 643, 644, 646, 
650, 659 

Clarendon, George, 421 

Clark, Dave, 553 

Clark, Dick, 210 

Classic Media, 249 

Claw, 159, 160, 574, 585, 638 

Clawedd van Damage, 416 

Clayface, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 
79, 573, 575 

Clayface (female), 70 

Clea (Doctor Strange's girl- 
friend), 183, 318, 565 

Clef Blade, 622 

Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder, 494 

Clements, Andrew, 147 

Clements, Chris, 54 

Cleo, 554 

Cliche, Karen, 657 

Cliff Steele See Robotman 

Clinton, Bill, 520 

Cloak and Dagger 
(superteam), 359, 390, 537 

Cloak of Darkness, 211 

Cloak of Levitation, 563 

Clock King, 237 

Clocktower, 78, 79, 506 

Clockwork Angels, 21 

"Clone" saga, 454 

Clooney, George, 61, 67, 238 

Cloud Curtis, 585 

The Clow, 133 

Clow Cards, 133 

Clow Reed, 133 

Clowes, Daniel, 184 

Clown (superhero), 248, 574 

Clown Prince of Crime, 579 

Club of Heroes, 356 

Clummox (Vicky and the X-Crit- 
ters), 154 

Clyde, 421 

CM3, 488, 518 

Coast City, 485 

Coates, Phyllis, 544 

Cobra (comic book), 18, 21 
Cobra #6,149 (ill.) 



Cobra (superhero), 38, 

147-151, 573, 598 
Cobra (TV series), 150 
Cobra Girls, 150 
Cobra Wonder, 150 
Cobra: Galaxy Knights, 150 
Cobra: Magic Doll, 150 
Cobra: The Psychogun, 150 
Cobweb (comic book), 16, 488 
Cobweb (superhero), 368 
Cockrum, Dave, 90, 309, 503, 

643 
Coda, 622 

Codename Sai/or V, 411 
Codename: Stryke Force, 157 
Code-O-Graph, 131, 512 
Coffield, Kelly, 109 
Coghlan, Frank Jr., 127, 129, 

509 
Cogliostrom, 445 
Cohen, Barney, 458 
Cohen, Joel, 131 
Cohen, Jon, 635 
Cohen, Mitchell, 108 
Coil, 471 
Coil Man (The Impossibles), 

245-246, 491 
Colan, Gene, 47, 86, 162, 

183, 193, 241, 289, 334, 

476, 501 
Cole, Gary, 297 
Cole, Jack, 34, 83, 147, 159, 

232, 383, 384, 385, 468, 

498 
Cole, Kasper, 85 
Cole, L. B.,232 
Coleman, Townsend, 603 
Colletta, Vince, 290 
Collins, Eddie See Shad- 

owHawk 
Collins, Joan, 64, 70 
Collins, Max Allan, 22 
Collins, Rusty, 651 
Collyer, Bud, 31, 512, 515, 

540, 543, 545 
Colon, Ernie, 390, 607 
Colonel Lynch, 227 
Colonel Yon-Rogg, 122 
Colonisers of Rigel, 598 
Colossal Boy, 308, 564 
Colossus, 95, 158, 358, 518, 

564, 569, 642, 647, 651, 

654 
Colt (FemForce), 1, 211 
Colt, Denny See The Spirit 
Columbia Comics, 553 
Columbia Pictures, 132, 378, 

379, 422, 508, 509, 543 
Columbia Tri-Star, 458 
Columbine school shootings, 

97 



bl* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Columbus, Chris, 208, 210 
Colvin, Jack, 264 
Combat (Youngblood), 202 
Combs, Jeffrey, 460 
Comedian, 619 
Comedy Central, 603 
Comedy Comics, 440 
Comely Comix, 121 
Comely, Richard, 121-122 
Comet, 27, 34, 35, 369 
Comet the Super-Horse, 489, 

541, 562 
Comic Book Artist (magazine), 

602 
Comic Book Culture (2000), 

231 
Comic Book Guy, 53, 54, 525 
Comic Book Nation (2001), 5, 

432 
Comic Book Superheroes: 

Unmasked (TV special, 

2003), 7, 93, 172, 350, 

351, 501-502, 503, 523, 

525, 636 
Comic Book: The Movie, 110 
Comic books, first ones, 

228-229 
Comic Cavalcade, 219 
Comic House See Lev Gleason 

Comics 
The Comic Reader, 554 
Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons 

Battled Over the Marvel 

Comics Empire ...And Both 

Lost!!!! (2002), 335 
Comico the Comic Company, 

168, 198, 275, 350, 407, 

439, 504, 513 
Comico's Monolith, 565 
Comics: Anatomy of a Mass 

Medium (Reitberger, Fuchs), 

5 
Comics and Sequential Art, 

468, 497 
Comics: Between the Panels 

(1998), 248, 501, 502 
Comics Cavalcade, 239 
Comics Code, 25, 69, 127, 

151-152, 346 

loosening of restrictions, 

152 
seal of, 151 (ill.) 
publishers stop using, 

152 
See also Comics Code 
Authority (CCA) 
Comics Code Authority (CCA), 

25, 81, 94, 173, 350, 388, 

395, 429, 430, 452, 523, 

557,575,579 

See also Comics Code 



Comics' Greatest World 
(CGW), 168, 169, 352, 488, 
608 

Comics Magazine Association 
of America (CMAA), 151 

Commander (DNAgents), 193 

Commander Battle, 42 

Commander Cody, 440 

Commander Courage, 110 

Commander Kraken, 476 

Commander Steel, 473 

Commandette, 373, 533 

Commando Cody See Rocket- 
man 

Commando D, 1 

Commando Yank (comic book), 
637 

Commando Yank (superhero), 
2, 99, 559, 585 

Commission, 465 

Commissioner Dolan See 
Police Commissioner Dolan 

Commissioner Gordon (Bat- 
man), 55, 57, 58, 60, 62, 
64, 140, 496, 571, 579 

Communism in comics, 86, 
153, 215-216, 232-233, 
251, 279, 288, 333, 559 

Complete Western Book (peri- 
odical), 332 

Composite Superman, 550, 
576 

Compton, John, 584 

Computer-generated imagery 
(CGI), 267 

Compute, 309, 576 

Com.X, 561 

Conan the Barbarian (comic 
book), 334, 501, 503 

Conan the Barbarian (super- 
hero), 94, 536 

Concrete, 167, 351 

Condor, 77, 369 

Condorman (comic book), 108 

Condorman (superhero), 76 

Confessor, 39 

Congo Bill (comic book), 509, 
522 

Congo Bill (superhero), 173 

Conn, Katie, 139 

Connelly, Jennifer, 267, 407 

Conner, Amanda, 214, 374, 
505 

Connors, Dr. Curt, 460 

Conqueror, 559 

Conroy, Buzz, 245 

Conroy, Chris, 608 

Conroy, Kevin, 66, 68 

Constantin, Mike, 75 

Constantine, John, 615 

Constantine, Storm, 527 



Contest of Champions (1982) 
See Marvel Super-Heroes 
Contest of Champions (1982) 

Contest of Champions (2003), 
282 

See also Marvel Super- 
Hero Contest of Cham- 
pions (1982) 

Continuity Associates, 502 

Contrary, 609 

Conway, Gerry, 47, 95, 216, 
217, 300, 395, 397, 452, 
453, 588, 599 

Conway, Tim, 525 

Coogan, Peter, 558 

Cooke, Darwyn, 143 

Coolio, 472 

Cooper, Alice, 405, 406 

Cooper, Harriet See Aunt Harri- 
et (Batman) 

Cooper, Jackie, 484, 546 

Coppola, Chistopher, 324 

Coppola, Francis Ford, 324, 
405 

Coppola, Nicolas See Cage, 
Nicolas 

Copycat, 653 

Corben, Richard, 388 

Cordelia, 649 

Corman, Roger, 209 

Corrector Yui, 133 

Corrigan, Jim See The Spectre 

Corrupter, 369 

Cortex, 75 

Cosby, Bill, 108 

The Cosby Show, 221 

Cosmic Awareness, 565 

Cosmic Boy, 308, 309, 310, 
431, 638 

Cosmic Cube, 123 

Cosmic Enforcers, 514 

Cosmic King, 576 

Cosmic Ray Vibrator, 440 

Cosmic Rock Zombie Radio, 
311,312 

Cosmic Rod See Gravity Rod 

Cosmic Viking, 180 

Cosmo the superpet, 142 

Cosplay City, 155 

Costanza, Pete, 126 

Coto, Manny, 458 

Trie Cougar (comic book), 138 

Cougar (Youngblood), 138, 
202 

The Count (AC Comics writer- 
artist), 212 

Count Cagliostro, 635 

Count Kohler, 53 

Count Nefaria, 289 

Count Yuscha Liffso, 216 

Counter Earth, 457, 458 



Coupland, Douglas, 647 
Courageous Cat, 102 
Courageous Cat and Minute 

Mouse, 490 
Coutts, Ed, 212 
Cover, Arthur Byron, 400, 527 
Cowan, Bernard, 455 
Cowan, Denys, 287, 345, 388, 

471 
Cowgirl Romances, 333 
Cox, Brian, 657 
Cox, Courtney, 108 
Cox, Greg, 528 
Coyote, 138 

CPM See Central Park Media 
Crack Comics, 83, 480 
CRACKED, 106 
Craddock, Gentleman Jim See 

Gentleman Ghost 
Crag, 494 

The Crazy Gang, 646 
Craig, Garrett, 130, 296, 296 

(ill.) 
Craig, Yvonne, 54, 59, 64, 

572 
Cramer, Herman See Blimp 

(Inferior Five) 
Crandall, Reed, 83, 88, 186, 

232, 601 
Crane, Bob See Robotman 
Crane, Jeanette, 197 
Crane, Jonathan, 68 
Cranston, Billy, 343 
Cranston, Lamont See The 

Shadow 
Crash, 472 
Crash Comics, 139 
Crash Nebula, 494 
Crawford Chemical Works, 383 
Crawford, Michael, 76, 108 
Crazy Eight, 466 
Crazy Jane, 188, 614 
Creaturas de la Noche (Mexi- 
can superhero), 284 
Creature King, 438 
Creed, Roger, 379 
Creed, Victor, 660 
Creeper (superhero), 

152-154, 174, 554, 588, 

Justice League of America, 

member of, 294 
The Creeper (Shadow villain), 

421 
The Creeper #2, 153 (ill.) 
Creepy, 389 
Creepy Worlds, 602 
The Crew, 9 
Crime Alley, 65, 485 
Crime Buster, 369 
Crime Crusaders Club, 100, 

568 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6*9 



Index 



Crime Does Not Pay, 91, 92, 

159, 160 
Crimebuster, 428, 559 
Crime-Master, 451 
Crime-Scene Kit (Batman's 

gadget), 72 
Criminal Macabre, 445 
Crimson Avenger (superhero), 

229, 428, 553, 616 
Crimson Centipede, 629 
Crimson Chin, 494 
Crimson Comet (Australian 

superhero), 282 
Crimson Dynamo (Soviet 

Super-Soldiers), 282, 577 
Crisis at Crusaders Citadel, 

513 
Crisis #7, 490 
"Crisis on Earth-One" storyline 

586 
Crisis on Infinite Earths (comic 

book, 1985-1986), 56, 

175, 220, 250, 270, 

300-301, 315, 324, 351, 

490, 503, 535, 542, 566, 

589, 592, 630 
Criss, Peter, 405 
Critical Maas, 400 
Croce, Jim, 524, 541 
Crocodile People, 253 
Croft, Douglas, 61, 509 
Croft, Lara, 29, 51, 147, 214, 

352, 538, 582 

See also Tomb Raider 
Crogan, 508 

Crosby, Cathy Lee, 630, 633 
Cross, Chris and Christy See 

Super Stretch and 

Microwoman 
Cross, Pieter, 529 
Cross Technologies, 251 
CrossGen Comics, 481, 582 
Crossfire, 350 
Crossover Classics, 589 
The Crow (movie, 1994), 557 
The Crow (superhero), 351, 

557, 558, 574 
Crow, Jasper, 84 
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven 

(TV series), 557 
Crowley, Matt, 62 
Crude Oil Monster, 478 
Cruise, Dylan, 157 
Cruise, Tom, 203 
Cruise-Wagner Productions, 

203 
Crumb, Robert, 443, 497 
Cruncher Block, 448 
Crusade Comics, 51, 425, 

426 
Crusade Fine Arts Ltd., 426 



Crusader, 331, 373 
Crusader Rabbit (animated 

series), 223 
Crusader X, 121 
Crusaders, 567 
Crusaders from Mars (comic 

book, 1952), 440 
Crusading Chameleon, 603 
Crush, 169 
Crusher Joe, 393 
Cruz, E. R., 422 
Crying Freeman 326 
Crystal (Inhumans), 277, 417 
as Fantastic Four mem- 
ber, 277 
Crystal (Fantastic Four animat- 
ed series, 1994-1996), 210 
Crystal Boy, 150 
Cuckoo Man, 491 
Cuidera, Chuck, 87, 89 
Culhane, Shamus, 455 
Culp, Joseph, 209 
Culp, Robert, 235, 236 
Cult Comics, 283 
Cumming, Alan, 657 
Cumulus 76 
Curly, 160 
Curly Neal, 105 
Curry, Arthur, 30 
Curry, Tom, 30 
Cursor, 146 
Curtis, 442 
Curtis, Jack, 448 
Cusack, Ann, 583 
Cutey Bunny (comic book), 

156 
Cutey Bunny (superhero), 

154-155 
Cutey Honey, 154, 155-157, 

156 (ill.) 
Cutey Honey Hash, 156 
Cutey Honey '90 See New 

Cutey Honey 
Cuti, Nick, 144, 199 
Cutler, Brian, 290 
Cyberdata, 157 
Cyberface, 416 
Cyberforce (comic book, 

1993-1997), 158, 275, 

570 
Cyberforce (superteam), 

157-158, 359, 426 
Cyberforce Origins 

(1995-1996), 158 
Cyberforce Universe Source- 
book (1994-1995), 158 
Cyberforce, Stryke Force: 

Opposing Force (1995), 157 
Cyblade (superhero), 157, 

197,426,537 



Cybiade/Ghost Rider (1997), 

158 
Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for 

Independents (1995), 158, 

426 
Cyborg (comic book), 9, 145 
Cyborg (superhero), 8, 430, 

479, 518, 530, 567, 581, 

591, 592, 593 
Cyborg Superman, 472 
Cyborg 009 (comic book), 19, 

155, 321 
Cyborg 009 (superhero), 23, 

38 
Cyborgs, history of, 321 
Cycat (Vicky and the X-Crit- 

ters), 154 
Cyclone, 74 
Cyclone Comics (Australia), 

282 
Cyclops (X-Men), 34, 157, 

318,358,369,518,535, 

565, 569, 626, 641, 643, 

652, 654-656, 655 (ill.) 
Cye, 409 

Cygnus Comics (Mexico), 284 
Cypher, 651 
Cyrus, Billy Ray, 405 
Czar of Fear, 181 
Czarnia (planet), 311 
Czuchra, Tommy See Monolith 



Dacia, 612 

DaCosta, Roberto, 650 
Daddy Day Care, 525 
Daemonites, 622, 623, 624 
Daffy the Great, 179 
Dafoe,Willem, 458, 580 
Dagger, 537, 597 
Dagger of Kamui, 20 
Daichi, Akito, 134 
Daidouji, Tomoyo, 133 
Daily Bugle, 317, 396, 418, 

451, 462, 554 
Daily Crusader, 554 
Daily, Elizabeth, 227, 391 
Daiiy Giobe, 463, 554 
Daily Globe-Leader, 553 
Daily Planet, 305, 371, 486, 

495, 540, 544, 549, 554 
Daily Sentinel, 238, 511, 553 
Daily Star, 305, 540 
Daimon Hellstrom, 557 
Dais, 409 
Daisy Fields, 52 
Daitokuji, B-ko, 392, 393 
Dakota (city), 345, 488 
Dalton, Timothy, 407, 549 
Dama (Filipino superhero), 

284 



Damage, 592, 593 

Damien DarkLord, 416 

Dandy, 559, 636 

Dane, Darrel, 185 

Dane, Lorna, 642 

Danger Giri, 275 

Danger Mouse (animated 
series), 223 

Danger Room, 507 

Danger Unlimited, 168 

Dangerous Boy, 597 

Dani Moonstar, 650 

Daniels, Harold, 379 

Daniels, Les, 7, 28, 171, 314, 
332, 518, 588 

Daniels, William, 107 

Danny the Street, 188, 614 

Danuta, 78 

Danvers, Carol, 123 

as Ms. Marvel, 123 
as Warbird (the 
Avengers), 123 

Danvers family, 489 

Danvers, Linda Lee See Super- 
girl 

D'Arby, Terence Trent, 472 

Daredevil (animated series), 
165 

Daredevil (comic book), 86, 

196, 214, 324, 350, 335, 
389, 396, 476, 501, 503, 
505, 519, 536, 589, 590, 
600 

Daredevil #1 (debut of 
Marvel's Daredevil), 
165, 531, 585 
Daredevi) #168, 536 
Daredevif #181, 161 
Daredevil #220, 163 
(ill.) 
Daredevil (movie, 2003), 29, 
164, 166, 166 (ill.), 197, 
336, 419, 537 
Daredevil (superhero, Lev 
Gleason Comics), 35, 
159-161 
Daredevil (superhero, Marvel 
Comics), 29, 43, 161-165, 

197, 210, 213, 265, 313, 
318, 334, 350, 419, 426, 
433, 451, 457, 463, 487, 
496, 500, 507, 510, 518, 
519, 523, 529, 554, 565, 
578, 579, 580, 581, 585, 
590, 595 

Daredevil Battles Hitler, 160 
Daredevil Battles Hitler 
#1, 574 
"Daredevil: Born Again" story- 
line, 504 



fcflO 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Daredevil in the Media, 
165-167 

Daredevil vs. Spider-Man (ani- 
mated DVD, 2003), 165 

The Daredevils, 120 

Dargo, 600 

Daring, 475 

Daring Mystery #6 (1940), 
330 

Dark Angel, 538 

Dark, Danny, 545 

Dark Dhagor, 211 

Dark Horse See Dark Horse 
Comics 

Dark Horse Comics, 29, 38, 
51, 53, 98, 167, 239, 254, 
323,350,352,405,407, 
422, 423, 426, 446, 487, 
488, 504, 520, 529, 558, 
561, 563, 564, 571, 581, 
582, 583, 589, 608 

Dark Horse Miniatures, 595 

Dark Horse Presents (DHP), 
167, 561 

Dark Horse Presents 

#10, 337 
Dark Horse Presents 
#11 (debut of the 
Mask), 168 

Dark Justice, 147 

Dark Knight See Batman, as 
Dark Knight 

Dark Lord, 409 

Dark Nebula (Australian super- 
hero), 282 

Dark Phoenix, 580, 656 

"Dark Phoenix Saga" storyline 
(X-Men), 214 

Dark Warlords, 409 

Darkchylde, 537 

Darkfire, 212 

Darkhaven, Laurel, 399 

Darkminds, 21 

Darkmoor Research Centre, 
119 

The Darkness, 445 

Darknight Detective See Bat- 
man 

Darkseid, 93, 217, 309, 330, 
361,362,363,473,478, 
479, 517, 549, 551, 571, 
578,631 

Darkshadow, 399 

Darkstar (The New Titans) See 
Wonder Girl 

Darkstars (superteam), 241 

Darkwing Duck (animated 
series), 223, 493 

Darling, Lt. Frank, 415 

"Darling of Darkness," 144 

Darth Vader, 206, 283, 363 



Daugherty, Michael, 545 
Daughters of the Dragon, 

256-257, 287 
Dave Stevens' Rocketeer, 194 
Davey, John, 128, 130 
David McKay Company, 378 
David, Peter, 48, 110, 215, 

260, 262, 313, 528 
Davidson, Pam, 235 

marries Ralph Hinckley, 
236 
Davies, John Rhys, 165, 265 
Davis, Alan, 48, 120, 347, 

375,645 
Davis, Jack, 497 
Davis, Kristin, 474 
Davis, Larry, 102 
Davis, Michael, 345 
Davis, Phil, 378 
Davis, Rocky, 142 
Davison, Bruce, 656 
Dawnstar, 77 
Day of Judgment (miniseries, 

1999), 218 
The Day the Earth Stood Still 

(movie, 1951), 440 
Day, Gene, 339 
Daydreamers, 649 
Dayton, Steve, 187 
Dazzler (comic book), 405 
Dazzler #1 (Dazzler's 
debut), 170 
Dazzler (superhero), 170-171, 

536, 644, 653, 654 
Dazzler: The Movie (1984), 

170 
D-Boy, 597 
DC Comics, 171-176 

Batman, debut of, 56, 

172 
Batman, importance of, 

173-174 
creates first superhero 
team ever (Justice 
Society of America), 
298 
creates Justice League 

of America, 293 
and the "DC Explosion," 

96, 175 
and the "DC Implosion," 

8, 96, 175, 217 
and direct market sales, 

350 
editorial staff, appearing 

in comics, 277 
first superhero, intro- 
duces, 229 
genres of, 173 
in Golden Age, 172 



horror genre, importance 

to, 174 
Impact imprint, 138, 

279 
Kinney National Ser- 
vices, purchased by, 
174 
Jack Kirby defects to, 

from Marvel, 174-175 
and manga-inspired 

comics, 221 
Marvel Comics, competi- 
tion with, 174, 332, 
333 
Marvel Comics, partner- 
ship with, 174-175, 
334 
merges with Ail-Ameri- 
can Publications, 298 
as National Allied Publi- 
cations, 171 
as National Comics, 171 
origins of, 171 
sidekicks, invents use 

of, 230 
in Silver Age, 173 
Superman, debut of, 

172, 229 
Vertigo imprint, 175, 

198 
Warner Publishing, par- 
ent company of, 175 
WildStorm Studios, pur- 
chases, 226 
DC Comics Presents, 217, 

588, 591 
DC Comics: Sixty Years of the 
World's Favorite Comic Book 
Heroes (1995), 9, 171 
DC Comics Style Guide, 479 
DC Comics' 

WildStorm/Homage, 39 
"DC Explosion," 96, 175, 217 
DC Heroes Role-Playing Game, 

514 
"DC Implosion," 96, 175 
DC Universe Roleplaying Game, 

515 
DC vs. Marvel, 589 
de Brulier, Nigel, 129 
de Lancie, John, 227 
De Souza, Stephen E., 380 
Dead Girl, 565, 570, 653 
Deadhead, 527 
Deadline (comic book), 201 
Deadline (magazine), 583 
Deadlock (Youngblood villain), 

202 
Deadly Duo, 416 
Deadly Hands ofKung Fu, 339, 
358 



Deadman, 28, 59, 176-177, 
313, 383, 444, 502, 556, 
563 

Deadman #6, 176 (ill.) 

Deadpool, 580 

Deadshot, 297, 316, 579 

Dean, Betty, 475 

Death (villain), 414, 558 

The Death and Life of Super- 
man, 527 

"Death of Robin," storyline 
503 

See also Robin the Boy 
Wonder 

Death of Superman See 
Superman, Death of 

The Death of the Incredible 
Hulk (TV movie, 1990), 265 

Death Star, 156 

Death Star, 363 

Death Wish, 29 

Deathbird, 355 

Deathblow, 624 

Deathlok, 441, 518, 581 

Deathmask (comic book), 353 

Deathmask (villain), 365 

Deathmate Black See Death- 
mate #2 

Deathmate #2 (Gen 13's 
debut), 225 

Death's Head (English comic 
book), 283 

Deathstroke, 530, 582, 592, 
593 

DeCandido, Keith R. A., 527, 
528 

Decency Squad, 603 

Decrepit Comics, 104 

Deductive Comics, 74 

Dee, Jeff, 513 

Deerborn, Sue, 199 

DeFalco, Tom, 47, 170, 335, 
368, 463, 599 

Defenders (comic book), 179, 
184, 213, 476, 481 

Defenders (superteam), 136, 
177-179, 251, 354, 387, 
436, 437, 536, 569, 582 
Guardians of the Galaxy, 
crossover story with, 
242 

Defenders of the Earth (ani- 
mated series and comic 
book), 378, 379, 493, 556 

Defenders of the Earth 
(superteam), 569 

Defensor, 282 

Degaton, Per (villain), 298, 
574 

DeGuere, Philip, 184 

del Toro, Guillermo, 168, 256 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6a/ 



Index 



Delaney, Dana, 549 
Delaney, Samuel R., 629 
Delano, Jamie, 120 
Delicate Creatures, 275 
Dell Comics, 42, 76, 221, 

356, 404, 434, 556 
Dell, Gabriel, 296 
DeMatteis, J. M., 294, 295, 

329, 330 
Demise, 527 
Demo, 601 
The Demon, 94, 557 
Demon (superhero), 297, 405, 

549 
"Demon in a Bottle," 518 
Dennis, Paul See Robotman 
Dent, Harvey, 68 
Dent, Lester, 180, 182, 511 
Denton Fixx, 106 
Department H, 10, 11, 625 
DePatie-Freleng Studio, 209, 

457, 464, 492 
Der, Richard, 422 
Des Moines Register and Tri- 
bune Syndicate, 466, 467 
Desaad, 362, 478, 578 
Desanex, Philbert, 627 
DeSanto, Tom, 656 
Desert Base, 258 
Despero, 293, 576 
DeStefano, Stephen, 106 
Destiny, 475, 658 
Destroyer, 513, 554, 559 
Destroyer Duck (comic book, 

1982-1984), 223, 416 
Destructor, 95 
Detective, 502 

Detective Comics, 4, 55, 171, 
199, 365, 403, 432, 498, 
500, 528, 553, 562 
Detective Comics #1 
(March 1937), 229 
Detective Comics #20 
(Crimson Avenger's 
debut, October 1938), 
229 
Detective Comics #27 
(Batman's debut, May 
1939), 57, 172, 229, 
580 
Detective Comics #38 
(Robin's debut, April, 
1940), 57, 172, 230, 
315, 400, 427 
Detective Comics #115 
(debut of Martian Man- 
hunter), 431 
Detective Comics #359 
(debut of Batgirl), 55 
Detective Comics, Inc., 171, 
229,327,329,539 



Detective Story (magazine), 

420 
Detective Story Magazine Hour 

(radio show), 420, 421 
Devil, 378 
Devil-Fish, 34 
Devil Hulk, 263 
Devilman (1972), 20, 155 
Devins, Dick, 440 
DeVito, Danny, 66, 70 
Dexter Cortex, 74 
Dexter, Rex, 440 
Dexter's Laboratory, 391 
Dezaki, Osamu, 37, 150 
Dezuniga, Tony, 182 
Diablo, 577 
Diabolik (Italian superhero), 

283 
"Dial 'H' for Hero," 103,179- 

180, 329 
Diamond Comic Distributors, 

525 
Diamond Jack, 99 
Diamond Lil, 11 
Diamondback, 579 
Diamondhead, 369, 370 
Diaper Man, 491 
Diaz, Cameron, 338, 538 
Dibny, Ralph See Elongated 

Man 
Dibny, Sue, 317 
DIC, 365, 413, 493, 609 
Dick Giordano: Changing 

Comics, One Day at a Time 

(2003), 7, 28, 144, 502 
Dick Tracy (comic book), 248, 

508 
Dickering, Bob, 27 
Dickering, John, 27 
Dickey Dean, 585 
Dictionary (villain), 615 
Die Another Day (movie, 

2002), 538 
Die Fledermaus (superhero), 

603, 604 
Diehard (Youngblood), 202 
Digimon, 133 
Dillin, Dick, 89, 294, 500 
Dimension X, 595 
Dimpsey, Michael, 38 
Dinah Soar, 48 
Dinehart, Alan, 72 
Dingbats, 373 
Dingle, Derek, 345 
Dingo (Southern Squadron), 

282 
Dini, Paul, 66, 110, 295, 297, 

363 
Dino Boy (superhero), 246, 

438 
Dinosaur Neil, 603 



DiPego, Gerald, 165 

Dippe, Mark A. Z.,445 

Dipreta, Tony, 160 

Direct market selling, 1, 144, 
152, 170, 217, 350 

Dirt Devil, 609 

Dirty Harry (policeman), 29 

Dirty Pair, 21 

Dirty Trixie, 492 

Disco Dazzler, 170 

Disney Studios See Walt Dis- 
ney Studios 

Disney, Walt, 19, 36, 104 

Ditko, Steve, 28, 42, 92, 117, 
118, 144, 152, 153, 161, 
174, 183, 184, 194, 249, 
250, 433, 435, 449, 452, 
453, 455, 460-462, 470, 
501, 554, 601, 614 

Division 13, 169, 488 

DNAgents (comic book), 157, 
193, 350, 570 

DNAgents #5, 194 (ill.) 

DNAgents (superteam), 416 

Doan, Colleen, 21 

Doc Magnus, 341 

Doc Ock See Doctor Octopus 

Doc Samson, 260, 262 

Doc Savage (movie, 1975), 
182 

Doc Savage (radio serial), 511 

Doc Savage (superhero), 
180-182, 406, 440, 538 

Doc Savage Brotherhood of 
Bronze, 182 

Doc Savage Comics, 95, 182, 
511 

Doc Savage #3, 181 (ill.) 

Doc Savage, the Invincible See 
Doc Savage (superhero) 

Dockwell, 622 

Doctor (The Authority), 44 

Dr. Alchemy, 575 

Dr. Alraune, 353 

Dr. Buick Riviera, 53 

Dr. Cadaver, 75 

Dr. Cesarian, 473 

Dr. Cobra, 467 

Dr. Cyber, 629 

Dr. Daka, 61, 509 

Dr. Death, 573 

Dr. Demon, 422 

Doctor Destiny, 342, 576 

Doctor Diman, 349 

Doctor Doom, 165, 206, 208, 
209, 266, 282, 457, 507, 
577,579 

Dr. Dorcas, 31 

Doctor Double-X, 575 

Dr. Dred, 492 

Dr. Drew, 382 



Dr. Droog, 470 

Dr. Dunn, 600 

Dr. Erdel, 330 

Dr. Eternity, 124 

Dr. Evil (Captain Action villain), 

110, 111, 578 
Dr. Fang, 33 
Dr. Fate, 188-189, 301, 432, 

434, 488, 516, 556, 565, 

566, 568, 573, 574, 585, 

590 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Dr. Gore, 443 
Dr. Gruesome, 277 
Dr. Hy Q. Binana, 75 
Dr. Killemoff, 493 
Dr. Kisaragi, 155 
Dr. Lancaster Hill, 138 
Dr. Light, 293, 576, 591 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Dr. Macabre, 139 
Dr. Manhattan, 571, 611, 619 
Dr. Midnight, 529 
Dr. Mid-Nite, 301, 488, 566, 

529 

death of, 301 

Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Doctor Miracle, Master of 

Magic, 248 
Doctor Mist (Global 

Guardians), 281 
Dr. Moreau, 598 
Dr. Occult, 556, 615 
Doctor Octopus, 82, 265, 

451, 455, 457, 460, 461, 

466, 578 
Dr. Osmosis, 132 
Dr. Petrie, 338, 339 
Dr. Poison, 629 
Dr. Polaris, 518, 575 
Dr. Psycho, 573, 629, 631, 

632 
Doctor Regulus, 576 
Dr. Riddle, 573 
Dr. Roberts, 186 
Dr. Scarab, 493 
Dr. Schubert, 326 
Dr. Sivana, 125, 126, 130, 

131,296,518,573,575, 

579 
Dr. Slump, 190, 391 
Doctor Solar, 42, 117 
Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom, 

434 



tf& 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Dr. Sparta, 601 

Dr. Speck, 185 

Dr. Spectra, 118, 578 

Dr. Spectrum, 520 

Dr. Spicier, 414 

Dr. Stellar, 74 

Doctor Strange (comic book), 

115 
Doctor Strange (superhero), 

82-184, 177, 178, 179, 

260, 318, 334, 433, 445, 

457, 487, 501, 510, 516, 

556, 563, 565, 569, 578, 

581, 590 

as symbol of the hippie 
movement, 183 
Doctor Strange (TV movie), 

184 
Doctor Strange, Master of the 

Mystic Arts: Nightmare, 526 
Doctor Strangefate, 590 
Dr. Strangeglove, 341 
Dr. Tenma, 36 
Dr. Thirteen, 382, 556 
Dr. Tumolo, 135 
Dr. Tzin-Tzin, 69 
Dr. Villain, 472 
Dr. Weird (comic book), 75 
Dr. Weird (superhero), 74, 100 
Dr. Zap, 455 

Dodd, Wesley See Sandman 
Dodson, Terry, 83 
Doghouse of Solitude, 561 
Doiby Dickies, 101 
Do-It- Yourself Heroes, 

184-185 

See also Action Girl, Cap- 
tain Clockwork, Dr. 
Speck, The Eye, Mr. A, 
Xal-Kor, the Human Cat 
Dolan, Ellen, 467, 468 
Dolenz, Mickey, 603 
Doll Girl, 186, 315, 429, 533, 

564 
Doll Man (superhero), 40, 83, 

84, 185-187, 230, 315, 

429, 499, 533, 564, 567, 

573 
Dolmeck, 155 
Dolmen (Iberia Inc.), 284 
Dolph, 54 

Dolphin, 31, 33, 373, 635 
Dominique, 150 
Domino, 652, 653 
Domino, Johnny See Night 

Man 
Dominoed Dare-Doll, 510 
Dominus, 551, 580 
Dominus, Frank, 365 
"Don Martin Looks at the 

Hulk" (MAD parody), 106 



Don't Touch That Dial!, 511 
Don't Touch That Dial: Radio 

Programming in American 

Life from 1920 to 1960, 356 
Donatello, 595 
Donenfeld, Harry, 171, 229, 

298 
Donenfeld, Irwin, 277, 432 
Donner, Richard, 495, 546 
Donovan, 541 
Donovan, Patsy, 511 
Doodle, 559 
Doom Beam Torch, 131 
Doom Patrol, 187-188, 404, 

530, 535, 564, 569 
Doom Patrol (comic book), 

187, 590, 614 

Doom Patrol #96, 187 
(ill.) 
Doom, Victor Von See Doctor 

Doom 
Doomsday, 527, 542, 551, 

579 
Doop, 653 
Doorman, 48 
Doran, Colleen, 390, 504 
Dorfman, Leo, 483 
Dorgan, Ron, 53 
Dork, 443 
Dorkin, Evan, 106 
Dormammu, 183, 465, 578 
Dorn, Michael, 210 
Dorno (The Herculoids), 246 
Dororo (animated series, 

1969), 322 
Dororo (comic book, 

1967-1968), 322 
Dorothy Spinner, 614 
Dorrance, Dane, 33 
Double Header, 216 
Double-Dare Adventures #2, 

279 (ill.) 
The Double Life of Private 

Strong (comic book), 35, 

560 
007 (Double-O-Seven, James 

Bond), 580 
Douglas, Ronalda, 290 
Douglas, Sarah, 546 
Dove (superhero), 77, 174, 

250-251, 430, 591, 592 
death of, 250 
second version of, 250 
third version of, 251 
Down Comix (Italy), 283 
Down to Earth (movie), 232 
Dozier, William, 62, 238, 516, 

632 
Drac de Ferro (Iberia Inc.), 284 
Dracula, 456, 465, 478 



Dracula (comic book), 16, 
434, 556 

Drag Cartoons, 627 

Dragon, 415, 592 

Dragon Ball (comic book), 20, 
21, 22, 189-192 

Dragon Ball (book), 190 

Dragon Ball GT, 190, 191 

Dragon Ball Z (comic book), 
191, 392 

Dragon Ball Z Part 5, #4, 
190 (ill.) 

Dragon Ball Z (animated 
series), 190, 191 

Dragon Horse, 189 

Dragon King, 466 

Dragon Lady, 233 

Dragon Man, 577 

Dragonballs, 190 

Dragonfly (superhero), 1, 280 

Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, 
120 

Drak, 492 

DraW Pack, 492 

Drake, Arnold, 176, 187, 241 

Drake, Bobby, 642 

Drake, Dinah, 79, 315 

Drake, Maria See Miss Fury 

Drake, Tim See Robin the Boy 
Wonder 

Drakulon, 556 

Drama of Hollywood, 348 

Draven, Eric See Craw 

Dreadknaught, 551 

Dreadstar, 441 

Dream Girl, 318 

Dream Queen, 11 

Dreamwave Studios, 21 

Drew, Billy, 465 

Drew, Jessica See Spider- 
Woman, 

Drug addiction in comics, 25, 
237 

Drumm, Jericho, 8 

Drusilla,97,634 

Duchamp, John Paul See 
Frenchie 

Duchess Ramona Fatale, 90 

Duckberg, 104 

Ducovny, Allen, 515 

Ductile Detective, 510 

Duffy, Mary Jo, 287, 388 

Duffy, Patrick, 34, 297, 326 

Dugan, Dum-Dum, 364 

Duin, Steve, 248, 501 

Dukes, Fred, 658 

Dukse Drengen (Danish super- 
hero), 284 

Dumb Bunny (Inferior Five), 
103,276,570 

Dummy, 574 



Dunaway, Faye, 490, 546 
Duncan, John, 509 
Duncan, Mai, 7, 591 
Duncan, Michael Clarke, 166, 

460, 537 
Dung, 416 
Dungeons and Dragons, 512, 

514 
Dunn, Ben, 21,393 
Dunn, Rodney, 38 
Duo Damsel, 309, 318 
Dunst, Kirsten, 458, 460 
The Duo (2001), 109 
Durock, Dick, 555 (ill.) 
Dushku, Eliza, 97,99 
Dusty, 400, 559, 574 
Dusty, the Boy Detective, 427 
Duursema, Jan, 330 
Dwyer, Kieron, 48 
Dyer, Sarah, 2, 184 
DynaGirl, 96, 194-195, 536 
Dynamic Duo See Batman; 

Robin the Boy Wonder 
Dynamic Man, 2 
Dynamic vibrator (Scarab's 

weapon), 115 
Dynamite, 601 
Dynamo, 434, 570, 580, 600, 

601 
Dynavac, 601 
Dynomutt (superhero), 78, 

247, 492 
Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (ani- 
mated series), 105, 247, 

492 



Eagle, 2, 77, 177,558 
Eagle Awards, 347 
Eag/e Riders, 74 
Eaglesham, Dale, 244 
Eames, Barry E. See B-Man 
Earhart, Amelia, 533 
Earhart, Edward, 217 
Earl, Tyrone C, 328 
Earth Defense Force (EDF), 

597 
Earth Prime, 300 
Earth Spirit, 217, 359, 649 
Earth X (comic book), 184, 

420 
Earth-One, 432 
Earth-S, 300 
Earth's Mightiest Heroes See 

The Avengers (superteam) 
Earth-Two, 65, 141, 270, 294, 

299, 300, 315, 432, 536, 

586, 630 
Earth-Two Batman, 65, 270 

death of, 300 
Earth-X (planet), 300 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



683 



Index 



Eason, Breezy, 379 
East, Jeff, 483, 495 
Easter Island, 598 
Eastern Color, 32 
Eastman, Kevin, 105, 184, 

504, 514, 593, 595 
Eastwood, Clint, 26, 29 
Easy Rider (1969), 116 
Eaton, Scot, 244 
Ebon, 471 
Ebony White, 5, 468 
EC Comics, 89, 102, 152, 

249, 556, 501 
Echo, 463 
Ecker, Chris, 74, 75 
Eckhart, Mason, 657 
Eclipse Comics, 1, 20, 138, 

324, 347, 350, 405, 406, 

513 
Eclipse Heroes, 193-195 
See a/so DNAgents 
(superteam), Miracle- 
man, Re-Combatants 
(superteam), Sabre, 
Sgt. Strike, Static, 
Strike! 
Eclipso, 341, 529, 576 
Eden, Eve, 118 
EDF See Earth Defense Force 
Edghill, Rosemary See eluki 

bes shahar 
Edlund, Ben, 106, 602 
Egeland, Martin, 256, 288 
Egg Fu, 629 

Egghead, 23, 24, 64, 70, 576 
Ego, the Living Planet, 598 
Egon N'g (Lobo), 311 
Eiber, Shelley, 504 
890 5th Avenue (Avengers' 

mansion), 507 
The Eighth Man, 490 
Einstein, Albert, 44, 200 
Einstein, Frank See Madman 
Eisenberg, Susan, 635 
Eisner, Will, 83, 84, 87,92, 

147, 185, 186, 232, 234, 

249, 383, 385, 466, 467, 

468, 497, 498, 558 
Eisners See Will Eisner Comic 

Industry Awards 
Ekland, Britt, 484 
El Diablo, 359 
El Dorado, 478 
El Encapuchado (Spanish 

superhero), 284 
El Gato (Filipino superhero), 284 
El Hombre Invisible (Mexican 

superhero), 284 
El Kabong, 223, 245 
El Mago (Spanish superhero), 

284 



El Muerto (Planet DC), 282 

El Seed, 603 

El Toro, 23 

Elastic Lad See Olsen, Jimmy 

Elasti-Girl, 187, 188, 535, 

564, 569, 614 
Elasto, 422 
Eldred, Tim, 21, 393 
ElectraWoman, 96, 524, 536 
ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, 

194-195 
Trie Electric Company, 456 
Electro, 65, 451, 455, 457, 

463, 518, 578 
Electro Girl (English super- 
hero), 283 
Electrocute (superhero), 609 
Electrocutioner, 70, 518 
Electroman (English super- 
hero), 283 
Electron, 470 
Elektra (superhero), 29, 51, 

162, 166, 166 (ill.), 

195-197, 214, 215, 319, 

335,350,496,519,536, 

537, 582, 590 
death of, 196 
resurrection of, 196 
Elektra & Wolverine: The 

Redeemer (2001), 22, 197 
Elektra: Assassin, 196-197, 

354, 503 
The Elektra Saga (1984), 196 
Elementals (comic book), 350, 

504, 513 

Elementals #1, 198 (ill.) 
Elementals (superteam), 34, 

197-198, 565 
Element Lad, 309 
Elevator Man, 491 
Elfquest, 21, 38 
Elgin, Jill, 81 
Elias, Lee, 81, 248, 287 
Elizabeth, Shannon, 520 
Elliott, Sam, 267 
Ellis Island, 656 
Ellis, Warren, 44 
Ellison, Harlan, 47, 179, 260, 

497 
Ellison, J., 549 
Ellsworth, Whitney, 483, 544, 

545 
Elmo the Wonder Dog, 186 
Eloise (Phantom's daughter), 

378 
Elongated Man (comic book), 

500 
Elongated Man (superhero), 

198-199, 220, 317, 329, 

494, 510, 564, 568 



Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
eluki bes shahar (pseudonym 

of Rosemary Edghill), 528 
Elvira, 439 
Ely, Ron, 182 
E-Man (comic book), 95, 144, 

199-200 
E-Man (superhero), 199-200, 

416 
Emerald Archer See Green 

Arrow 
Emerald Crusader, 240, 510 
Emerald Dawn (comic book, 

1989), 241 
Emil Gargunza, 347 
Eminem, 406 
Emperor Miroku, 321 
Emperor Pilaf, 191 
Empire State University, 452, 

453 
Emplate, 648, 649 
Enchantress, 570 
The Endless (supernatural 

being), 614 
End/ess Nights (2003), 415 
Endymion, 412 
"Enemy of the State II," 520 
Energizer, 389, 567 
Enforcers, 451 
Eng, Paul, 565 
Engineer, 44 
Englehart, Steve, 47, 60, 113, 

136, 178, 184, 316, 339, 

358,365,387,417,436, 

502, 608 
English, John, 129 
English superheroes See Inter- 
national Heroes 
Englund, Robert, 297 
Ennis, Garth, 374 
Entropy Twins, 200 
Epic Illustrated (magazine), 

335 
Epper, Jeannie, 634 
Epperson, Jerry, 526 
Epting, Steve, 48 
Era (villain), 349 
Eradicator, 472 
Erdel, Professor Mark, 328 
Eris, 631 
Escaflowne, 413 
"Escapist, Master of Elusion," 

528 
Escobar, Luis, 54 
Espinosa, Angelo, 649 
Esposito, Mike, 501, 629 
Esquire, 627 

Estigma (Triada Vertice), 284 
Estrada, Ric, 290 
Eternals, 571 



Eternity, 183 
Etrigan, 557 
Eugenius, 116 
Euro Temps, 527 
Euro-Trash (Contest of Champi- 
ons, 2003), 282 
Eury, Michael, 7, 502 
Evanier, Mark, 90, 110, 157, 

165, 193, 194, 350, 498 
Evans, George, 497 
Evans, Nathaniel, 659 
Evans, Tom, 121 
Evanston Asylum, 602 
Eventually, Anna, 225 
Everett, Bill, 32, 161, 165, 

232, 259, 267, 331, 332, 

474, 475, 476, 499, 584 
Everson, Cory, 265 
Everyday Heroes, 200-201 
Evil, 597 

The Evil That Men Do, 83 
Evil Midnight Bomber What 

Bombs at Midnight, 603 
Evilheart, 104 
Excalibur (comic book), 282 
Excalibur (superteam), 120, 

567, 646, 647, 653 
Excel Saga, 394 
Excelsior! The Amazing Life of 

Stan Lee (2002), 206, 433 
Executioner, 574 
Exiles, 369, 609 
Extant, 250 
Extraho, 368, 571 
Extrano (New Guardians), 282 
Extreme Justice (1995-1996), 

118,295,479 
Extreme Justice Group, 118 
Extreme Studios, 202, 423 
Extreme Studios Heroes, 

202-203 

See also Avengelyne and 
Glory, Badrock, Brah- 
ma, Combat, Cougar, 
Chapel, Diehard, Psi 
Fire, Riptide, Sentinel, 
Shaft, Supreme, Troll, 
Vogue 
Exupery, Ginny, 3 
The Eye, 184 
Eye of Agamatto, 183, 556, 

581 



Fables (2002- ), 175, 198 
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, 

627 
Face (superhero), 553 
Fade (superhero), 368 
Faerber, Jay, 257, 287, 288 



tff* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Fairchild (Gen 13), 225, 226, 

227, 563, 570 
Fairchild, Caitlin See Fairchild 

(Gen 13) 
The Fairly Oddparents, 494 
Faith (Justice League of Ameri- 
ca), 295 
Faith (vampire slayer), 97, 98 
Falcon, 6, 7, 76, 77, 113, 

114, 358, 560, 562 
Falcon (English superhero), 283 
Falconio, Maria, 396 
Falk, Lee, 377, 378 
Fall of the Mutants, 390 
Fallen Angel, 488 
Fallen Angel, 215 
Fallout (Australian superhero), 

283 
Fallout Boy, 43, 106 
Family Comics See Harvey 

Comics 
Family Home Entertainment, 

449 
Famous Funnies #1 (early 

comic strip anthology), 

228-229 
Fanooy (1999), 107 
Fandral, 598 
Fanfare, 20 
Fantastic Fear, 104 
Fantastic Force, 425 
Fantastic Four (animated 

series, 1967-1970), 207, 

208, 246, 435, 491, 578 
Fantastic Four (animated 

series, 1994-1996), 165, 

208, 209-210, 265 
Fantastic Four (comic book), 

21, 84, 105, 257, 335, 

357, 369, 386, 425, 429, 

433, 475, 476, 492, 493, 

499, 500, 501, 503, 587, 

589, 654 

Fantastic Four #1 (Fan- 
tastic Four debuts, 
November 1961), 
205-206, 208, 333, 
535, 586 
Fantastic Four #45 (Inhu- 

mans' debut), 277 
Fantastic Four #48 
(introduction of Silver 
Surfer), 435, 441 
Fantastic Four #82, 207 
(ill.) 
Fantastic Four (movie, 1994), 

207-208, 209 
Fantastic Four (movie, 2005), 

208, 210 
Fantastic Four (radio show, 

1975), 208-209 



Fantastic Four (superteam), 5, 
10, 22-24, 27, 33, 43, 45, 
47, 48, 85, 94, 112, 122, 
142, 205-207, 214, 266, 
269,317,318,387,389, 
390, 418, 433, 451, 460, 
487, 494, 498, 507, 516, 
518, 524, 563, 564, 567, 
572, 576, 578, 589 
animated series, first 
appearance in, 207 
catch phrases of, 206 
how superpowers were 

obtained, 205 
human attributes of, 200 
as Marvel Comics first 

superteam, 333 
parody of, 277 
villains faced by, 206 

Fantastic Four Annual, 269 

Fantastic Four Annual #3 (wed- 
ding of Dr. Reed Richards 
and Sue Storm, 1965), 206 

The Fantastic Four: Countdown 
to Chaos (1998), 528 

The Fantastic Four: Doomsday, 
526 

Fantastic Four in the Media, 
208-210 

The Fantastic Four: Redemp- 
tion of the Silver Surfer 
(1998), 528 

Fantasti-car, 206, 572 

Fantasy Games Unlimited, 513 

Fantax (French superhero), 283 

Fantom of the Fair (superhero), 
230 

Fantomah, Mystery Woman of 
the Jungle, 532 

Farmer, Philip Jose, 182 

Farnon, Shannon, 633 

Farr, Rita, 187 

Farrell, Colin, 166, 590 

Farrell, Katherine, 201 

Farrow, Mia, 546 

Fass, Myron, 122 

Fastest Man Alive See The 
Flash 

Fat Catt, 186 

Fat Fury, 102 

Fatal Five, 309, 576 

Fatality, 580 

Fate, 189 

Father Pierre, 83 

Fathom, 275 

Fathom (Elementals), 34, 197, 
565 

Fatman the Human Flying 
Saucer, 104 

Fatman the Human Flying 
Saucer #3, 103 (ill.) 



Faulidi Singh (Indian super- 
hero), 283 
Faust, Felix, 293, 297, 479, 

576 
Fausta (villain), 634 
Faustino, David, 472 
Fausto (Mexican superhero), 

284 
Fawcett City, 488 
Fawcett Comics, 75, 99, 122, 
124, 125, 128, 132, 213, 
222, 336, 428, 479, 
508-509, 526, 533, 556, 
567, 568, 573, 585 

DC Comics, sued by over 
Captain Marvel's simi- 
larities to Superman 
character, 129 
See also Fawcett Publica- 
tions 
Fawcett Miniatures, 100 
Fawcett Publications, 95, 101, 
347, 492, 498, 499, 516, 
637 

See also Fawcett Comics 
F.E.A.R., 76 
Fearforce, 212 
Fearless Fly, 223 
Fearsome Five, 494, 592 
Feature Books, 378 
Feature Comics, 185 

Feature Comics #27 
(Doll Man's debut), 
185 
Feature Comics #42, 
558 
Feds 'n'Heds, 627 
Feiffer, Jules, 418, 468, 469 
Feithera, 76 
Felder, James, 288 
Feldon, Jerry, 180 
Feldstein, Al, 39 
Feldstein's Bar& Grill, 39 
Felicia Hardy: The Black Cat, 

83 
Felina (French superhero), 283 
Female sidekicks See Side- 
kicks, Female 
Female superheroes, 

210-212 
Femforce (comic book), 2, 
210-212 

Femforce #120, 211 

(ill.) 
Good Girl art's influence 
on, 234 
Femforce (superheroes), 140, 
210-212, 382, 416, 567 
Femforce merchandise, 
212 
Femforce Up Close, 212 



Feminism, 212-215 

Femizon, 214 

Fern-Paragon, 212 

Feral, 652 

Fernandez, Peter, 19, 37, 448, 

449 
Feron, 647 
Ferrer, Miguel, 297 
Ferrigno, Lou, 165, 260, 264, 

265, 267 
Ferris, Carol See Star Sapphire 
Ferro, 564 
Ferro Lad, 564 
Ferry, Paschalis, 256, 288 
Fiction House, 234, 381, 439, 

466, 469, 532 
Fiddler, 219, 574, 591, 615 
Fight Club (movie, 1999), 252 
Fight Comics, 234 
Fight the Enemy, 601 
Fighting American (comic 

book), 215-216, 233, 249, 

357, 434, 559, 560 
Fighting American #1, 
215 (ill.) 
Fighting American (superhero), 

215-216, 429, 554, 559, 

575 
Fighting American Prize 

Comics, 102 
Fighting American revival 

(1966), 216 
Fighting American revival 

(1994), 216 
The Fighting Yank (comic 

book), 637 
Fighting Yank (superhero), 2, 

559, 560 
Fillion, Nathan, 98 
Film Roman productions, 236 
Filmation Studio, 128, 130, 

290, 295, 464, 482, 483, 

491, 545, 593 
Fin (superhero) 32 
Fin Fang Foom, 257 
Final Fantasy (video game), 21 
Fincher, David 252 
Fine, Lou, 83, 84, 185, 186, 

232, 468, 499 
Finger, Bill, 56, 61, 68, 88, 

140, 172, 239, 498 
Fingers Martin, 349 
Finn, Riley, 97 
Finster, 343 
Fire See Green Flame 
Fire and Ice, 537 
Fire elemental, 217 
Firearm (comic book), 609 
Firearm (superhero), 589 
Firebrand (All-Star Squadron), 

289, 300 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



68s 



Index 



Firebreather (2003), 276 
Firefly (comic book), 604 
Firefly (superhero), 69, 153 
Firestar, 331, 457, 570, 654 
Firestorm (superhero), 43, 

216-218, 430, 478, 488 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
merges with Pozhar, 218 
origins of, 217 
Raymond version, 218 
Stein version, 218 
See also Universal Fire 
Elemental 
Firestorm Annual #5 (original 

Firestorm merges with 

Pozhar), 218 
Firestorm, the Nuclear Man, 

217 
Firestorm, the Nuclear Man 

See Firestorm (superhero) 
The First American (comic 

book), 16 
First American (superhero), 

560 
First Comics, 52, 200, 350, 

441, 504, 595 
First Evil, 98 
The First Family, 39 
First Issue Special, 373, 374, 

470 

First Issue Special #5, 
327 
First Publications, 324 
First Publishing, 20 
Fisher (Australian superhero), 

283 
Fisherman, 32, 213, 576 
Fisk, Randy See Darkshadow 
Fisk, Wilson See Kingpin 
Fist of the North Star, 21, 391 
Fite, Linda, 135, 536 
Five Swell Guys, 508 
Fixer, 161 
Fixit, Joe See The Hulk, gray 

version of 
Flag, 559, 637 
Flag Man, 559, 637 
Flagg See Patriot 
Flagg, James Montgomery, 

558 
Flagg, Johnny See Fighting 

American 
Flagg, Reuben, 351 
Flame (superhero), 2, 230, 

315, 429 
Flame Girl, 315, 429, 534 
"Flame on!" catch phrase, 

206 
Flamebird, 429 
The Flaming Carrot, 168 



Flaming Carrot Comics, 105, 

109 
Flare, 568 

Tfie Flash (comic book), 174, 
199, 217, 368, 432, 500, 
541, 588 

The Flash #110 (Kid 
Flash's debut), 220 
The Flash #112 (Elongat- 
ed Man's debut), 199 
The Flash #123 (Jay Gar- 
rick's return), 220 
The Flash #145, 219 
(ill.) 
The Flash (Golden Age), 431, 

586 
The Flash (Silver Age), 418, 

429, 431, 434 
The Flash (superhero), 102, 
172, 173, 199, 218-221, 
252, 293, 296, 296 (ill.), 
297,301,313,317,328, 
357,475,477,478,485, 
499, 500, 510, 517, 525, 
549, 565, 566, 568, 573, 
574,575,582,585,586, 
587, 588, 589, 590, 593, 
602, 615, 639 

Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
The Flash (TV series), 147, 

175,221 
Hash Comics, 40, 79, 219, 
220, 252 

Flash Comics #1 (Flash's 
origins, Hawkman's 
debut), 172, 219 
Flash Gordon (animated 

series), 494 
Flash Gordon (movie serial), 

508 
Flash Gordon (superhero), 
144, 252, 378, 379, 439, 
493, 569, 616 
"Flash of Two Worlds" story- 
line, 432 
Flash Thompson, 318 
The Flash II, 564 
The Flash III, 564 
Flashbulb, 71 
Flat Man, 48 
Flatfoot Burns, 381 
Flathead, 494 
FLCL, 394 
Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), 

227 
Fleer Corporation, merger with 

Marvel Comics, 335 
Fleetwood Mac, 405 
Fleischer Brothers, 19 
Fleischer, Max, 36 



Fleischer, Michael, 27, 71, 

464 
Fleischer Studios, 540, 543, 

575 
Rem, Dr. Gillespie, 322 
Flesh, 493 

Flesh and Bones, 466 
Flessel, Craig, 414 
Fleur de Lyse (superhero), 

122, 282 
Flex, 11 

Flexo the Rubber Man, 332 
"Flight of the Bumblebee" 

(Hirt), 238, 508 
Flintstone, Fred, 207, 209, 

492 
The Flintstones, 492 
The Flintstones Comedy Show 

(animated series, 1980), 

247 
Florea, Sandu, 244 
Flora (New Guardians), 282, 

571 
Flounders, Jack, 208 
FLQ See Front de Liberation du 

Quebec (FLQ) 
Fluid Man (The Impossibles), 

245-246, 491, 492 
Fluid Man (The Super Globe- 
trotters), 105 
The Flush, 104 
The Fly, 35, 248, 280, 434, 

535, 568 
Fly Girl, 35, 290, 535 
Fly, Hyram, 223 
Fly Man See The Fly 
Fly People, 280 
Flying Batcave, 572 
Flying Detectives, 99 
Flying Eye (Batman's gadget), 

72 
Flying Fox, 368 
Flying Fury, 510 
Flying Girl, 2 

Flying Saucers of Death, 132 
Flying Tigers, 414 
Flyman (Mexican superhero), 

284 
Foley, Richie See Gear 
Forbidden Worlds (comic 

book), 434 
Forbush, Irving, 104 
Forbush-Man, 104 
Force of July, 375 
Force Works (superheroes), 

252, 417 
Forces of Order, 250-251 
Forceworks, 87 
Ford, Alex, 549 
Ford, Anita, 633 
Ford Futura, 571 



Ford, Glenn, 483 

Foreigner, 83 

Forever People (comic book), 

93, 175, 361, 363, 486 
Forever People (superteam), 

362, 571 

Forerunners (Australian super- 
heroes), 283 

Forge, 644, 656 

Forman, Carol, 509, 544 

Formerly Known as the Justice 
League (comic book), 93, 
295 

Formicidia, 635 

Forrest, Rhosyn, 530 

Forte, John, 89 

Fortress of Solitude See 
Superman's Fortress of Soli- 
tude 

Fortunato, 463, 527 

Fortunato the Tantric See For- 
tunato 

Foster, Bill, 8, 23 

Foster, Hal, 497 

Foster, Jane, 257, 598, 599 

Foster, Wendy, 84 

Foundation for Oceanic 
Research, 326 

4 (comic book), 208 

Four Freedoms Plaza, 507 

Four Horsemen of the Apoca- 
lypse, 383 

411, 566 

4Kids Entertainment, 608 

Fourth World, 93, 361, 362, 

363, 478, 498, 553, 578 
Fox Children's Network, 655 

See also Fox Kids 
Fox Comics, 92, 127, 498 
Fox Feature Syndicate, 77, 

137, 144, 229-230, 234, 

247, 279, 556 
Fox, Gardner, 3, 4, 41, 188, 

199, 219, 252, 293, 298, 

329, 357, 414, 469, 500, 

638 
Fox, Gill, 385 
Fox, Jon, 221 
Fox Kids, 116, 595 

See also Fox Children's 
Network 
Fox Television, 69, 203, 457, 

466, 531, 533, 554 
Fox, Victor, 92, 229-230, 247, 

381, 382 
Fradon, Ramona, 214, 341, 

342, 385, 501 
France, Michael, 210, 266 
Francis, Genie, 265 
Franco, James, 460 
Frank, Leonard, 132 



(0f> 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Frank, Sandy, 72 

Frankenstein, 285 

Frankenstein (comic book), 
434, 556 

Frankenstein (novel), 257 

Frankenstein Jr. (superhero), 
245, 247 

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impos- 
sibles (animated series, 
1966), 103, 245, 490 

Frankenweenie, 60 

Frankie (Drak Pack), 492 

Franklin, Martha See Spider- 
Woman 

Franklin, Mattie See Spider- 
Woman 

Frasier, 635 

Frazetta, Frank, 497 

Freak, 289 

Freak Force, 416 

Freckles Marvel, 337 

Fred and Barney Meet the 
Schmoo See Fred and Bar- 
ney Meet the Thing 

Fred and Barney Meet the 
Thing (animated series, 
1979-1980), 207, 209, 
492 

Fred Wolf Films, 449 

Freedom Battalion See Justice 
Society of America 

Freedom Brigade (super- 
heroes), 276 

Freedom City, 514 

The Freedom Collective (super- 
heroes), 284 

Freedom Collective #1, 281 
(ill.) 

Freedom Fighters (comic book, 
1976-1978), 84, 95, 77, 
560, 567 

Freedom Fighters (super- 
heroes), 84, 186, 382 

Freedom Force (animated 
series), 290 

Freedom Force (comic book), 
492 

Freedom Force (superteam), 
465 

Freedom's Lady, 242 

Freefall (Gen 13), 225, 227, 
563 

Freeman, Freddy, 124, 530, 
531 

Freeman, George, 122 

Freemind (comic book), 353 

Freemind (superhero), 530 

Fremont,! C, 211 

Fremont, "Too Tall" Tara, 211, 
212 

Frees, Paul, 208 



Freex, 609 

Frehley, Ace, 405 

Freilich, Jeff, 297 

French, Dick, 88 

French superheroes See Inter- 
national Heroes 

Frenchie, 353 

Frenz, Ron, 463, 599 

Frew Company, 379 

Frewer, Matt, 266 

Friedman, Michael Jan, 528 

Friedrich, Gary, 120, 259 

Friender, 135 

Fries, Charles, 456 

Frightful Four, 277 

Fringe, 592 

Fritz, 421 

From Hell (movie), 18 

Front de Liberation du Quebec 
(FLQ), 367 

Frost, Adrienne, 650 

Frost, Deacon, 8 

Frost, Emma, 648, 649, 650, 
651 

Frost, Mark, 210 

Frost, Whitney See Madame 
Masque 

Frosty, 180 

Fruitman (comic book), 104, 
249 

Fry, James W., 194 

Fryes, Eddie, 237 

F-Stop/Hotstreak, 471 

Fu Manchu, 338, 340, 358 

Fu Tong, 160 

Fuchs, Bernie, 353 

Fuchs, Wolfgang, 5 

Fuji, Satoru, 325 

Fuji Television, 134 

Fujitaka, 133 

Fujitani, Bob, 84 

Fukushima, Hiroyuki, 135 

Full Latent Ability Gain, 116 

Fumimura, Sho, 326 

Fun Comics, 382 

Fun Parade (comic book), 248 

FUNimation Productions, 191 

Funnies, 131 

Funnies Inc., 267, 332, 474 

Funnies on Parade, 229 

Funny animal heroes, 
221-223, 332 

Funny Pages, 479 

"Funny papers," birth of, 228 

Funnyman, 102 

The Funtastic World of Hanna- 
Barbera (comic book), 439 

Furie, Sidney, 548 

Furst, Anton, 485 

The Further Adventures of Bat- 
man, 526 



The Further Adventures of Bat- 
man Volume 2: Featuring the 
Penguin, 526 

The Further Adventures of Bat- 
man Volume 3: Featuring Cat- 
woman, 526 

The Further Adventures of 
Superman: All-New Adven- 
tures of the Man of Steel, 
526 

Further Adventures of Super- 
Ted, 493 

The Further Adventures of Won- 
der Woman, 526 

Fury {Captain Midnight), 131 
Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
Wonder Woman's daugh- 
ter, 300 

Fury, Nick See Nick Fury, Agent 
of S.H.I. E.L.D. 

The Fury of Firestorm, the 
Nuclear Man See Firestorm, 
the Nuclear Man 

Fushigi Yung, 413 

Future Comics, 353, 530, 581 

Fuzzbuster, 52 



Gabby, 5 

Gabriel the Devil Hunter, 557 

Gabrielle, AI.80, 248 

Gadgetman (English super- 
hero), 283 

Gaga ray, 76 

Gage (Youngblood villain), 202 

Gaia See Earth Spirit 

Gaiman, Neil, 22, 175,348, 
351, 414, 445, 469, 504, 
505, 527, 614 

Gainax, 393, 394 

Gaines, M. C, 172, 298 

Gaines, Max See Gaines, M. 
C. 

Galactic, 169 

Galactic Golem, 551 

Galactic Guardians, 244, 479 

Galactus (comic book), 206 

Galactus (superhero), 
208-210, 318, 334, 369, 
372, 390, 435-437, 441, 
513, 577, 577 (ill.) 

Galar, 442 

Galaxo, 441 

Galaxy Express 999, 37 

Galaxy Girl, 246, 491 

The Galaxy Trio (animated 
series), 246 

Gallacher, Joe, 40 

Gallagher, Michael, 244 

Gallows, Jake, 397 



Galoob, 610 

Galoob toys, 365 

Galore, Pushy, 473, 474 

Gambit, 644, 655 

Gambler, 574 

Gameboy, 514 

Gamemnae, 32 

Gamit, 582 

Gamma Base, 265 

Gamma bomb, 258 

Gamma Flight, 11 

Gammill, Kerry, 287, 388 

Gamora, 214 

Gang Green Gang, 391 

Gangbuster, 359 

Garboil, 80,81 

Garcia, Manuel, 48 

Gardner, Craig Shaw, 426, 526 

Gardner, Grant, 115, 509 

Gardner, Guy (replacement 

Green Lantern), 241, 297, 

487, 582 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Garfield Logan, 138 
Garganta, 212 
Gargoyle, 266 
Garner, Jennifer, 29, 147, 164, 

166, 166 (ill.), 197, 215, 

537 
Garofalo, Janeane, 105, 109, 

168 
Garret, Dan, 92 
Garrick, Jay See The Flash 

(Golden Age) 
Garryn Bek, 312 
Garth See Tempest 
Gas Gang, 341 
Gas Gun, 238 
Gasaraki, 408 
Gatchaman, 18, 20, 134, 135, 

271, 596 
Gateway, 649 
Gateway City, 631 
The Gathering of the Sinister 

Six (1999), 528 
Gaucho (Batmen of All 

Nations), 282, 356 
Gautier, Dick, 635 
Gavilan (Spanish superhero), 

284 
Gavin, Chuck, 607 
Gay Comics, 368 
Gay superheroes See Homo- 
sexuality in comics 
Gay, Anne, 527 
Gaydos, Michael, 201 
Gear, 471 

Gebbie, Melinda, 16 
Gee, 389, 567 
G.E.E.C.,477 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6a? 



Index 



Geiger, Steve, 287, 388 

G-8 and His Battle Aces, 131 

Geist, M. D.,22 

Gellar, Sarah Michelle, 96 

Geller, Uri, 162 

Gemini Dawn, 426 

The Gemini Man (1976), 146 

Gen Active, 226 

Gen-Active powers, 225, 226 

Gen Factor, 624 

Gen 12 (Gen 13 spinoff), 226 

Gen 13 (animated movie), 

226-227 
Gen 13 (comic book), 21, 226, 

275, 505, 589, 624 
alternate covers, 226 
Gen 13 #0 (relaunch, 
September 2002), 
226 
Gen 13 #16 (final issue 
after relaunch, Febru- 
ary 2004), 226 
Gen 13 #77 (final issue, 
July 2002), 226 
Gen 13 (movie), 227 
Gen 13 (superheroes), 

225-227, 359, 563, 565, 

622 

crossover stories, 226 
novels, 226 
Gen 13 action figures, 226 
Gen 13 Bootleg (1996-1998), 

226 
Gen 13: Magical Drama Queen 

Roxy, 413 
Gen 13: Ordinary Heroes #1, 

226 (ill.) 
General Blankenship, 634 
General Bruno, 349 
General Colbert, 597 
General Electric (Sandman vil- 
lain), 414 
General Fang, 259 
General Immortus, 188 
General Wade Eiling, 118 
General Zod, 548, 550 
Generation X (comic book), 

570, 648, 650, 656 
Generation X (superteam), 

359,647,649,651 
Generation X: Crossroads 

(1998), 528 
Generator Gawl, 272 
Generic Comic Book, 37 '4 
Generic Super-Hero, 374 
Genesis, 653 
Genis, 124, 441 
Genosha, 657, 658 
Gensomaden Saiyuuki, 190 
Gentleman Ghost, 477, 574 
Geo-Force, 374, 569 



Geofront Plan (Hurricane Poly- 
mar), 272 
George, Lynda Day, 634 
George of the Jungle (animated 

series), 223 
Georgia Sivanna, 337 
Geppi, Steve, 525 
Geraci, Drew, 366 
Gerber, Steve, 47, 78, 178, 

193, 223, 242, 425, 519 
Gernsback, Hugo, 440 
Gershon, Gina, 460 
Gerstner-Miller, Gail, 527 
Get Smart, 107 
Geyer, Stephen, 236 
G-Force, (comic book), 74 
G-Force (superhero), 72, 73 
Ghetto Man, 297 
Ghost, (comic book), 169, 

352, 505 

Ghost #2, 167 (ill.) 
Griost #4, 589 
Ghost (Hawkman villain), 252 
Ghost (superhero), 29, 51, 

118, 256, 488, 537, 558, 

563, 578, 589 
Ghost and the Shadow, 169 
Ghost Breaker See Dr. 13 
Ghost in the Shell, 22, 169 
Ghost Planet, 437, 439 
Ghost Planet Headquarters, 

437 
Ghost Rider, (comic book), 94, 

228 

Ghost Rider #4, 227 (ill.) 
Ghost Rider (movie, 2004), 

228 
Ghost Rider (superhero), 

227-228 

86, 210, 266, 354, 557, 
568, 572, 590 
Ghost Rider 2099, 228 
"Ghost Riders in the Sky" 

(song), 227 
Ghost Ship, 437 
Ghost Who Walks See Phan- 
tom 
Ghost Woman, 534 
Ghost/Batgirl, 169 
Ghost/Hellboy, 169, 256 
Ghoul, 160, 609 
G/ Combat, 385 
GUoe (comic book), 111, 494, 

515 
Giacoia, Frank, 47, 82, 290 
Giant Size Invaders #1 

(Invaders' debut, 1975), 

285, 285 (ill.) 
Giant Size Master of Kung Fu, 

339 



Giant-Man, 23, 46, 259, 315, 
476, 510, 564, 606 

Giant-Man and Wasp Fan Club, 
23 

Giant-Man/Goliath, 618 

Giant-Size Defenders #1, 178 
(ill.) 

Giant-Size X-Men, 334, 358, 
359 

Giant-Size X-Men #1 
(Marvel's X-Men 
debut), 95, 568 

Gibbons, Dave, 15, 29, 175, 
351, 442, 469, 504, 618, 
619 

Gibson, Robert See Shock Gib- 
son 

Gibson, Walter, 420, 421, 422 

Gideon, Guy, 341 

Giffen, Keith, 105, 294, 295, 
309, 310, 329, 503, 505 

Giganta, 296, 478, 629, 631, 
633 

Gigantor, 37 

Gilbert, Guy, 601 

Gilbert, Melissa, 67 

Gilded Lily, 11 

Gilderchute, 131 

Giles, Rupert, 96 

Gill, Joe, 118, 144, 501 

Gillis, Peter B., 260 

Gilroy, Dan, 549 

Gimmick-Kid (English super- 
hero), 283 

Gingold (soft drink with super- 
powers), 199, 564 

Giordano, Dick, 4, 28, 60, 90, 
95, 118, 144, 145, 174, 
175, 184, 250, 434, 490, 
502, 503, 589, 629 

Girl Commandos, 533, 559 

Girl of Steel See Supergirl 

Girl Squadron, 440 

Girlfriend, 150 

"Girls' comics," 132-134 

Girls' Romances, 404 

Givens, Robin, 108 

Gizmo Man, 492 

GL, 582 

Gladiator (comic book), 525 

Gladiator (superhero), 162, 
563, 578 

Glak, 442 

Glasberg, Gary, 54 

Gleason, Lev, 91, 159, 356 

Gleason, Leverett See Glea- 
son, Lev 

Gleek! (monkey, Super 
Friends), 247, 477 

Glidden, Mark, 212 

Glob, 414 



Global Guardians (superteam) 

34, 281, 359, 567 
Gloeckner, Phoebe, 184 
Gloop and Gleep [The Hercu- 

loids), 246 
Glop, 629 

Glorious Godfrey, 362 
Glork, 442 

Glory (comic book), 203 
Glory (superhero), 15, 51, 98, 

537 
Gloss (New Guardians), 282 
Glover, John, 484 
G-Men from Hell (2000), 324 
G-Nome (Gen 13), 226 
Go Boy 7, 169 
Go Boy 7 #1,169 (ill.) 
Go Girl, 214, 275 
Go Mifune See Speed Racer 
Go Team, 448 
Goblin, 458 

Goblin Glider, 461, 462 
God, 446 
Godiva (Global Guardians), 

281 
Godlike, 514 
Godspell, 541 
Godzilla, 605 
Godzilla (comic book), 19, 

168, 364 
Godzilla, King of the Monsters, 

605 
Godzilla vs. Hero Zero, 169 
Goebbels, Joseph, 638 
Go-Go Boy, 282 
Go-Go Girl, 214 
Go-Go Gang (villains), 2 
Gohan (Goku's son), 191 
Gojira, 605 
Goku, 20, 191 
Golan, Menahem, 458 
Gold (Metal Men), 340, 567 
Gold Digger, 21 
Gold, George, 121 
Gold Key 1965, 38 
Gold Key Comics, 42, 76, 104, 

117,134,221,247,378, 

434, 439, 441, 611 
Gold, Mike, 52, 173, 586 
Gold Rush Games, 513 
Goldar, 343 

Goldberg, Leonard, 635 
The Golden Age (comic book, 

1993), 301 
Go/den Age Greats, 2 
Golden Age of radio, 512 
Golden Age of Superheroes 

(1938-1954), 2, 5, 27, 30, 

32,40,51,74,77,79,83, 

88, 91, 93, 101, 111, 122, 

137, 151, 159, 206, 211, 



tfft 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



219, 228-233, 248, 282, 
285, 298, 313, 350, 355, 
356, 373, 383, 480, 485, 
487, 497-499, 500, 504, 
516, 517, 518, 524-525, 
540, 550, 552, 554, 556, 
564,572,573,574,575, 
577,582,585,615,636, 
637 

best comics from, 232 
postwar comics in, 
232-233 

Golden Age of television, 233 

Golden Archer See Hawkeye 
(villain) 

Golden Arrow, 99, 479, 480 

Golden Avenger, 510 

Golden Boy, 527 

Golden Centurion, 90 

Golden, Christopher, 256 

Golden City, 168, 488, 571 

Golden Eagle, 76, 591, 592 

Golden Girl, 91, 534 

Golden Girl (Japanese-Ameri- 
can), 286 

Golden Gladiator, 510 

Golden Lad, 2, 428 

Golden Lords, 108 

Golden Oldie See Parker, May 

Golden, Michael, 198, 502 

Golden, Rebecca See Fathom 
(Elementals) 

Goldilocks, 511 

Goldin, James Grant, 350 

Goldman, Gary, 655 

Goldman, Joseph, 458 

Goldman, Oscar, 145 

Goldman, William, 131 

Golem (superhero), 286, 557 

Go/go 13, 20 

Goliath See Hawkeye (super- 
hero) 

Go//on, 411 

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C, 130 

Gomorrah, 383 

Gone with the Wind, 544 

Good Girl art, 51, 210, 
233-234, 534 

Good Girl Art Quarterly, 212 

Good Girls 

definition of, 233 
examples of, 233-234 

The Good, the Bad, and the 
Ugly, 26 

Goodman, Mark, 475 

Goodman, Martin, 94, 205, 
267, 269, 278, 331, 333, 
372, 432, 450, 474, 497, 
585, 586 

Goodwin, Archie, 259, 287, 
327, 386, 388, 464, 503 



Goody, 519 

Goofy, 104, 223 

Googam Son of Goom, 257 

Goose Rider, 105 

Gorby, Brad, 212 

Gordanians, 591 

Gorder, Jason, 400 

Gordon Liddy, Agent of 
C.R.E.E.P., 104-105 

Gordon, Barbara, 55, 56, 67, 
70, 72, 78, 94, 318, 530 
See also Batgirl 

Gordon, Commissioner James 
See Commissioner Gordon 

Gordon, Don, 511 

Gordon, James See Commis- 
sioner Gordon 

Goren, Frieda, 471 

Gorgeous Gal, 492 

Gorgon, 100, 210, 277 

Gorilla Grodd, 297, 478, 575 

Gorshin, Frank, 64, 65, 68, 
70, 108, 296, 576 

Gorvak, 442 

Gossett, Louis Jr., 146 

Goten (Goku's son), 191 

Goth, 593 

Gotham See Gotham City 

Gotham Broadcasting, 554 

Gotham Central, 201, 566 

Gotham City, 55, 56, 58, 60, 
61,66,67,68,71,78,80, 
140, 153, 316, 327, 358, 
433, 485, 486, 505, 506, 
518, 528, 530, 571, 572, 
573, 579, 580, 589 

Gottlieb, Carl, 265 

Gouch, Alfred, 460, 484 

Goulart, Ron, 231, 234 

Goyer, David, 68, 364 

Grace, 169, 375, 488, 571 

Graham, Billy, 8, 85, 387 

Graine, Rex, 554 

Grail Hong, 325 

Grand National, 422 

Grandenetti Avenue, 39 

Grandenetti, Jerry, 39 

Granger, Dawn See Dove 

Granite Man, 491 

Granny Goodness, 362, 578 

Grant, Catherine "Cat," 554 

Grant, Louise, 91 

Grant, Steven See Moon 
Knight 

Grant, Ted, 137 

Grant, Victoria, 179 

Grant, Xeric, 185 

Grantray-Lawrence, 263, 455, 
490, 491, 654 

Graviton City, 392 

Gravity Regulator Helmet, 99 



Gravity Rod, 470 

Gray, Jean, 213 

Gray, Michael, 128-130, 129 

(ill.) 
Gray, Mick, 394 
Grayfist, 421 
Grayle, Gardner, 441 
Grayson, Bob, 331 
Grayson, Chuck, 403, 531 
Grayson, Devin, 87, 215, 531 
Grayson, Dick, 57, 60, 67, 

318, 488, 495, 580, 592 
See also Robin the Boy 
Wonder; Nightwing 
Grayson, Professor Matthew, 

331 
Grayton, Diane See Spider 

Widow 
Graz Entertainment, 408, 655 
Great and Powerful Turtle, 527 
Great Book of the Vishanti, 

183 
The Great Comic Book Heroes 

(1965), 418 
Great Depression, 182, 230, 

427, 522, 528, 539 
Great History of Comic Books 

(1986), 234 
Great Lakes Avengers, 48 
Great Maggeena, 54 
The Great Women Superheroes 

(1996), 154, 429, 532, 538 
Trie Greatest American Hero 

(1981-1983), 108 
The Greatest American Hero 

(unmade movie, 2000), 236 
Trie Greatest American Hero 

(TV series, 1981-1983), 

105, 234-236, 235 (ill.) 
in syndication, 236 
UFO in, 235 
Trie Greatest American Heroine 

pilot (1986), 236 
Greatest Comics, 100 
Trie Greatest 1950s Stories 

Ever Told (1990), 173 
Trie Greatest Team-Up Stories 

Ever Told, 586 
Grebo, 442 
Greek, 627 
Green Arrow (superhero), 25, 

79, 80, 94, 173, 174, 213, 

236-237, 315, 318, 357, 

358, 372, 400, 428, 429, 

430, 477, 480, 481, 482, 

488, 494, 510, 554, 568, 

571,572,582,586,587, 

590, 616 

arrows, specialty, 236 
Batman, similarities to, 
236 



death of Oliver Queen 

alter ego, 237 
Green Lantern, partner- 
ship with, 237 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 293 
origins of, 236 
resurrection of Oliver 
Queen alter ego, 237 
Green Arrow: The Longbow 
Hunters (1987), 480, 503, 
537 
Green Cross Code Man (Eng- 
lish superhero), 283 
Green Flame, 297, 359 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Green Fury (Global Guardians), 
281 

See also Fire (superhero) 
Green Gladiator, 510 
Green Goblin, 95, 318, 334, 
451, 452, 454, 455, 457, 
458, 460, 461, 462, 466, 
496, 518, 578, 580, 620, 
621 
Green Goliath See The Hulk 
Green Hoods, 421 
Green Hornet (comic book, 
1989-1994), 238, 508, 
524 
Green Hornet (film series, 

1940), 238 
Green Hornet (radio series), 

238, 248, 511 
Green Hornet (superhero), 26, 
237-239, 280, 317, 356, 
495, 523, 532, 553, 572, 
582, 590 

merchandizing of, 238 
The Green Hornet (TV series, 

1966), 238, 357, 434 
The Green Hornet Cracks Down 

(book), 238 
The Green Hornet Returns 

(book), 238 
The Green Hornet Strikes 

(book), 238 
Trie Green Hornet Strikes Again 
(movie serial, 1940), 238, 
508 
Green Lama, 2 
Green Lantern (comic book), 
7, 240, 432, 500, 504, 
586, 589 

Green Lantern #171, 

239 (ill.) 
Green Lantern, vol. 2, 
#48 (Kyle Rayner 
takes over as Green 
Lantern), 241 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6s 9 



Index 



Green Lantern (Golden Age), 

239, 432 
Green Lantern (Silver Age), 

432, 447 
Green Lantern (superhero), 9, 
34, 79, 94, 101, 172, 173, 
174, 220, 239-241, 296, 
296 (ill.), 297,301,318, 
358,372,375,470,471, 
477, 478, 480, 485, 487, 
495, 499, 500, 510, 516, 
517, 549, 554, 563, 568, 
570, 573, 574, 575, 580, 
581, 582, 586, 587, 592, 
615,639 

as anti-establishment 

figure, 240 
Green Arrow, partnership 

with, 240 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298, 
294 
origin of, 239 
ring, power of, 240 
and relevance move- 
ment, 240 
rogue version, 240 
second version of, 240 
as Sentinel, 301, 639 
Green Lantern Corps (comic 

book), 240-241 
Green Lantern Corps (super- 
heroes), 241297, 311, 570, 
582 
Green Lantern/Green Arrow, 
25, 502, 503 

Bronze Age, importance 

to, 94 
Green Lantern/Green 

Arrow #76, 7 
Green Lantern/Green 
Arrow #86, 25 (ill.) 
Green Lantern: Mosaic 

(1992-1993), 9 
Green Mask (superhero), 230 
Green Ronin Publishing, 514 
Green, Kevin, 608 
Green, Richard "Grass," 184 
Green, Seth, 97 
Green Terror, 421 
Greenberg, Martin H., 526 
Greene, Vernon, 421 
Greenland, Colin, 527 
Greenway Productions, 632 
Gregorio See Extrano 
Greico, Richard, 210 
Grell, Mike, 147, 237, 309, 
351, 503 



Gremlin (Soviet Super-Sol- 
diers), 282 

Grenade, 609 

Grendel (comic book), 168, 
350, 504 

Grendel (superhero), 29, 589 

Grey, 21 

Grey, Dick, 83 

Grey Gargoyle, 577, 598 

The Grey Ghost, 67 

Grey, Jean, 318, 535, 563, 
565,566,625,626,641, 
643, 644, 646, 652, 655, 
655 (ill.), 656,659 
See also Phoenix 

Greyshirt, 16, 488 

Grifter (comic book), 624 

Grifter (superhero), 426, 570, 
622, 623 

Grim Hunter See Kravinoff, 
Vladimir 

Grim Reaper, 2, 47 

Grimes, Jack, 448 

Grimjack, 441 

Grimjack, 351 

Grimm, Ben, 205-210 
See also The Thing 

Grimm, "Benjy" (teenage ver- 
sion of Ben Grimm), 207, 
209 

Grodd, 576, 579 

Groener, Harry, 97 

Groening, Matt, 53, 106 

Grogan, Geoff, 185 

Gross National Product [Fight- 
ing American villain), 216 

Grubb (alien), 442 

Grubb, Jeff, 526 

Gruenwald, Mark, 47, 114 

Grundy, Solomon, 478 

Grunge (Gen 13), 225, 227, 
570 

Guardian, 11, 428, 591 
See also Vindicator 

Guardian of Gotham, 72, 510 

Guardians (comic book), 514 

Guardians (superteam), 513 

Guardians of Oa, 240, 241 

Guardians of Order, 413, 514 

Guardians of the Galaxy (comic 
book), 423, 568 

Guardians of the Galaxy 
(superteam), 241-244, 
331, 441 

Avengers, crossover 

story with, 242-243 
Badoon, fighting against 

the, 241-242 
Captain America, 
crossover story with, 
242 



Defenders, crossover 

story with, 242 
Ghost Rider, crossover 
story with, 243-244 
new members of, 242 
Spider-Man, partnership 

with, 243 
Thing (Fantastic Four), 
crossover story with, 
242 
Gudis, 607 
Gufu, 322 

Guice, Jackson, 288 
Gulacy, Paul, 339, 358, 502 
Gundragon Sigma, 148 
Gunn, James, 109 
Guran, 378 
Gustavson, Paul, 479 
Guthrie, Paige, 649 
Guthrie, Sam, 649, 650 
Gutwirth, Maurice, 182 
Guy Gideon, 341 
Gwar, 445 
Gypsy, 359 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Gypsy Moth, 464 
Gyrosub, 572 



H 



Ha, Gene, 16 

Haase, Rod, 296, 296 (ill.) 

Hackman, Gene, 546, 552 

Hadrian 7, 622 

Hagen, Matt, 69 

Haiduk, Stacy, 484 

Hairies, 362 

Hakutaku, 321 

Hale, Gary, 349 

Hale, Lance, 585 

Hall, Carter See Hawkman 

Hall, Don See Dove 

Hall, Hank See Hawk 

Hall, Kevin Peter, 108 

Hall of Doom, 478 

Hall of Interplanetary Mon- 
sters, 506 

Hall of Justice, 477 

Hallaway, Tom See Spider 

Hallmark Cards, 374 

Halo, 374, 570 

Halo Corporation, 623 

HALO, Inc., 622 

Ham (The Badger), 52, 406 

Hamill, Mark, 67, 68, 70, 110, 
210,227,265,297,439, 
474 

Hamilton Comics, 343 

Hamilton, Dr. Barton, 462 

Hamilton, John, 544 

Hamilton, Neil, 62 



Hamilton, Professor Emil, 553 
Hamm, Sam, 66, 210 
Hammaglystwythkbmgxxax- 

olotl See Ham (The Badger) 
Hammer, M. C, 493 
Hammerhead, 463 
Hammerman, 493 
Hammond, Jim See The 

Human Torch (superhero, 

original) 
Hammond, Nicholas, 456 
Hamster Press, 184 
Handi-Man, 106, 531 
Haney, Bob, 30, 60, 341, 342, 

483, 590 
Hangman, 27, 35, 574, 636 

in World War II, 231 
Hank Pym/Ant Man, 617 
Hanna, Scott, 462 
Hanna, William, 245 
Hanna-Barbera, 64, 65, 130, 

207, 208, 209, 223, 

245-247, 296, 438, 441, 

477, 491, 492, 493, 494, 

499, 545, 580 
Hanna-Barbera Heroes, 

245-247 

action figures, 247 
animated shows featur- 
ing, 245-247 
merchandising of, 247 
See also Harvey Bird- 
man, Blue Falcon, Cap- 
tain Caveman, Dino 
Boy, Dynomutt, 
Mightor, Space Ghost, 
Super Friends 
Hanna-Barbera Productions, 

607 
Hanna-Barbera Super TV 

Heroes (comic book, 

1967-1969), 247 
Hannigan, Alyson, 97, 99 
Hannigan, Ed, 287 
Hansen, Gwenn, 385 
Happy Harbor, 293 
Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, 

508 
Happy Pills, 107 
Hapsethsut, 290 
Harada, Toyo, 612 
Harbinger (New Guardians), 

282, 571 
Harbinger Active Resistance 

Division, 612 
Harbinger Foundation, 612 
Harbingers, 612, 613 
H.A.R.D. Corps, 612 
Hardcase (comic book), 608 
Hardcase (superhero), 569, 

609 



tffi 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Hardware (comic book), 9, 
346, 609 

Hardware (superhero), 346, 
416 

Hardy, Felicia, 82, 83, 620 

Hardy, Ralph, 138 

Hardy, Walter, 82 

Harenchi Gakuen See Shame- 
less School 

Harker, Mina, 16 

Harkness, Agatha, 214 

Harlem Globetrotters (as 
superheroes), 105, 247, 
492 

Harlequin, 239, 574, 591 

Harley Quinn, 70, 79 

Harlock, Captain See Space 
Pirate Captain Harlock 

Hartley, Mariette, 264 

Harnock, James R., 635 

Harper, Leanne C, 527 

Harper, Roy See Speedy 

Harris, Bill, 378 

Harris, Bob, 455 

Harris Comics, 426, 556 

Harris, Jack C, 290 

Harris, Mark, 34, 326 

Harris, Neil Patrick, 460, 472 

Harris, Rosemary, 460 

Harris, Xander, 97 

Harrison, Linda, 632 

Hart, Bill See Daredevil (super- 
hero, Lev Gleason Comics) 

Hart, John, 378 

Hart, Kimberly, 343 

Hart, Stan, 632 

Harvey, Alan, 81, 248 

Harvey, Alfred, 80, 247 

Harvey Award, 323 

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at 
Law (animated series), 76, 
246, 479, 494 

Harvey Comics, 33, 80, 82, 
104, 138, 138, 216, 247, 
248, 280, 373, 378, 434, 
469, 532, 553, 574, 582, 
607 

comic books, ceases 
publications of, 249 
founding of, 248 
and horror comics, 249 

Harvey Heroes, 247-249 
origins of, 247-248 
See also Black Cat, Cap- 
tain Freedom, Captain 
3-D, Green Hornet, 
Shock Gibson, Spitfire 

Harvey, Leon, 247, 248 

Harvey Publications See Har- 
vey Comics 

Harvey, Robert, 247, 248 



Hasbro's Gl Joe, 110 
Hasslehoff, David, 364 
Hastings, Bob, 483 
Hasty Pudding, 180 
Hatcher, Teri, 306 (ill.), 307, 

548 
Hate Monger, 577 
Hathaway, Holly, 236 
Hauer, Rutger, 96 
Havoc, 513 
Havok, 642 
Hawaii Five-0, 358 
Hawk (superhero), 250-251, 
77,174,430,591 
becomes the villain 

Extant, 250 
becomes the villain 

Monarch, 250 
second version of, 251 
The Hawk and the Dove (comic 

book), 202, 250, 435, 500 
The Hawk and the Dove 

(superheroes), 250-251 
Hawke, Connor, 480, 582 
becomes the Green 

Arrow, 237 
Green Arrow's son, 237 
Hawke, Simon, 526 
Hawkes, Captain Frank, 131 
Hawkeye (superhero), 23, 46, 
48, 86, 251-252, 315, 
317, 480, 481, 530, 564, 
568, 571, 582 
Hawkeye (villain), 251 
Hawkeye the Archer See Hawk- 
eye (superhero) 
Hawkgirl, 76, 213, 252, 253, 
296, 297, 315, 429, 477, 
478, 488, 533, 582, 617 
See also Hawkman (hus- 
band) 
Hawkins, Sandy, 414, 428 
Hawkins, Star, 441 
Hawkman (comic book), 500 
Hawkman (superhero), 41, 76, 
172, 173, 189, 213, 
252-254, 296, 296 (ill.), 
315,357,429,432,477, 
478, 485, 488, 499, 500, 
510, 533, 563, 566, 568, 
574, 576, 582, 585, 586, 
587, 591, 602 
death of, 301 
Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
inspiration for, 252 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294, 
298 
as spy and villain, 253 
See also Hawkgirl (wife) 



Hawkmen, 76 
Hawk-Owl, 107, 488 
Hawkshadow, 423 
Hawkwoman (superhero), 563 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Hawkworld, 253 
Hayami, Danbei, 156 
Hayami, Geiji, 156 
Hayata, 606 
Haydock, Ron, 107 
Hayter, David, 656 
Hazard, Johnny (newspaper 

strip), 285 
HBO See Home Box Office 

(HBO) 
Head, Anthony Stewart, 96 
Headbasher, 493 
Headline Comics, 41 
Headmen, 178 
Headrush, 426 
Headsman, 461 
The Heap, 556 
Heat Wave, 575 
Heath, Russ, 33, 331, 497 
Heatwave, 157 

Heaven Can Wait (movie), 232 
Heavy Metal, 388 
Heavy Metal L-Gaim, 408 
Heavy Metal Warrior Xenon, 

21, 324 
Hecate, 355 
Heck, Don, 47, 86, 289 
Hector Hammond, 575 
Hefti, Neal, 59, 64, 523 
Heike, Mark, 210, 212 
Heimdal, 598 
Heinlein, Robert A., 148 
Helena, 141 
Heifer, Andy, 484 
Helga (Gen 13), 227 
Helicarrier, 572 
Hell, 169 
Hella the Goddess of Death, 

599 
Hellblazer (comic book), 615 
Hellblazer (superhero), 351, 

558 
Hellboy (comic book), 168, 

254 

abstract style of, 255 
Hellboy #1,254 (ill.), 
255 
Hellboy (movie, 2004), 168, 

256 
Hellboy (superhero), 22, 34, 

254-256, 416 

Batman, crossover story 

with 
Ghost, crossover story 
with 



merchandising of, 256 
Pain Killer Jane, 

crossover story with 
Savage Dragon, 

crossover story with 
Starman, crossover 
story with, 256 
Hellboy: Bones of Giants (Gold- 
en), 256 
Hellboy Junior (comic book), 

256 
Hellboy: Odd Jobs, 256 
Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction, 

254 
Hellboy: The Lost Army, 256 
Hellcat See Cat 
Helldiver, 181 
Hellfire Club, 170, 648, 649, 

651, 659 
Hellions, 648, 651 
Hellmouth,96, 98 
Hell-Rider, 405 
Hell's Angels (English comic 

book), 283 
Hellspawn (comic book), 275, 

445 
Hellspawn (superhero), 445 
Help!, 627 
He-Man Woman Hater's Club, 

531 
Hemsley, Sherman, 548 
Henderson, Jason, 528 
Hendrickson (Blackhawks), 

88,90 
Henning, Bunny, 483 
Henry, Buck, 103, 107 
Henshin, 19 

Hensleigh, Jonathan, 266 
Henson, Jim, 595 
HERB See Herbie the Robot 

{The New Fantastic Four) 
Herbie Popnecker, 102 
Herbie the Robot [The New 

Fantastic Four), 207, 209 
Hercules (superhero), 43, 48, 

86, 257, 288, 330, 388, 

492, 563, 568, 598, 627 
Freedom Force, member 
of, 290 
Herculoids, 438, 439 
The Herculoids (animated 

series), 246 
Here Comes Mr. Jordan 

(movie), 232 
Herman, Jack, 513 
Hernandez, Lea, 21 
Hernandez, Paul, 236 
Hero, 368, 378, 513 
H-E-R-0 See "Dial 'H' for Hero" 
Hero at Large (1980), 108 
Hero Boy See Dukse Drengen 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*9l 



Index 



Hero Cruz, 180 

Hero Games, 513 

Hero High (school), 492 

Hero High (TV series), 130 

The Hero with a Thousand 
Faces, 516, 561 

Hero Zero, 169, 488, 564, 
608 

Heroes Anonymous 
(2003-2004), 107 

Heroes by Gaslight, 514 

Heroes for Hire (comic book), 
256, 388, 425 

Heroes for Hire (superteam), 
24, 256-257, 256, 270, 
287, 288, 387 

Heroes for Hire Inc. See Here- 
os for Hire (superteam) 

Heroes in a Half-Shell See 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur- 
tles 

"Heroes Reborn" experiment, 
203, 216 

Heroes Return, 600 

Heroes Unlimited, 513, 514 

Heron, Eddie, 124, 126 

Hertzberg, George, 97 

Herz, Michael, 108 

Hewlett, Jamie, 583 

Hexagon (French super- 
heroes), 283 

Hexbreaker (1988), 52 

Heyer, Steve, 390 

Hi no Tori (The Phoenix), 36 

Hibbard, Everett E., 219 

Higashi, Dr. Kotaro, 134 

Higashi.Tatsuya, 134 

Higgins, Graham, 527 

Higgins, Joe, 558 

Higgins, Michael, 390 

High Evolutionary, 458, 577, 
598 

The Higher United Nations 
Defense Enforcement 
Reserves See TH.U.N.D.E.R. 
Agents 

Highfather, 361, 363, 571 

High-Pockets, 510 

Hill, Bart See Daredevil (super- 
hero, Lev Gleason Comics) 

Hillman Periodicals, 529, 556 

Him, 391 

Hinkley, Ralph, 234-236, 235 
(ill.) 

marries Pam Davidson, 

236 
name (last), problem 
with caused by 
attempted assassin 
John Hinkley, 235 



name (last), temporarily 
changed to Hanley, 
235 
supersuit, inability to 

control powers of, 235 
See also The Greatest 
American Hero (TV 
series) 
Hino, Rei,412 
HiOctane Comics, 74 
Hippolyta, 631 
Hiroshima, 42, 114, 606 
Hirt, Al,238 
His Atomic Sub, 42 
History Channel, 172, 501, 

523, 637 
History of Comics, 75 
Hit Comics, 559 

Hit Comics #25 (Kid 
Eternity's debut, 
December 1942), 232 
Hit Parader, 143 
Hitch, Bryan, 44, 48 
Hitchcock, Alfred, 467 
Hitler, Adolf, 111, 139, 160, 

172,231,285,332,574, 

585, 636-638 
H.I.V.E., 592,593 
Hoberg, Rick, 656 
Hobgoblin, 461, 462, 580 
Hobgoblynn Press, 514 
Hobuto Seiji, 606 
Hodag, 53 
Hodge, Al, 508, 511 
Hodgman, John, 563 
Hog of Steel, 627 
Hogan, Happy, 288, 289 

See ateo Freak 
Hogan, Hulk, 439 
Hogan, James R, 134 
Hogan, Peter, 16, 17 
Hoggoth, 516 
Hogun, 598 
Holiday, Bob, 545 
Holliday College, 628 
Holliday Girls, 628 
Holliday, Liz, 527 
Holliman, Earl, 365 
Hollow Men, 573 
Hollywood, 503, 508, 520, 

580, 604 
Hollywood Pictures, 227 
Hollywood's Glamorous Detec- 
tive Star, 138 
Holt, Laura, 76 
Holyoke Publishing, 92, 137, 

139,211,428 
Homage Comics, 275, 368 
Home Box Office (HBO), 9, 

493 



Homeland (The Freedom Col- 
lective), 284 

Homicron 1 (French super- 
hero), 283 

Homosexuality in comics, 10, 
281, 282, 283, 367-369 
at Marvel Comics, 10, 
11 

Honey-Bun, 591 

Hong Kong Pfiooey (animated 
series, 1974-1976), 223, 
247, 492 

Honor Guard, 39, 508 

Hook, 177 

Hooks, Jan, 548 

Hooper, Tobe, 458 

Hoople (planet), 323 

Hooten, Peter, 184 

Hooty, 529 

Hop Harrigan, 173 

Hope, Bob, 173 

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, 102, 
222 

Horn, Maurice, 412, 637 

Hornblower, 591 

Hornet's Sting, 238, 280, 582 

Horror comics, rise in populari- 
ty of, 227 

Horror superheroes, 227 

Horton, Professor Phineas T, 
268 

Horus, 423 

Hoselton, David, 297 

Hostess, 524 

Hot Wheels (comic book), 111 

Hotshot (English superhero), 
283 

Hotsky Trotsky, 102, 216, 575 

Hotstreak, 471 

Hotz, Kyle, 263 

Hougan, 557 

Hound Hero, 554 

Hourman, 415, 432, 517, 
566, 585 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 295, 
298 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 299 

House of Ideas (Marvel), 
334-335 

House of Mystery, 103, 174, 
179, 435, 587 

House of Mystery #156 
(Robby Reed's debut), 
179 

House of Secrets, 576 

Houston, Larry, 656 

Hovercar, 572 



"How Superman Would End 
the War" (Look magazine), 
172 
Howard the Duck (comic 

book), 334, 404 
Howard the Duck (movie), 78, 

223 
Howard the Duck (superhero), 

78, 223, 313, 590 
Howard, Robert E., 94, 334 
Howard, Sherman, 484 
Howell, Richard, 48, 287, 388, 

417 
Howler, 492 
Howlett, James, 626 
H'ronmeer, 330 
Hu, Kelly, 657 
Huckleberry Finn, 26 
Hudnall, James D., 325, 608 
Hudson, Heather McNeil, 10 
Hudson, James MacDonald, 

10 
Hudson Nuclear Facility, 217 
Hughes, Adam, 169, 198, 505 
Hughes, Finola, 650, 656 
Hughes, Richard E., 102 
Hughes, Steven, 558 
Hukuto no Ken See Fist of the 

North Star 
The Hulk (movie, 2003), 28, 

266 (ill.), 580 
The Hulk (superhero), 26, 27, 
28,43,46,37,105,177, 
183, 210, 257-263, 288, 
331, 334, 351, 357, 388, 
418, 424, 429, 433, 435, 
451, 457, 498, 500, 510, 
516, 518, 523, 524, 528, 
563, 564, 568, 569, 577, 
578, 582, 586, 587, 589, 
625, 643 

appearance, changes in 

over time, 259 
as the Devil Hulk, 263 
as the Maestro, 262 
Avengers, member of, 

258-259 
Defenders, member of, 

260 
gray version of, 262 
green vs. gray, 262 
merchandising of, 267 
origins of, 257-258 
parody of, 277 
rage, effect on, 259 
separated from Bruce 

Banner, 262 
See also The Incredible 
Hulk entries 
Trie Hulk and Spider-Man: Mur- 
dermoon, 526 



tffi 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Hulk Comic, 120 

The Hulk in the Media, 

263-267 
Hull, Warren, 278, 508 
Human Bomb, 84, 186 
Human Bullet, 603 
Human Cat, 184 
Human Dynamo See Shock 

Gibson 
Human Flame, 205-210 
The Human Fly (comic book), 

92, 280 
Human Fly (superhero), 530 
Human Fly Bandits, 252 
Human Flying Fish, 32 
Human Icicle, 179 
Human Meteor, 248 
Human Sub, 74 
Human Target, 502 
The Human Target, 147 
Human Tidal Wave, 33 
Human Top (Kid Commandos), 

23, 286 
The Human Torch (comic 
book), 332,356,475,553 
The Human Torch #5, 
585 
Human Torch (Fantastic Four 
superhero), 205-210, 246, 
257,269,277,427,474, 
499, 516, 518, 522, 531, 
533, 563, 565, 566, 567, 
582, 584-587, 636, 642 
attempts to revive in 

1950s, 333 
fights the original 

Human Torch, 269 
origin of, 332 
postwar resurrection of, 
233 
The Human Torch (superhero, 
original), 26, 112, 230, 
267-270, 418, 433, 451, 
452, 474 

fighting organized crime, 

269 
fights the Fantastic Four 
version of the Human 
Torch, 269 
in All-Winners Squad, 284 
Human Torch Comics, 

268-269 
Humanitas Prize, 472 
Hummingbird, 74 
Hun, 574 

Hunchback of Hollywood, 111 
Hunt, J. D.,365 
Hunt, Jeff, 465 
Hunt, Jerry, 464 
Hunter, Tim, 383 
Hunter, Timothy, 615 



The Huntress #1 (Huntress 

returns), 270 
The Huntress (superhero), 56, 
65, 78, 80, 141, 270-271, 
296 (ill.), 485, 496, 531, 
536, 570, 572, 574, 582 
death of, 270 
Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
joins Birds of Prey, 270 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 295 
return of, 270 
Huntsman, 327 
Hurd, Michelle, 297 
Hurricane Honey See Cutey 

Honey 
Hurricane Polymar (anime 
series), 19, 134, 271-272, 
596 

Italy, popularity in, 271 
Hurricane Polymar (remake, 

1996), 272 
Hurricane Polymar (super- 
hero), 271, 272 
"Hush," 97 
Husk, 570, 649, 650 
Hyakimaru (superhero), 322 
Hyde-White, Alex, 209 
Hydra, 114, 364, 463, 464 
Hydro Man, 457 
Hydrobase, 33 

Hydrogen Bomb Funnies, 627 
Hydroman (superhero), 32 
Hydro-Man (villain), 83 
Hype, 406 

Hyperion, 43, 418, 571 
Hypnotic Secret Identity Tie, 
603 



/ Love Lucy (TV series), 522, 

540 
/ Love You, Featuring Elvis, 404 
lanus Publications, 393 
Ibac, 126, 131, 574 
Iberia Inc. (Spanish super- 
heroes), 284 
Ibis the Invincible, 99, 516, 556 
Ibistick, 556 
IBM, 510 
ICD See International Crime 

Division (ICD) 
Ice (superhero), 297, 635 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Ice-Maiden (Global Guardians), 
281 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
See also Ice (superhero) 



Iceman, 86, 179, 457, 518, 
565, 568, 569, 642, 654, 
655 (ill.), 656, 657 
Ichabod "Ikky" Mudd, 131 
l-Ching, 358, 629 
Icicle, 574 
Icon, 9, 346 
Idea Design Works, 445 
Ideal Toys, 110, 572, 578 
Idol Fighter Su-Chi-Pai, 22 
Igarashi, Satsuki, 132 
Iger, Jerry, 39, 92,234, 380, 

381, 466 
Iger Square, 39 
Igle, Jamal, 257, 288 
Ignition, 551 

Igoo (The Herculoids), 246 
Ikaris, 571 
Ikegami, Ryoichi, 22 
"I Killed My Folks (No Acci- 
dent)" (song), 311 
ikuhara, Kunhiko, 411, 413 
Image Comics, 15, 29, 38, 51, 
53,75,107,157,197,201, 
214, 226, 254, 273-276, 
283, 291, 348, 352, 370, 
374,400,405,415,423, 
426,443,445,446,487, 
493, 505, 561, 563, 570, 
589, 608, 622, 623 

America's Best Comics 

imprint, 275 
artwork, quality of, 274 
crossover stories with 
other publishers, 
274-275 
Homage Comics imprint, 

275 
Marvel Comics, split 

from, 273 
merchandising by, 276 
origin of, 202, 273, 335 
publishing difficulties, 

275 
Wildstorm imprint, 225, 
226 
Image Comics Heroes, 
273-276 

See also Danger Girl, 
Brigade (superteam), 
Cyberforce 
(superteam), Fire- 
breather, Genl3 
(superteam), Go Girl, 
Hellspawn, Invincible, 
The Maxx, Pitt, Sam & 
Twitch, Savage Drag- 
on, ShadowHawk, 
Spawn, Supreme, Wild- 
guard (superteam), 
Youngblood 



Iman (Planet DC), 282 

Immateria, 17 

Immonen, Stuart, 48 

Immortus, 47, 355, 417 

Impact imprint, 36, 158, 279 

Impala (Global Guardians), 
281 

Imperial Flagship, 572 

Imperiex, 472, 551, 580 

Impossible Man, 210 

The Impossibles (super- 
heroes), 245 

Impossicar, 246 

Imposter, 455 

Impulse (comic book), 481 

Impulse (superhero), 221, 
430, 564, 592, 593 

In Living Color (TV series, 
1990-1994), 106, 531 

Inagaki School of Art and 
Design, 425 

The Incredible Hulk (animated 
series, 1966), 210, 263 

The Incredible Hulk (animated 
series, UPN, 1996), 265 
See also The Incredible 
Hulk and She-Hulk, The 
Incredible Hulk and 
Friends 

The Incredible Hulk (comic 
book), 178, 257, 263, 501, 
503, 590, 624, 654 

T/ie Incredible Hulk #1 
(The Hulk's debut), 
258 
The Incredible Hulk 
#181 (Wolverine's 
debut), 334 

The Incredible Hulk (super- 
hero) See The Hulk 

The Incredible Hulk (TV movie, 
1977), 263 

The Incredible Hulk (TV series, 
1978-1982), 96, 115, 165, 
260, 263-264, 334, 424, 
490, 493, 579 

The Incredible Hulk and 
Friends (animated series, 
UPN, 1998-1999), 266 

The Incredible Hulk and She- 
Hulk (animated series, UPN, 
1997), 266, 493 

The Incredible Hulk and the 
Amazing Spider-Man (animat- 
ed series), 264-265, 457, 
492 

The Incredible Hulk Future 
Imperfect (comic book, 
1992-1993), 262 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



693 



Index 



The Incredible Hulk: Abomina- 
tions (comic book, 1997), 
528 

The Incredible Hulk: Cry of the 
Beast (comic book), 526 

The Incredible Hulk: Stalker 
from the Stars (comic book), 
526 

The Incredible Hulk vs. Super- 
man (comic book), 589 

The Incredible Hulk: What Sav- 
age Beast (comic book, 
1995), 528 

The Incredible Hunk, 104 

The Incredibles, 110 

Independent News Co., 333 

Independent publishers, 350 

India Rubber Man See Plastic 
Man 

Indian superheroes See Inter- 
national Heroes 

Indigo City, 488 

Industrial Light & Magic, 266 

Infantino, Carmine, 3, 4, 25, 
36, 59, 69, 79, 93, 95, 174, 
176, 199, 219, 220, 277, 
298, 334, 357, 361, 369, 
431, 435, 486, 500, 541, 
588 

Inferi-Car, 276 

Inferior Five (comic book), 48, 
570 

The Inferior Five (super- 
heroes), 103, 276-277 
origin of, as parody, 276 

Inferno, 390 

Infinity Inc. (superheroes), 
138, 189, 300, 359, 529, 
570 

Infinity Man, 362 

Infra-Man (1976), 108 

Inhumans (comic book), 278 

Inhumans (superteam), 86, 
206, 210, 277-278, 288, 
417, 536, 564, 569 

Initiative, 97 

Injustice Gang of the World, 
574 

Injustice Society, 298, 301 

Ink Pot Award, 37, 326 

Inky, 40 

Insect Heroes, 278-281 

Insect Queen, 280 

Inspector Detector, 448 

Inspector Henderson, 548 

Inter-Agency Defense Com- 
mand, 635 

Intergalactic Federation of 
Planets, 73 

Intergang, 551 



International Crime (movie ser- 
ial, 1938), 422 

International Crime Division 
(ICD), 271 

International Heroes, 
281-284 

in Australia, 282-283 

in England, 283 

in France, 283 

in India, 283 

in Italy, 283-284 

in Mexico, 284 

in other countries, 284 

in the Phillipines, 284 

in Spain, 284 

International Operations (I.O.), 
225, 624 

INTERSECT, 146 

Intetsu, 325 

The Invaders (comic book), 
270, 476, 567, 639 

The Invaders (comic book, 
1975-1979), 560 

The Invaders (comic book, 
1993), 286 

Invaders (superteam), 
284-286, 300 

Invertica City, 488 

Invincible (comic book), 276 

Invincible (superhero), 182 

Invisibelt, 563, 580 

Invisible Avenger, 422 

Invisible Boy, 109 

Invisible Dick (English super- 
hero), 283 

Invisible Girl, 94, 142, 
205-210, 214, 246, 277, 
317, 433, 476, 491, 535, 
536, 537, 563, 567 

Invisible Irving, 216 

Invisible Kid, 308, 563 

Invisible Man, 16, 100 

The Invisible Man 
(1958-1960), 146 

The Invisible Man 
(1975-1976), 146 

The Invisible Man (2000), 146 

"Invisible Man vs. Hawkman" 
storyline, 563 

Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, 534, 
563 

Invisible Woman, 389, 476, 
495, 518, 537, 563, 564 
evolution of, 207 
See also Invisible Girl 

7?ie Invisibles, 615 

Inviso-Belt, 437 

Inza Cramer, 189 

1.0. See International Opera- 
tions (1.0.) 

Ipkiss, Stanley, 168, 337 



IQ Gang, 253 

IRA (Internal Retrieval Associa- 
tive), 635 
Ireland, Kathy, 210265-266 
Irie, Yoshio, 411 
Iron (Metal Men), 340, 567 
Iron Cross Group, 457 
Iron Fist (comic book), 94, 

334, 358 
Iron Fist (movie, estimated 

2006), 288 
Iron Fist (superhero), 8, 257, 
286-288, 339, 359, 373, 
387, 388, 511, 579 
death of, 287 
as evil character, 287 
resurrection of, 
287-288 
Iron Fist/Wolverine: Return of 

K'un-Lun, 257 
Iron Maiden, 601 
Iron Man (animated series, 

1966), 263 
Iron Man (animated series, 

1994-1996), 209, 265 
Iron Man (comic book), 364, 
526, 535, 654 

Iron Man #325 (Iron 
Man's death), 290 
Iron Man (superhero), 8, 26, 
46,47,48,86,112,251, 
259, 288-290, 316, 334, 
357,364,372,435,507, 
510, 518, 563, 563, 564, 
568, 577, 581, 586, 587 
alcoholism, battle with, 

289-290 
death of, 290 
original replaced by Jim 
Rhodes, 8, 289-290 
origins of, 288 
resurrection of (from 
alternate reality), 290 
Iron Man (TV series), 465, 

490, 491, 493 
Iron Man: And Call My Killer . . . 

Modok!, 526 
Iron Man: The Armor Trap 

(1995), 528 
Iron Mask, 186 
Iron Skull (superhero), 230 
Ironcat Studio, 155 
Irons, John Henry See Steel 
Irons, Natasha, 473 
Irving, Chris, 212 
Irwin Toys, 413 
Isabella, Tony, 287, 388 
Isherwood, Geoff, 244, 287, 

388 
Ishiguro, Noburo, 37-38 
Ishikawa, Ana See Shi 



Ishikawa, Catherine, 425 

Ishikawa, Shiro, 425 

Ishikawa, Toro, 425 

Ishikawa, Yoshitora, 426 

Ishikawa, Yuri, 426 

Ishinomori, Shotaro, 38, 19, 
155,321 

Isis (superhero), 96, 130, 
213, 290-291, 492, 516, 
524 

Freedom Force, member 

of, 290 
merchandising of, 290 

Isis (TV series), 290, 536 

It, the Living Colossus, 530 

Italian superheroes See Inter- 
national Heroes 

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's 
Superman (Broadway musi- 
cal, 1966), 523, 541, 545 

Ito, Ikuko, 411 

"It's clobberin' time!" catch 
phrase, 206 

Ivan Ooze, 343 

Ivan Shark, 131, 511 

Ivan the Terrible, 111 

Ivana (Gen 13 villain), 225 

Ivie, Larry, 601 

Ivy League, 507 

The Ivy Menace, 348 

Ivy University, 218 

I.W. Comics, 92, 186, 382, 469 



Jabberwocky, 52-53 

Jack (Australian superhero), 
283 

Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor, 16 

Jack Cole and Plastic Man: 
Forms Stretched to Their Lim- 
its, 386 

Jack Frost (Liberty Legion), 
285 

Jack Hawksmoor, 44 

Jack O'Lantern (Global 
Guardians), 281, 567 

Jack Q. Frost (superhero), 
249, 434 

Jack Staff (English comic book, 
2000), 283 

Jack the Ripper, 328 

Jackal, 454 

Jackaroo (Australian super- 
hero), 282 

Jack-in-the-Box, 39, 488 

Jackman, Hugh, 525, 655 
(ill.), 656 

Jackson {The Spider), 278 

Jackson, Lee, 399 

Jackson, Michael, 405 

Jackson, Samuel L., 520 



(0* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Jacqueline See Spitfire 

Jade, 375, 570 

Green Lantern, child of, 

300 
Infinity Inc., member of, 
300 

Jade Giant See The Hulk 

Jagga the Space Raider, 132, 
575 

Jaguar, 35, 36, 138, 434, 518 

Jai, Michael, 273, 445 

Jakarta the Dust Devil, 4 

Jakeem Thunder, 565 

The Jam (superhero), 282, 323 

Jama-Everett, Aylze, 8 

Jamaica Bay, 641 

Jamal-Warner, Malcolm, 472 

James, Mary, 40 

Jameson, J. Jonah, 317, 396, 
451, 456, 460 

Jan (Space Ghost's sidekick), 
246, 437 

Jan and Dean, 523 

Jan and Dean Meet Batman, 
523 

Jane, Thomas, 397 

Janissary (Planet DC), 282 

Janson, Klaus, 60, 162, 
502-503 

Janssen, Famke, 655 (ill.), 656 

Janus, John, 601 

Japanese Bat (Filipino super- 
hero), 284 

Japanese soldiers (World War 
II) in comics, 231, 268, 332 

Jarvis, 568 

Jason (Battle of the Planets), 
73 

Jaspers, Jim, 120 

"Jaspers Warp," 120 

Java, 342 

Jax-Ur, 550 

Jay, 107 

Jayce (Space Ghost's side- 
kick), 246, 437 

Jayna See Wonder Twins 

Jeffcoate, Dr. Benjamin, 147 

Jeffries, Dean, 572 

JekyN-Hyde, 573 

Jem, 494 

Jemas, Bill, 335 

Jenkins, Paul, 263, 420 

Jenna (Team Action), 2 

Jenner, Bruce, 545 

Jenny Quantum, 44 

Jens, Salome, 484 

Jericho, 421, 530, 592, 593 

Jervis Tech, 69 

Jester, 162 

Jester's League of America, 
104 



Jesus Christ, 44, 383 
Jet (New Guardians), 282 
Jet Girl, 211, 583 
Jet Jackson, 132 
Jetman, 369 
Jewel Princess, 156 
Jewelee, 578 
Jeweler, 209 
Jewish Hero Corps, 359 
Jigsaw (comic book), 249 
Jigsaw (superhero), 434 
Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S, 493 
Jimenez, Phil, 631 
Jimmy Olsen (comic book), 

362, 545 

See also Olsen, Jimmy 
Jimmy Olsen's Blues, 372 
Jinx, 538 

Jinzo Ningen Kikaider See Arti- 
ficial Human Kikaider 
JLA See Justice League of 

America 
JLA (comic book), 295, 590, 

592 
JLA/Avengers, 48 
JLA Liberty and Justice (2003), 

295 
JLA: Secret Origins (2002), 

295 
JLA: Year One (1998), 295 
JLX, 590 
Joan of Arc, 558 
Jock, 160 
Joe Kubert School of Cartoon 

and Graphic Art, 500 
Joe Palooka (comic book), 

248, 373 
Joe Schuster's Art Shop, 403 
Johnny (Doc Savage), 181 
Johnny Quick See Quick, Johnny 
Johnny Thunder See Thunder, 

Johnny 
Johns, Geoff, 48 
Johnson, Drew, 632 
Johnson, Edward, 512 
Johnson, Henry See Steel 
Johnson, Jackie, 5 
Johnson, Kenneth, 263 
Johnson, Lyndon, 519, 627 
Johnson, Mark Steven, 166, 

228 
Johnston, Becky, 635 
Johnston, Bill, 421 
Johnston, Joe, 266, 407 
Johnston, Ken 297 
Johnston, William, 103 
Johnstone, Paul See Shad- 

owHawk 
Joker, 35, 55, 57, 60, 61, 64, 

66-70, 78, 79, 232, 297, 

316, 402, 403, 406, 479, 



502, 506, 515, 520, 530, 
537, 572, 574-576, 579, 
586, 587, 631 

The Joker (comic book), 60, 
589 

Joker/Mask (2000), 338 

Jokermobile, 572 

Jolie, Angelina, 525, 538 

Jolly Green Giant, 104, 510 

Jolsten, Erik, 386, 387 

Jon Sable: Freelance, 503 

Jonathan, 98 

Jones, Bruce, 28, 263, 335 

Jones, Eddie, 548 

Jones, Erotica See Stripperella 

Jones, Gabriel, 364 

Jones, Gerard, 329, 608 

Jones, Gordon, 508 

Jones, J. G.,87, 331 

Jones, Jenny, 527 

Jones, Jessica, 201, 215, 
388, 465 

Jones, Jimbo, 54 

Jones, John See Martian Man- 
hunter 

Jones, Julianna, 390 

Jones, Lieutenant Davey, 33 

Jones, Mickey, 108 

Jones, Rick, 112, 113, 123, 
124, 258, 265, 405, 429 

Jones, Sam, 147, 469 

Jones, Sam III, 484 

Jones, Tommy Lee, 67, 70 

Jonni Feng, 442 

Jonni Future, 16 

Jon Sable, Freelance, 351 

J'onn J'onzz See Martian Man- 
hunter 

Joplin, Janis, 240, 627 

Jordan, Hal (as Green 
Lantern), 241, 318, 582 
See also Parallax, The 
Spectre 

Jordan, Hal (as The Spectre), 
447 

See also Parallax, The 
Spectre 

Jordan, Rollie, 365 

Jor-EI, 484, 489, 506, 525, 
539, 541, 546, 548, 549, 
561 

Jory, Victor, 422 

Joseph, 644 

Joto, 592 

Journey into Mystery, 46, 47, 
598 

Journey into Mystery 
#83, 598 

Journey to the West, 189 

Joyce, Barbara, 78, 270, 296 
(ill.) 



Joyce, Graham, 527 
Joy-Levine, Deborah, 548 
JSA See Justice Society of 

America 
JSA (comic book), 252, 301, 

639 
J-2, 660 

Jubilation Lee, 648 
Jubilee, 570, 626, 648, 650, 

655, 656 
Judas Priest, 615 

Judd, Eugene Milton, 11, 529 
Judge Dredd (comic book), 

515 
Judge Dredd (movie, 1995), 

441 
Judge Dredd (superhero), 119, 

283, 313, 441, 589 
Judomaster, 144, 434, 578 
Juggernaut, 578, 649, 654, 

656, 659 
Jughead, 434 

Jughead as Captain Hero, 104 

Julia, (TV series), 7 

Jumbo Comics, 234 

Jungle Action, 8, 85 

Jungle Action #10, 6 (ill.) 

Jungle Beasts of Jupiter, 441 

Jungle Comics, 532 

Jungle Emperor (1950), 36 

Jungle Girls, 212 

Jungleman, 248 

Junior, Sivana, 125 

Junko, Melvin, 108 

Junkyard, 493 

Jupiter, Loren, 591 

Jupiterian Vinashdoot (Indian 
superhero), 283 

Jurgens, Dan, 288, 329, 600 

Juspeczyk, Laurie, 619 

Justice, 331 

Justice Jet Copter, 465 

Justice League See Justice 
League of America 

Justice League (animated 
series, 2001- ), 176, 297, 
363, 429, 542, 549 

Justice League Adventures 
(comic book, 2002- ), 295, 
327 

Justice League of America 
(comic book), 61, 68, 76, 
77, 79, 84, 101, 205, 217, 
218, 246-247, 293, 295, 
333, 357, 441, 470, 479, 
494, 500, 503, 505, 537, 
556, 567, 590, 616, 632, 
636 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca #21, 586 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



69s 



Index 



Justice League of Ameri- 
ca #200, 294 (ill.) 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca #261 (Justice 
League series can- 
celed), 294 

Justice League of America 
(superheroes), 4, 27, 29, 
30,34,41,45,59,79,80, 
93, 94, 96, 118, 173, 186, 
189, 199, 217, 220, 237, 
240, 241, 252, 253, 270, 
293-295, 296, 329, 342, 
374, 382, 383, 386, 432, 
433,471,472,473,480, 
488, 495, 496, 506, 508, 
511, 517, 528, 556, 561, 
563, 564, 565, 568, 570, 
571, 576, 580, 586, 588, 
590, 591, 613, 629-631 
and Justice Society of 

America, 293, 294 
name of team, reason 

for, 293, 294 
origins of, 293-294 

Justice League of America (TV 
pilot, 1990), 297 

Justice League of America (TV 
pilot, 1997), 297 

Justice League of America in 
the Media, 295-298 

Justice League Europe, 199, 
568 

Justice League Europe 
(1989-1993), 295, 342 

Justice League International 
(comic book, 1993-1994), 
295 

Justice League International 
(superteam), 329, 568 

Justice League Quarterly 
(1990-1994), 295 

Justice League Task Force 
(1993-1994), 295 

Justice League Unlimited 
(superteam), 297 

Justice Machine Annual #1 
(Elementals' debut), 197 

Justice Magazine, 464 

Justice Society See Justice 
Society of America 

Justice Society of America 
(comic book), 79, 301, 469 

Justice Society of America 
(superheroes), 40, 59, 78, 
79, 80, 137, 142, 173, 
189, 219, 230, 239, 250, 
251, 284, 293, 298-301, 
329, 414, 415, 429, 432, 
447, 470, 487, 529, 533, 
563, 565-568, 570, 573, 



574, 581, 585, 614, 
629-631, 639 

in All Star Comics #3 
(Winter 1940), 172 
characteristics of team 

members, 301 
end of all Justice Society 

comics (1989), 301 
end of the original team, 

299 
first superhero team 

ever, 298 
intergenerational conflict 
with the Super Squad, 
300 
and Justice League of 
America, 293, 294, 
299 
origins of, 298 
resurrection of in 

1990s, 301 
return of, 299 
The Justice Society Returns 
(comic book, 1999), 301 
Justifiers, 514 
Jyato (villain), 322 



Kablam!, 493 
Kabooie (Shazzan), 246 
Ka-Boom Estudio (Mexico), 

284 
Kabukiman, 108 
Kahn, Jenette, 95, 175, 630 
K'ai (subatomic world), 260 
Kaieda, Senzo, 325 
Kaine, 460 
Kaizen Gamorra, 44 
Kajula (villain), 322 
Kal-EI See Superman 
Kaler, David, 118 
Kali, 529 
Kalibak, 478, 578 
Kal-L, 539 

Kalogridis, Laeta, 635 
Kaluta, Michael, 174, 422, 

423, 485, 503 
Kamandi, the Last Boy on 

Earth (character) 587 
Kamandi, The Last Boy on 

Earth (comic book), 94, 362, 

441 
Kancer, 551, 580 
Kandor, Bottle City of, 429, 

486 
Kane, Betty, 55 
Kane, Bob, 26, 56, 61, 68, 

102, 140, 172, 223, 230, 

400, 427, 490, 498 



Kane, Gil, 40, 41, 110, 123, 

186, 240, 250, 286, 452, 

500, 548, 601 
Kane, Joshua See Sanctuary 
Kane, Kathy, 59, 316, 534 
Kane, Nova See Nova, the 

Energy-Being That Walks 

Like a Woman 
Kaneko, Jiro, 134 
Kang the Conqueror, 47, 577 
Kanigher, Robert, 79, 219, 

220, 298, 340, 431, 501 
Kanis-Biz, 312 
Kanjar Ro, 297, 576 
Kannit, 312 
Kanzaki, Masaomi, 21 
Kapatelis, Julia, 631 
Kapital Kouriers, 564 
Kapitan Aksiyon (Filipino 

superhero), 284 
Kara See Supergirl 
Kara Zor-EI See Supergirl 
Karate (Batfink's sidekick), 

223, 491 
Karazewski, Larry, 266 
Karillion, 622 
Karl Art Publishing, 111 
Karlo, Basil, 68 
Karloff, Boris, 68, 434, 573 
Karma, 369, 651 
Karmen Rider See Masked 

Rider 
Karnak (Inhumans), 277 
Karven the Hunter, 578 
Kasady, Cletus See Carnage 
Kasem, Casey, 64, 65 
Kashdan, George, 483, 590 
Kassir, Jon, 297 
Katana, 374, 570 
Katar Hoi See Hawkman 
Kato, 238, 356-357, 495, 

508, 532, 572, 582, 590 
Katt, William, 234, 235, 235 

(ill.) 
The Katzenjammer Kids (early 

comic strip), 228 
Katzman, Sam, 543 
Kaufman, David, 549 
Kaufman, Lloyd, 108 
Kaveney, Roz, 527 
Kaye, Danny, 519 
Ka-Zar (superhero), 332, 474, 

611 
Kazaros, Eve Marie, 635 
Kaze Hime See Wind Princess 
Kearny, 54 
Keaton, Michael, 60, 61, 63 

(ill.), 66 
Kebec, 121 
Keen Marlow, 554 



Keeper (Kid Eternity guardian), 

495 
Keepers, 225 
Keipher, Elizabeth, 484 
Keith, Sam, 415 
Kekko Kamen, 155 
Kelex, 507 
Kelk, Jackie, 512 
Kelly, Joe, 218, 505 
Kelly, Senator Robert, 656 
Kenichi See Racer, Rex 
Ken-ichi-Kai, 607 
Kennedy, Jamie, 105, 109 
Kennedy, Jayne, 635 
Kennedy, President John E, 

495, 541 
Kenner Toys, 472, 478, 557 
Kenobe, Obi-Wan, 363 
Kent, Clark, 32, 106, 147, 

174, 305, 314, 371, 418, 

484-486, 495, 515, 522, 

538, 543, 544, 548, 549, 

552-554, 598 

See also Superman 
Kent, Clark (father of A-Ko), 

392 
Kent, Eben, 544 
Kent, Jonathan, 308, 482, 

483, 484, 486, 495, 515, 

517, 544, 548 
Kent, Ma See Kent, Martha 
Kent, Martha, 482, 483, 484, 

486, 495, 515, 517, 544, 

548 
Kent, Pa See Kent, Jonathan 
Kent, Sarah, 544 
Kent, Susan See Bulletgirl 
Kento, 409 
Keown, Dale, 275 
Kerberos, 133 
Kero, 133 

Kesel, Barbara, 250, 504 
Kesel, Karl, 250 
Kesslee, 583 
Ketch, Danny See Ghost Rider 

(1990) 
Kevlar, 564 
The Key (villain), 576 
Keyop (Battle of the Planets), 

73 
Keystone City, 485 
Khan, Shiwan, 356 
Khaniger, Robert, 629 
Kherubim, 622, 623, 624 
The Kid See Superboy 
Kid Action, 111 
Kid Commandos (superteam), 

286 
Kid Eternity (comic book), 232, 

615 



(0t> 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Kid Eternity (superhero), 185, 

232, 428, 495 
Kid Flash, 220, 317, 429, 

430, 564, 567, 590, 591, 

593 

becomes The Flash, 
220-221 
Kid Gallahad, 74 
Kid Komics, 112, 268 
Kid Marvelman, 347 
Kid Miracleman, 346, 348 
Kid Nova See Nova 
Kid Rock, 474 
Kid Super-Power Hour with 

Shazam! (animated series), 

131, 471, 492 
"The Kid Who Collected Spi- 
der-Man," 453 
Kidd, Chip, 386 
Kidder, Margot, 105, 307, 546 
Kidz (French superheroes), 

283 
Kiel, Richard, 379 
Kieth, Sam, 275 
Kilgrave the Purple Man, 162 
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (movie, 2003), 

538 
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (movie, 2004), 

538 
Killer Croc, 60, 70, 580 
Killer Frost, 217 
Killer Moth, 55, 69, 70 
Killer Shark, 89 
Killraven, 442 

Kilmer, Val, 61, 67, 401, 571 
Kilowatt, 592 
Kilowog (alien replacement 

Green Lantern), 241 
Kimberly (Blankman), 108 
King Arthur, 119, 440 
King, Christopher "Chris," 179 
King Cobra, 89 
King Comics, 378 
King Endymion, 412 
King Features Syndicate, 95, 

144,377,378,379,493, 

555, 569 
King, Jason, 659 
King Kandy, 179 
King Kong, 576 
King Krull, 126 
King Midas, 578 
King of the Rocketmen, 406 
King of the Seven Seas, 30, 

31, 510 
King, Reverend Dr. Martin 

Luther, 6 
King Solomon's Frog, 85 
King Tut, 70, 576 
King, William See White Feath- 
er (Inferior Five) 



King Zandar, 246 

Kingdom Come (1996), 29, 
128, 314, 505, 620 

Kingdom Come (1998), 528 

Kingpin, 82, 162, 164, 165, 
166, 167, 196, 265, 451, 
457, 458, 460, 462, 463, 
465, 578, 579 

Kingsley, Roderick, 462 

Kinks, 116 

Kinnear, Greg, 105, 168, 238 

Kinney National Services, 174 

Kino, Makoto, 412 

Kinomoto, Sakura, 133, 134 

Kinsolving, Dr. Shondra 316 

Kioke, Kazuo, 326 

Kirby.Jack, 23, 27,35,36, 
45, 47, 84, 85, 93, 102, 
111-114, 142, 148, 161, 
175, 200, 206-209, 214, 
216, 217, 223, 232, 233, 
247-249, 257, 258, 269, 
277, 280, 323-324, 327, 
330, 332-334, 350, 
361-363, 372-374, 414, 
416, 419, 427, 433-435, 
439, 441, 442, 478, 486, 
488, 497, 498, 500, 501, 
519, 524, 525, 528, 534, 
551, 553, 557-560, 571, 
572, 578, 598, 614, 617, 
637, 641, 654, 657 

DC Comics, temporarily 
defects to, 334 

Kirby, Woody, 488 

Kirk, Paul, 327 

Kirk, Valencia See Colt (Fern- 
force) 

Kirkland, Boyd, 635 

Kisarogi See Cutey Honey 

Kishiro, Yukito, 22 

KISS (comic book), 404, 405 

KISS (rock music group), 404, 
405, 406, 445, 519 

KISS: Psycho Circus, 405 

Kit (Phantom's daughter), 378 

Kit Jr., 317 

Kitaen, Priscilla, 622 

Kitchen Sink Press, 106, 323, 
469 

Kitt, Eartha, 64, 141 

Kitten (Femforce), 137, 139, 
140, 211, 315, 428, 533, 
601,617 

Kitty Car, 572 

KLAE Corporation, 146 

Klaus, Janson, 164 

Klaw, 208 

Klein, Izzy, 221 

Knight and Squire (Batmen of 
All Nations), 282 



Knight Watchman (comic 

book), 75 
Knight Watchman (superhero), 

74,75 
Knight, David, 470 
Knight, Jack, 470 
Knight, Misty, 257, 287 
Knight, Sandra See Phantom 

Lady 
Knight, Sen. Henry, 380 
Knight, Ted, 64, 470, 483 
Knight, Theodore See Knight, 

Ted 
Knightfall, 176, 367, 527 
Knights 4 See 4 
Knights of Justice (comic 

book), 75 
Knights of Justice 

(superteam), 74 
Knights of Pendragon (English 

comic book), 283 
The Knights of the Galaxy, 441 
Knights of the Round Table, 

411 
Knights of the Zodiac, 20, 22 
Kobalt, 346 
Kodansha Bilingual Comics, 

22, 134 
Koepp, David, 458, 460 
Kofi, 389 

Kogar the Swinging Ape, 107 
Kohn, Abby, 236 
Koike, Kazuo, 324 
Koike, Kazuya, 21 
Kojima, Goseki, 21, 324 
Kole, 592 

Kolins, Scott, 256, 288 
Komic Kartoons, 333 
Kon-EI, 483, 593 
Konjar Ro, 4 
Konner, Larry, 546 
Kookie Quartet 277 
Kopelow, Kevin, 474 
Koppy McFad, 101 
Kord,Ted,92 
Korean War in comics, 112, 

333 
KORN, 406 
Korvac, Michael, 242 
"Korvac saga" (Guardians of 

the Galaxy), 242, 244 
Korvo, 441 
Kosmos, 617 
Kotobuki, C-ko, 392, 393 
Kotsky, Alex, 232 
Kousuke, Kayama, 457 
Koyama, Takao, 134 
Kraft, David Anthony, 179 
Kramer, Clare, 98 
Kramer, Eric, 265 
Krang, 595 



Kraven the Hunter, 451, 457, 

460, 462 
Kravinoff, Sergei, 462 
Kravinoff, Vladimir, 462 
Kree (villains), 47, 122, 124, 

436, 441, 581 
Kree Empire, 277, 278 
Kree-Skrull War, 251 
Kremer, Warren, 81 
Kreuk, Kristin, 484 
Kricfalusi, John, 494 
Krigstein, Bernie, 497 
Krillin, 191 

Krimson Kommisar (The Free- 
dom Collective), 284 
The Kroft Supershow, 536 
KRS-One, 406 
Krushchev, Nikita, 288 
Krypto the Superdog, 303, 

507, 561 
Krypton (planet), 432, 482, 

483, 485, 486, 506, 516, 

525, 526, 534, 540, 542, 

543, 549, 550, 552, 553, 

562 
Kryptonite, 303-304, 506, 

512, 516, 517 
Kryptonite, blue, 303 
Kryptonite, gold, 303 
Kryptonite, green, 303 
Kryptonite, jewel, 304 
Kryptonite Kid, 482, 484 
Kryptonopolis, 486, 506 
Ku Klux Klan, 8, 85, 575 
Kuan Shi-Yin, 190 
Kubert, Adam, 504, 645 
Kubert, Andy, 504, 645 
Kubert, Joe, 95, 174, 219, 

248, 252, 253, 298, 504 
Kudo, Kazuya, 324 
Kuhn, Sandra, 75 
Kuju, Shuichi, 325 
Kul of Eos, 440 
K'un L'un (city), 257, 286, 

388 
Kung Fu (TV show), 338 
Kupperberg, Paul, 526 
Kurosawa, Akira, 241 
Kurt Busiek's Astro City See 

Astro City 
Kurtzberg, Jacob, 498 
Kurt Busiek's Astro City (1995), 

275 
Kurtzman, Harvey, 497 
Kuruma, Joe, 271, 272 
Kussein, Hassan (Youngblood 

villain), 202 
Kyle, Helena, 78 
Kyle, Selina, 66, 137, 140, 

141, 537 

See also Catwoman 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



6* 



Index 



Kylun the Barbarian, 647 
Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger See 

Mighty Morphin' Power 

Rangers 



La Chica Increible (Spanish 
superhero), 284 

La Llanera Vengadora (Mexi- 
can superhero), 284 

Ladd, Fred, 18, 37 

Lady, 148 

Lady Blackhawk, 89 

Lady Death, 51, 537, 558 

Lady Deathstrike, 655, 657 

Lady Di, 520 

Lady Dorma, 32, 317, 476 

Lady Fairplay, 534, 559 

Lady Flash, 564 

Lady Kayura, 409 

Lady Killer, 609 

Lady Liberty, 561 

Lady Luck (comic book), 466 

Lady Luck (superhero), 51, 
532 

Lady Luger, 2 

Lady of the Lake, 31, 34, 529 

Lady Satan, 534 

Lady Shiva, 79, 358 

Laird, Peter, 105, 184, 504, 
514, 593, 595 

LaLoggia, Frank, 458 

LaMarche, Maurice, 474 

LaMarr, Phil, 297, 471 

Lamont, 53 

LaMorte, Robia, 97 

Lance, 597 

Lance, Dinah, 78 

Lance, Larry, 79, 315 

Lance Lewis, Space Detective, 
440 

Land, Greg, 366 

Land of the Lost, 611 

Landau, Juliet, 97 

Landes, Michael, 548 

Lane, Bobby See Burnout (Gen 
13) 

Lane, Cassandra, 157 

Lane, Lois, 7, 59, 305-307, 
306 (ill.), 313, 317,371, 
372,419,482,495,509, 
517, 524, 533, 540, 543, 
544, 545, 546, 548, 549, 
554, 586, 598 

See also Lois Lane 
(comic book) 

Lane, Lucy, 372 

Lane, Margo, 313, 421, 422 

Lang, Cassie, 24 

Lang, Fritz, 486 



Lang, Lana, 307, 314, 482, 

483, 484, 485, 495, 517, 
540, 546, 548 

Lang, Scott, 24, 388 
Langford, David, 527 
Langkowski, Walter See 

Sasquatch 
Lansdale, Joe R., 526 
Lara (Superman's mother), 

484, 506, 539, 541 

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) See 
Croft, Lara 

Larner, 339 

LaRocque, Greg, 287, 388 

LaRocque, Rod, 422 

Larsen, Erik, 75, 179, 352, 
370, 415, 488, 505, 561 

Larson, Glen A., 328, 365 

Larson, Jack, 371, 484, 544, 
545 

Lash Lightning, 429 

Last /Avengers, 48 

Last Boy on Earth, 94 

Last Son of Krypton, 506 

Lavin, Linda, 545 

Law, Jude, 590 

Law Legionnaires, 566 

Lawrence, Robert, 115, 455, 
654 

Lawson, Craig, 77 

Lawton, Sylvia, 534 

Layton, Bob, 287, 289, 388 

Lazenby, George, 484 

Lazurus Pit, 70 

Le Entorcha (Spanish super- 
hero), 284 

Le Fay, Morgan, 464, 631 

Le Loup Garou (Spanish super- 
hero), 284 

Le Mort D'Arthur, 119 

Leach, Gary, 347 

Leachman, Cloris, 227, 634 

Lead (as impervious to kryp- 
tonite), 304 

Lead (Metal Men), 340, 567 

Lead Publishing, 20 

Leader, 508, 577 

Leading Comics, 237 

League of Assassins, 177, 576 

The League of Extraordinary 
Gentlemen (comic book), 16 

The League of Extraordinary 
Gentlemen (movie), 16 

Lea per, 90 

Leapfrog, 162 

Leav, Mort, 186 

LeBeau, Remy, 644 

Led Zeppelin, 405 

Ledby Hand, 341 

Ledger Syndicate, 421 

Lee, Ang, 28, 267, 351 



Lee, Bruce, 238, 338, 357 

Lee, Christopher, 116 

Lee, Cindy, 290 

Lee, Jae, 420 

Lee, Jason, 343 

Lee, Jim, 11, 45, 106, 203, 
226, 335, 352, 426, 504, 
505, 622, 644 

Lee, Linda See Supergirl 

Lee, Pat, 21 

Lee, Stan, 5, 23, 27, 28, 43, 
45, 84, 86, 94, 95, 112, 
113, 161, 162, 165, 166, 
200, 205-209, 289, 317, 
332-334, 357, 361, 363, 
372, 395, 416, 419, 424, 
433-437, 449, 450, 452, 
453, 455, 456, 460-462, 
464, 474, 476, 487, 
498-501, 516, 528, 559, 
586, 598, 617, 620, 623, 
637, 641, 654, 657 

creates nicknames for 
Marvel writers and 
artists, 334 
establishes "House of 
Ideas" at Marvel, 
334-335 
leaves Marvel for Holly- 
wood, 334 
writes "Stan's Soapbox" 
column, 334 

Leech, 649, 651 

Leeke, Mike, 198 

Legacy Virus, 647, 651 

Legend oflsis (comic book), 
291 

Legend of the Heavenly Sphere 
Shurato, 408 

The Legend of Wonder Woman, 
504 

Legends (comic book), 294 

Legends of the DC Universe 
#11, 55 (ill.) 

Legends of the Super-Heroes 
(TV special, 1979), 60, 65, 
78, 130, 296, 296 (ill.), 
310, 579 

LE.G.I.O.N.,312 

LE.G.I.O.N. '89 (comic book), 
310 

Legion of Doom, 65, 477, 
478, 579 

Legion of Substitute Heroes, 
308, 568 

Legion of Super-Heroes (comic 
book), 309, 310, 503 

Legion of Super-Heroes 
(superteam), 34, 77, 180, 
307-310, 318, 359, 363, 
372,431,442,482,489, 



500, 517, 541, 549, 550, 

562-564, 568, 572, 576, 

578, 586 
Legion of Super-Pets, 308, 

562, 568 
Legion of Super-Villains, 308, 

576 
Legionnaires (comic book), 

310 
Lehnsherr, Erik, 657 
Lei Kung the Thunderer, 286, 

287 
Leiber, Larry, 598 
Leigh, Stephen, 527 
Leiko-Wu, 339 
Leishman, Ron, 121 
Lemaris, Lori, 32, 541 
Lempkin, Jonathan, 549 
Lenk, Tom, 98 
Leno, Jay, 494, 520 
Lenore, 139 
Lensman, 147 
Leon, John Paul, 346 
Leonardo, 595 
Leopardon, 457 
Lester, Loren, 66 
Lester, Richard, 546 
Letterman, David, 520 
Lev Gleason Comics, 159 
Lev Gleason Publications, 

230, 383, 428, 585 
Levens, Philip, 635 
Levine, Deborah Joy, 635 
Levins, Rik, 1 

Levitz, Paul, 145, 175, 309 
Levram (superhero planet), 

106 
Levy, Edward, 143 
Lewis, Jerry, 173 
Lewis, Lance See Lance Lewis, 

Space Detective 
LexCorp, 486 
Li Shaoran, 133, 134 
Liberace, 64 
Liberator, 559, 637 
Liberty Belle (All-Star 

Squadron), 300, 533, 554, 

559, 637 
Liberty Lads, 248 
Liberty Legion (superheroes), 

285, 567 
The Liberty Project, 194 
Licensed Extra-Governmental 

Interstellar Operatives Net- 
work See L.E. G.I. O.N. 
Lichtenstein, Roy, 524 
Lieber, Stanley Martin See 

Lee, Stan 
Liebmann-Smith, Richard, 604 
Liebowitz, Jack, 171, 205, 

229, 298, 333, 432 



tfl* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Liefeld, Dave, 15 

Liefeld, Rob, 51, 202, 203, 

335, 352, 423, 443, 481, 

504, 505, 651, 652 
Lt. Kellaway, 337 
Lieutenant Marvels, 126 
Life (magazine), 523, 638 
Light Lass, 308 
Lightning, 434, 564, 600, 602 
Lightning Boy (superhero), 

308, 309, 310, 318, 431, 

432, 565, 568 
Lightning Boy (comic book), 

308 
Lightning Girl, 429 
Lightning Lad See Lightning 

Boy 
Lightning Lass, 308, 565 
Lightning Lord, 565, 576 
Lightning the Super Dog, 165 
Lightray, 361, 571 
Lightspeed, 389, 567 
Lightstorm Entertainment, 

655 
Lignante, Bill, 378 
L'ilAbner (comic book), 248 
L'il Lobo, 313 
Lil' Romeo, 471 
Lilia (Team Action), 2 
Lilith, 7, 591, 593 
Limbo, 651 

Lindbergh, Charles, 131 
Lindsay, John, 237 
Link, Adam, 404 
Lionfang, 579 
Liquid!, 400 
Liquifier, 423 
Lisa the Conjurer, 54 
Lisaka, Yukako, 156 
Liss, Ronald, 62 
Listener, 90 
Little Dot (comic book), 82, 

249 
Little Mermaid, 34, 567, 469 
Little Rascals, 531 
Little Wise Guys, 160 
Little Witch Sally, 133 
Liu, Lucy, 538 

Live Wire, 310, 549, 565, 568 
Living Doll, 603 
Living Eraser, 23 
Living Fuse, 42 
Living Legends, 514 
Living Mummy, 557 
Living Weapon, 511 
Lizard, 455, 451, 457, 578 
Llyra, 476 
Lobdell, Scott, 648 
Lobisome (Iberia Inc.), 284 
Lobo (comic book), 503 



Lobo (superhero), 29, 
310-313, 445, 549, 562, 
590 

Lobo the Duck, 590 

Lobo Unbound (comic book), 
313 

Loch Ness monster, 362 

Lockheed, 646 

Lockley, Jake See Moon Knight 

Loeb, Jeph, 484, 505 

Loeb, Lisa, 460 

Loesch, Margaret, 655 

Logan, 625 

Logan, Thomas, 626 

Lois and Clark: The New Adven- 
tures of Superman (TV 
series, 1993-1997), 176, 
307,542,548,552,635 

Lois Lamebrain, 627 

Lois Lane (comic book), 105 
See also Lane, Lois 

Lokar, 438 

Loki, the God of Mischief, 46, 
457, 487, 578, 598, 599 

Lombard, Josephine, 323 

London Night, 51 

Lone, 169 

Lone Ranger (action hero), 
355, 495 

The Lone Ranger (radio 
series), 238, 511 

The Lone Ranger (TV Series), 
434 

Lone Wolf and Cub, 20, 21, 
22, 324 

Long Tom, 181 

Long, Xiao Bai, 189 

Longbow Hunters, 237 

Longshot (comic book), 503 

Longshot (superhero), 171, 
644, 653 

Look (magazine), 172, 574, 
637 

Looker, 375 

The Looter, 451 

Lopez, Jose Luis Garcia, 177, 
479 

Lora, 539 

Lord Chaos, 592 

Lord Emp, 622 

Lord Farnsworth, 285 

Lord Hellspont, 622 

Lord, Maxwell, 294, 297 

Lord of Chaos, 297 

Lord of the Plunderworld, 186 

Lord Satanis, 551 

Lord Weterlackus, 53 

Lord Zedd, 343 

Lori Petty, 584 (ill.) 

Lorimar, 297, 548 

Loring, Jean, 41 



Lorne-Harvey imprint, 82 

Lothar, 5, 355, 379, 493, 555 

Lothos, 96 

Louie the Lilac, 576 

Louisville Times, 554 

Love, Courtney, 406 

Love Interests, 313-319 

Lovejoy, Frank, 512 

Lovely Soldier Sailor Moon, 
132, 408, 411 

Lovers, 91 

Lowe, George, 439 

Lowe, Rob, 105, 109 

Lowery, Robert, 62, 509 

Lowther, George, 525 

Lubbers, Bob, 234 

Lucas See Power Man 

Lucas, George, 78, 147, 363, 
405, 519 

Lugosi, Bela, 434 

Luke Cage See Power Man 

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, 358, 
386, 387 

Luke, Eric, 169 

Luke, Keye, 508 

Luminous One, 73 

Lumbly, Carl, 9, 472 

Luna (child of Quicksilver), 
135,412,417 

Lundgren, Dolph, 397 

Lung, Khoo Fuk, 608 

Lutefisk, Lannier, 53 

Luthor, Lex, 297, 303, 308, 
477, 478, 479, 482, 484, 
485, 506, 509, 517, 540, 
542, 544-546, 548-552, 
573,575,576,579,586 

Luthor, Lionel, 484 

Lydecker, Howard, 129 

Lydecker, Theodore, 129 

Lykos, Dr. Karl, 658 

Lyle,Tom,462 

Lynch, John, 225 

Lynde, Paul, 103 

Lynne, Monica, 85 

Lynx, 137 

Lyrl Dox, 312 



M 



M, 648, 656 
Ma Hunkle, 101, 532 
Ma Parker, 64 
Ma'alefa'ak J'onzz, 330 
Maas, Stephanie See Critical 

Maas 
MacCorkindale, Simon, 328 
MacDonald, J. Fred, 356, 511 
Mace (superhero), 579 
Mace, Jeff, 553 
Macek, Carl, 150 
Mach 5, 448, 449 



Mach Go See Mach 5 
Mach Go Go Go See Speed 

Racer (animated series) 
The Machine, 169 
Machine, 488 
Machine Man X-51, 458 
Mack, Allison, 484 
Mackie, John, 235 
Mackle, Howard, 462 
Mackley, Vic, 26 
MacRae, David, 608 
Macross, 38, 391 
Macy, William H., 109 
MAD About Super Heroes, 106 
The MAD Adventures of Cap- 
tain Klutz, 104 
Mad Hatter, 67, 69, 574 
MAD Magazine, 102, 106, 

434, 501, 523 
Mad Max, 583 
Mad Mod, 576, 591 
Madame Butterfly, 89 
Madame Rouge, 188 
Madame Satan, 556 
Madara (animated series), 

322 
Madara (superhero), 321-322 
Madara (video game), 322 
Madara Project, 321 
Mademoiselle, 627 
Madhouse, 134 
Madison, Julie, 59,316 
Madman (comic book), 107, 

323 

Harvey Award, wins, 323 
Madman #1, 1992 
(Madman's debut), 
322 
Madman (superhero), 

322-324 

origin of, 322 
Superman, partnership 
with, 323 
Madman Comics 

(1994-2000), 168, 323 
Madman Comics: The G-Men 

from Hell (2000), 323 
Madman Hullabaloo, 589 
Madman/The Jam (1999), 323 
Madmen, 578 
Madripoor, 625 
Madureira, Joe, 21 
Magazine Enterprise, 356 
Magda, 417 
Mage, 324, 350, 504 
Mageddon, 580 
Maggia (crime cartel), 289 
Maggin, Elliots., 526, 528, 

541 
Maggot, 644 
Magic Boy (Sasoke), 18 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



** 



Index 



Magic Knight Reyearth, 133, 

413 
Magical Armor Team, 408 
Magicman, 434 
Magik, 651 
Magma, 651 
Magnet Man, 491 
Magneto, 47, 178, 416, 417, 

518, 563, 569, 578, 612, 

613, 626, 641, 644, 651, 

654-659 
The Magnificent Seven (1960), 

241-242 
Magno, the Magnetic Man, 

427, 573, 574 
Magnum Productions, 297 
Magnus See Magneto 
Magnus, Dr. Will, 340 
Magnus, Robot Fighter, 134, 

352, 434, 441, 589 
Magnus, Robot Fighter, 4000 

A.D. (superhero), 611 
Maguire, Kevin, 295 
Maguire, Tobey, 458, 460 
Mahnke, Doug, 337 
Mai, the Psychic Girl, 

324-326 
Mai, the Psychic Girl (comic 

book), 20, 21, 22, 324 
Maid of Steel, 510 
Mailer, Norman, 414 
Maizen, Craig, 109 
Majin Souen, 322 
Major Force, 118 
Major Havoc Entertainment, 

607-608 
Major Maple Leaf, 368 
Major Victory (comic book), 

637 
Major Victory (superhero), 

559, 561, 636 
Majors, Lee, 145 
Majoy Libery, 559 
Mak, Elim, 3 
Maki Kuju, 325 
Makkari, 571 
Malcolm X, 523 
Malebolgia, 444, 445 
Maleev, Alex, 165, 505 
Malefic, 330 
Malibu Comics, 352, 365, 

368, 393, 406, 493, 569, 

589, 608 
Malice, 207, 537, 568 

See also Invisible Girl 
Malory, Sir Thomas, 119 
Malverne, Dick, 315, 489 
The Man from Atlantis (1977), 

34 
Man from Atlantis (comic 

book), 326 



The Man from U.N.C.L.E., 363, 

601 
Man in Black Called Fate, 382, 

556 
Man of Bronze, 181 
Man of Steel See Superman 
Man of Steel (comic book), 

425, 490, 553 
Man of Steel (TV miniseries, 

1986), 482, 486, 495 
Man of the Atom, 42 
Man of Tomorrow See Super- 
man 
Man of Two Worlds, 499 
Man of War, 559 
Man Ray, 467 
Man versus machine, 134 
The Man Who Laughs (1927), 

61 
Man Without Fear, 161, 510, 

518 
Man-Bat (comic book), 60 
Man-Bat (superhero), 60, 70, 

579, 590 
Mandarin, 357, 577 
Mandel, Howie, 548 
Mandolin Entertainment, 427 
Mandrake the Magician (movie 

serial), 508 
Mandrake the Magician (news- 
paper comic strip), 377 
Mandrake the Magician (radio 

serial), 511 
Mandrake the Magician 

(superhero), 5, 355, 378, 

379, 493, 512, 555, 569 
Mandrake, Tom, 330 
Mane, Tyler, 656 
Man-Eating Cow (comic book), 

602 
Man-Eating Cow (superhero), 

106 
Man-Eating Monsters, 31 
Manga, 324 

Manga Entertainment, 38 
Manga Shi 2000 (2000), 426 
Manga! Manga! The World of 

Japanese Comics, 20, 38 
Mangog, 599 
Manh,Xi'an Coy, 651 
Manhattan, 507 
Manhunter, 326-328, 470 
Manhunter from Mars See 

Martian Manhunter 
Manhunters, 297, 373, 470 
Maniaks, 405 
Manimal (superhero), 328, 

365 
Manimal (TV series, 1983), 

328 



Manitou Raven, 477, 478, 

479 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 295 
Manly Wade Wellman, 88 
Mann, John "Iron," 341, 530 
Manor, Wayne, 64 
Manosaur, 33 
Manowar, 442, 558 
Manphibian, 557 
Manson, Marilyn, 593 
Manta, 34 

Manta and Moray, 492 
Man-Thing (comic book), 334, 

557,94 
Man-Thing (superhero), 78, 

557, 590 
Mantis, 47, 358, 362 
M.A.N.T.I.S. (TV series) 9 
Mantlo, Bill, 28, 47, 351, 368 
Mantra (comic book), 609 
Mantra (superhero), 608, 610 
Manuscript Press, 378 
Man-Wolf, 557, 579 
The Many Worlds of Tesla 

Strong, 16 

The Many Worlds of Tesla 
Strong #1,17 (ill.) 
Mapleville, 486 
Marauders, 659, 660 
Marc Spector, Moon Knight, 

354 
March, Forbes, 657 
Marco of Mars, 442 
Marcoux, George, 101 
Marcus, 355 
Margie, 91 

Marina (Team Action), 2 
Marine Boy, 494 
Marine Marvel, 510 
Mark (Battle of the Planets), 

73 
The Mark ofZorro (1920), 56, 

61 
Markovia, 374 
Marksman, 568 
Markstein, Don, 532 
Marley, Bob, 406 
Marlowe, Jacob, 622 
Marrina, 11, 34 
Marrow, 644 
Marrs, Lee, 504 
Mars (God of War), 440, 629 
M.AR.S. Patrol, 441 
Marsden, James, 655 (ill.), 

656 
Marshal Law, 416 
Marshall, Judge Nicholas, 147 
Marsters, Spike, 97 
Marston, Dr. William Moulton, 

499, 533, 628 



Marten, Sasha See Hawk 
Martian Manhunter (comic 
book, 1998-2001), 330 
Martian Manhunter (super- 
hero), 297, 328-330, 357, 
430-431, 432, 488, 510, 
517, 563, 564, 568, 586, 
587 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 
Martian Manhunter 1,000,000 

(1998), 330 
Martian Marvel, 510 
Martin, Alan, 583 
Martin, Don, 104, 434 
Martin, George R. R., 513, 

527 
Martinex, 441 
Martinson, Les, 632 
Marubishi Trading Company, 

325 
Marvel See Marvel Comics 
The Marvel Action Hour (ani- 
mated series, 1994-1996), 
208, 209-210, 465, 493 
Marvel Action Universe, 457 
Marvel Adventure Gamebooks, 

526 
Marvel Age (birth of), 333 
Marvel and DC Present, 588 
Marvel Boy (comic book), 331 
Marvel Boy (superhero), 

330-331, 333, 570 
Marvel Bunny, 336 
Marvel Comics, 174, 331-336 
Atlas imprint (1950s), 

333 
bankruptcy, files for 

(1996), 335 
bankruptcy, recovery 

from, 335-336 
becomes a publicly trad- 
ed company, 335 
Captain America, cre- 
ation of, 111-112, 
115 
Captain America, impor- 
tance of, 332-333 
comic books, begins 

publishing, 332 
comic books, nonsuper- 

hero titles, 333 
creation of, 230 
DC Comics, competition 

with, 332, 333 
DC Comics, partnership 

with, 334 
Fantastic Four 
superteam, introduc- 
tion of, 333 



to© 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



first superheroes, 332 
Fleer and Toy Biz, merger 

with, 335 
genre publishing, 334 
girls, comics for, 91 
"Heroes Reborn" experi- 
ment, 203 
hires Stan Lee, 332 
House of Ideas, 

334-335 
Independent News Co., 

deal with, 333 
"Mangaverse" of, 21 
Marvel Age, 333-334 
Marvel Comics #1 

(1939), 332 
Marvel Enterprises, 458 
Marvel Knights imprint, 

197 
Marvel MAX imprint, 9, 

197, 388 
Merry Marvel Marching 
Society fan club, 334 
name change (to Marvel 

Comics), 333 
New Universe of, 335 
New World Pictures, pur- 
chased by (1986), 
335 
Revlon, purchased by 

(1989), 335 

superhero comics, end 

of after World Warll, 

332-333 

as Timely Comics, 332 

as Timely Publications, 

331-332 
X-Men, success of, 95 
Marvel Comics (comic book), 
474, 476 

Marvel Comics #1, 230, 
332 
Marvel Comics Presents, 340 
Marvel Comics Radio Series 

(1975), 208-209, 512 
Marvel Comics Super Special, 

405 
Marvel Entertainment Group, 

Inc. See Marvel Comics 
Marvel Family (characters), 
284, 518, 563, 567, 574 
Marvel Family (comic book), 

126, 567 
Marvel Family Comics #89 
(final Fawcett appearance of 
Captain Marvel), 129 
Marvel Feature, 23, 177, 178 
Marvel Films, 209, 465 
Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades 
of the World's Greatest 



Comics (1991), 28, 332, 
518, 588 

Marvel Girl, 318, 535,569, 
580, 641, 654 

Marvel Knights product line, 
85, 87, 164, 331, 397 

Marvel, Mary, 126, 128, 131, 
336-337, 428, 488, 492, 
518, 533, 534, 567, 585 

Marvel, Mary fan club See 
Mary Marvel fan club 

Marvel MAX imprint, 9, 197, 
388 

Marvel Music line, 405 

Marvel Mystery Comics, 91, 
112, 332, 474, 475, 584 

Marvel Premiere, 24, 287, 
339, 353, 373, 405 

Marvel Preview, 396 

Marvel Productions, 165 

Marvel Science Stories (period- 
ical), 332 

Marvel Spotlight, 228, 353, 
364, 373, 464 

Marvel Super Heroes (role-play- 
ing game), 514 

Marvel Super Special, 405 

The Marvel Super-Heroes (ani- 
mated series), 115, 208, 
263, 289, 435, 455, 490, 
578 

Marvel Super-Heroes Contest 
of Champions, 77, 588 

Marvel Superheroes #12 (Cap- 
tain Marvel's debut), 122, 
441 

Marvel Super-Heroes Secret 
Wars (comic book), 82, 120, 
335, 417, 424, 453, 463, 
589 

Marvel Team Up, 86, 119, 
372,452,503,520,587 

Marvel Two in One, 86, 207, 
464, 587 

Marvel Universe, 113, 136 

Marvel Universe (comic book), 
26-27 

Marvel Universe (role-playing 
game), 515 

Marvel vs. DC, 589 

Mar-Veil, 581 

See also Captain Marvel 

The Marveller, 457 

Marvelman See Miracleman 

Marvelman Special (1984), 
347 

Marvels, 194, 399, 487, 505 

Marvin See Wonder Twins 

Mary Jane, 621 

Mary Marvel, 336-337 

Mary Marvel fan club, 127 



Mary Marvel #1, 337 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 
536 

The Mask (comic book), 589, 
493 

The Mask (movie, 1994), 168, 
338 

The Mask (superhero), 36, 
168, 313, 337-338, 529 

The Mask (TV cartoon), 338 

Maskarado (Filipino super- 
hero), 284 

Masked ManhunterSee Bat- 
man (superhero) 

Masked Raider (superhero), 
332 

Masked Rider, 321 

Masker, 75 

Mason, Joan, 92 

Mason, Mark, 91 

Mason, Rex See Metamorpho 

Mason, Rick, 290 

Mass Master, 389, 567 

Massacre, 551, 580 

Massara, Jim, 54 

Massive Multiplayer Online 
Role-Playing Games 
(MMORPGs), 514 

Master, 96, 179 

Master Comics, 99, 124, 558 

Master Key, 34 

Master Man, 99 

Master of Darkness See Bat- 
man (superhero) 

Master of Kung Fu (comic 
book), 94, 334, 339, 358 
Master of Kung Fu #17, 
339 (ill.) 

Master of Kung Fu (super- 
hero), 286, 338-340, 358, 
405, 582 

Master of the Mystic Arts, 
510, 563 

Master of the World, 11 

Master Planner, 451 

Master Roshi, 191 

Master Splinter, 593 

Masterman, 285 

Mastermind, 121, 659 

Masters, Alicia, 206 

Masters of Evil, 46 

Masters of the Universe, 494, 
515 

Masterson, Eric, 599 

Masterson, Scott, 607 

Mastervile, 343 

Mastodon (The Freedom Col- 
lective), 284 

Masuli, Pat, 117 

Matheson, Maggie, 597 

Matrix (DNAgents), 193 



The Matrix, 22 

Matrix movie trilogy, 134, 538 

Matsumoto, Leiji, 391 

Matsumoto, Reiji, 38 

Matsura, Gwen, 226 

Mattel, 110, 362, 589 

Matter Master, 76 

Matter-Eater Lad, 308, 568 

Matthieson, Tim, 437 

Maude, 536 

Maul, 622 

Maurer, Norman, 160 

Mauser, Michael, 200 

Mavis, 89 

Max, 146 

Max Mercury, 564 

Maxima, 118, 549 

Maxi-Man, 608 

Maximoff, Pietro See Quicksilver 

Maximoff, Wanda See Scarlet 

Witch 
Maximum, 15 
Maximum CNG, 514 
Maximum Press, 203 
Maximum Press Comics, 562 
Maximus, 210 
Maxwell, Robert, 515, 544 
The Maxx (comic book), 202, 

275, 493 
May, 621 
Maya, 34 
Mayer, Sheldon, 101, 229, 

298, 499 
Mayfair Games, 514 
Mayflower, 561 
Mazoku (demon), 321 
Mazoujian, Chuck, 466 
Mazzucchelli, David, 141, 164, 

496, 503-504 
McCallum, David, 146 
McCamus, Tom, 657 
McCarthyism, 527, 544 
McCartney, Paul, 288 
McCloud, Scott, 38 
McClure, Marc, 546 
McClure Syndicate, 539 
McColm, Matt, 365 
McCoy, Hank, 642 
McCoy, Wilson, 378 
McCracken, Craig, 391 
McDaniel, Scott, 505 
McDowall, Roddy, 64, 67, 576 
McDowell, Malcolm, 583 
McDowell, Scotty, 464 
McDuffie, Dwayne, 9, 345, 

390, 471, 607 
McFarlane, Todd, 9, 22, 335, 

348, 352, 405, 406, 415, 

443-446, 453, 455, 463, 

504, 505 

See also McFarlane Toys 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*>l 



Index 



McFarlane Toys, 445 
McG, 549 
McGinnis, Terry, 67 
McGrath, Derek, 147 
McGregor, Don, 8, 85, 193 
McGuiness, Ed, 505 
McGuire, Don, 509 
McGuire, Ginger See Sky Girl 

(superhero) 
McKean, Dave, 614 
McKellen, Ian, 358 
McKenzie, Anne, 10 
McKenzie, Brook, 328 
McKenzie, Leonard, 474 
McLaurin, Marcus, 388 
McLean, A. J., 471 
McLeod, Bob, 390, 650 
McMahon, Ed, 297 
McNider, Charles, 529 
McTaggart, Moira, 648, 650 
MC-2, 184 

Meachum, Harold, 286 
Meadowlark Lemon, 105 
Meatball, 160 
Mecha (comic book), 169 
Mecha (superhero), 571, 581 
Media Blasters, 322 
Medi-Lab, 507 
Medley, Linda, 184 
Medusa (Fantastic Four), 207, 

564, 569 
Mega Bands, 581 
Mega City, 441 
Mega Man, 369 
Megacity One, 515 
Megami, A-ko, 392, 393 
Megaton (comic book, 

1983-1986), 75, 373, 415 
Megaton #4 (first comic 
book reference to 
AIDS), 423 
Megaton Comics, 373 
Megaton Comics Explosion 

(Youngblood's debut, June 

1987), 202 
Megaton Man (comic book), 

416 
Megaton Man (superhero), 

106 
Megazord, 343 
Meggan (shapeshifter), 120, 

645, 646, 647 
Mego Toy, 96 
Melkart (Iberia Inc.), 284 
Melt Man, 493 
Meltdown, 651 
Melter (villain), 289 
Meltzer, Brad, 237 
Melville, Herman, 246 
Memento (movie), 68 
Men in Black, 352 



Men in Black (movie), 494, 

603, 609 
Men of Mystery (comic book), 

2 
Men of Mystery Spotlight Spe- 
cial #1, 233 (ill.) 
Menorah Man, 359 
Menthor, 434, 570, 600, 601 
Mento, 187, 188 
Mentor, 128, 130 
Mephisto, 164, 417, 436, 

437, 578 
Mera, 30, 31, 32, 317, 491, 

535 
Mer-Boy, 32, 629 
Mercurio, 341 
Mercury (Metal Men), 340, 

567,627 
Meredith, Burgess, 64, 70, 

576 
Meriwether, Lee, 64, 141 
Merlin (Captain Britain Corps), 

119 
Merlin (Freedom Force), 290, 

492 
Mermaid Man, 494 
Merman, 629 
Merrill, Dr. Elizabeth, 326 
Merry Marvel Marching Society 

(M.M.M.S.), 334 
Merry, Girl of a Thousand Gim- 
micks, 428, 533 
Merryman, 103, 570 
Merrywether, David, 139 
Meskin, Mort, 470, 615, 616 
Messick, Don, 437 
Metal Men (comic book), 103, 

501 

Metal Men #48, 340 
(ill.) 
Metal Men (superheroes), 

173, 340-341, 373, 535, 

567, 576, 587 
Metallix, 353, 581 
Metallo, 484, 548, 550, 551, 

576 
Metallus, 438 
Metalman, 324 
Metamorpho, 173, 297, 318, 

341-342, 372, 374, 375, 

565, 569, 570 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Metamorpho the Element Man 

(comic book), 103, 501 
Metamorpho the Element Man 

(superhero) See Metamor- 
pho 
Metcalf, Curtis, 346 
Metcalf, Mark, 96 



Meteor Man (Hanna-Barbera), 
246, 491 

Meteor Man (movie), 9, 108 

Meteor Man (Spider-Man vil- 
lain), 451 

Meteor Martin, 442 

Meteorix (Mexican superhero), 
284 

Metron, 571, 572 

Metropolis (city) 8, 309, 433, 
486, 506, 540, 544, 548, 
550, 551, 553, 554, 579, 
581 

Metropolis (1949), 36 

Metropolis (2003-2004), 372 

Metropolis Marvel, 550 

Metropolis Symphony (orches- 
tral work), 545 

Metropolis, Illinois, 486 

Meugniot, Will, 157, 193, 350, 
656 

Meyer, Dina, 56, 78 

Meyers, Barry, 484 

Meyers, Richard S., 526 

M.F Publications, 434 

MGM, 400, 458 

Mia Koji, 409 

Michaels, Lome, 548 

Michaels, Marian See Butterfly 

Michelangelo, 595 

Michelinie, David, 47, 289, 
453, 463, 526 

Mickey Mouse, 605 

Micronauts (comic book), 111, 
502 

Microwave Man, 551 

Micro-World (Fantastic Four), 
206 

Middleton, Ray, 522 

Midnight, 5, 553 

Midnight Eye Goku, 38, 148, 
190 

Midnight Man, 354 

Midnighter, 44, 369, 569 

Midway City, 485 

Midwood, 600 

Mig-4 (The Freedom Collec- 
tive), 284 

Might Man and Yukk, 492 

Mightor (superhero), 246, 438 

Mighty Atom See Astro Boy 

Mighty Comics, 36 

Mighty Crusaders (comic 
book), 560 

Mighty Crusaders 
(superteam), 36, 434, 569 

Mighty Diner Straw (villain), 
603 

Mighty Heroes, 102, 491 

Mighty Lad, 483 

Mighty Man, 75, 416 



Mighty Midget Comics, 100 

Mighty Moppet, 179 

Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers: The Movie (1995), 
343 

Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers (superheroes), 19, 
343-344 

Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers (TV series), 73, 
343, 344 (ill.) 

Mighty Mouse (animated 
series), 102 

Mighty Mouse (superhero), 
101-102 

as Super Mouse, 
221-222, 222 (ill.) 

Mighty Mouse Playhouse, 490 

Mighty Mouse: The New Adven- 
tures, 493 

Mighty Thor (animated series), 
490, 654 

Mighty Thor (superhero) See 
Thor 

Mighty World of Marvel, 120 

Mignola, Mike, 22, 34, 168 

Miguel, 116 

Mihura (Triada Vertice), 284 

Mil Mascaras (Mexican super- 
hero), 284 

Milan, Victor, 527 

Milestone Comics, 85, 368, 
488, 494, 565 

Milestone Heroes, 344-346 
See also Bang Babies, 
The Blood Syndicate, 
Hardware, Icon, Kobalt, 
Shadow Cabinet, Stat- 
ic, Xombi 

Milestone Media, 9 

Milestone Medic, 344 

Military Comics, 88, 356, 466, 
559 

cancellation of, 89 
Military Comics #1 
(Blackhawk's debut), 
88 

Milk and Cheese, 106 

Millar, Mark, 44, 48, 645 

Millar, Miles, 460 

Millard, Bill, 468 

Millard, Joe, 132, 186 

Millennium, 327, 368, 571 

Millennium City, 17, 488 

Miller, Frank, 21, 22, 51, 60, 
87, 269, 106, 141, 162, 
164, 166, 196, 197, 287, 
324,335,350,389,396, 
403, 419, 442, 445, 496, 
503-505, 520, 589, 625 

Miller, Jason See Patriot 



10* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Miller, John J., 527 

Miller, Len, 347 

Miller, Mark Thomas, 108 

Miller, Miles, 484 

Miller, Pete, 627 

Millie the Model, 91, 333 

Milligan, Peter, 504, 520, 614, 

653 
Millionaire, Tony, 106 
Mills, John, 184 
Mills, June See Mills, Tarpe 
Mills, Tarpe, 137, 348, 499, 

532 
Millwood-Tower, 600 
Milo (dog), 338 
Minami, Johji, 596 
Minami, Yuko, 606 
Ming the Merciless, 379, 493 
Minute Man, 99, 100 
Minute Man (The Specials), 

109 
Minute Mouse, 102 
Minute-Man (Master Comics), 

558, 568, 637 
Miracle Comics (1940-41), 

440 
Miracleman (comic book), 

193, 348, 368 

Miracleman #1 (Miracle- 
man's debut), 347, 
347 (ill.) 
Miracleman (superhero), 127, 

346-348 
Miracleman Apocrypha 

(1991-1992), 348 
The Miracleman Family 

(1988), 348 
Miracleman 3-D, 348 
Miraclo Pill, 517 
Mirage Press, 105 
Mirage Studios, 592, 595, 

651 
Mireault, Bernie, 323 
Mirror Master, 478, 575 
MIRVSee Multi-purpose Inter- 
cept/Reconnaissance Vehi- 
cle 
Misfits of Science, 105, 108 
Ms. (magazine), 524, 630 
Miss America (comic book), 

136 
Miss America (superhero), 91, 

417, 533, 559, 566, 585, 

637 

in All-Winners Squad, 

284 
in Liberty Legion, 285 
Miss Ayumi, 392 
Miss Fury (comic book), 349, 

499 



Miss Fury (superhero), 91, 

137, 348-349, 532, 637 
as first costumed super- 
heroine, 348 
origins of, 349 
Ms. Indestructible, 109 
Ms. Keane,391 
Miss Liberty, 560 
Ms. Marvel, 123, 354-355, 

554, 644 
Ms. Marvel #1, 354 (ill.) 
Ms. Mystic, 351 
Miss Masque, 2, 534 
Miss Patriot, 559 
Miss Victory, 2, 534, 559, 

567, 637 
Miss World USA, 536, 634 
Mist, 470, 574 
Mr. A (comic book), 501 
Mr. A (superhero), 185, 554 
Mr. America, 559, 637 
Mr. Atom, 574 
Mr. Banjo, 126 
Mr. Blaze, 578 
Mr. Carrion, 468 
Mister Conan, 341 
Mr. Element, 575 
Mr. Fantastic, 5, 94, 205-210, 

246, 317, 389, 494, 507, 

518, 524, 564, 567, 577 
Mr. Fear, 162 
Mr. Fish, 34 
Mr. Fission, 42 
Mr. Freeze, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 

576 
Mr. Furious, 105, 109, 168 
Mr. Gum, 324, 564 
Mister Hyde, 598 
Mr. Immortal, 48 
Mr. Inflate), 494 
Mr. Justice, 35 
Mr. Keeper, 232 
Mr. Majestic, 622 
Mr. Mask, 75 
Mr. Midas, 331 
Mr. Midnight, 108, 468 
Mr. Mind, 126, 131, 574 
Mister Miracle (comic book), 

93, 175, 361, 362, 363 
Mister Miracle (superhero), 

297, 362 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Mr. Mix-it-Up, 74 
Mr. Mom (1983), 60 
Mr. Murder, 100 
Mr. Mxyzptlk, 478, 484, 517, 

545, 548, 549, 550, 551, 

574, 576 
Mister Mystery, 382 
Mr. Mystic, 466 



Mr. Mystic, 556 

Mr. Neptune, 33 

Mr. Night, 337 

Mr. Nobody, 466 

Mr. O'Hoolihan, 507 

Mr. Scarlet, 99, 336, 428, 

585 
Mr. Silke, 164 
Mr. Sinister, 580, 644, 655, 

659 
Mr. Tawky Tawny, 101, 126, 

131 
Mr. Terrific (superhero), 107, 

523, 566 

Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, 299 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Mr. Terrific (TV series), 103, 

107, 109 (ill.), 434 
Mister Thin, 180 
Mr. Twister, 590 
Mr. Walker See Phantom 
Mr. White, 622 
Mr. Who, 573 
Mr. Zero, 69, 576 
Misty Magic, 471, 492 
Misty Night, 358 
Mitchell, George, 107 
Mitchell, Kel, 109 
Mitchell, Mary, 288 
Mitsuo, Andou, 457 
Mixon, Laura J., 527 
Miyazaki, Mai, 34 
Mizuno, Ami, 412 
M.J. See Watson, Mary Jane 
Mjolnir, 581, 598 
MU Publications, 27, 34, 230, 

231, 574, 584, 636, 637 
See also Archie Comics 
M.M.M.S. See Merry Marvel 

Marching Society 

(M.M.M.S.) 
MMORPGs See Massive Multi- 
player Online Role-Playing 

Games 
Mobile Suit Gundam, 20, 22, 

37, 391, 408, 597 
Mobius Chair, 572 
Moby Dick, 438 
Moby Dick and the Mighty 

Mightor (animated series), 

246 
Mockingbird, 77, 317 
Modok, 114 
Moebius, 437 
Moede, Titus, 107 
Moench, Doug, 182, 339, 

353, 354, 358 
Mohr, Gerald, 129, 208 



Mojo (Dazzler villain), 171, 

653 
Mojo Jojo, 391 
Moldoff, Sheldon, 57, 132, 

499 
Mole Man, 206, 577 
Molecule Man, 577 
Molina, Alfred, 460, 525 
Moll, Richard, Two-Face, 67 
Moltar (Space Ghost Coast to 

Coast), 246, 438, 439, 441, 

578 
Molten Man, 451 
Monarch, 250 
The Monarchy, 441 
Mondo, 570, 649, 656 
Mon-EI, 308, 517 
Monet, 649 

Mongoose Publishing, 515 
Mongul (villain), 297, 551 
Monk, 181, 406 
Monkees (music group), 103, 

404 
Monkees (TV series), 404 
Monkey King, 189 
Monkeyman and O'Brien, 107 
Monkton, Lou, 424 
Monogram Pictures, 422 
Monolith, 197 
Monroe, Vaughan, 227 
Monsieur Machine, 90 
Monsieur Mallah, 188 
Monstadt (villain), 322, 323 
Monster of Frankenstein, 557 
Monster Society of Evil, 567, 

574 
Montalban, Ricardo, 633 
Monte Hale Western, 337 
Montez, Yolanda, 138 
Montgomery, Belinda J., 326 
Mook the Moon Man, 440 
Moon Girl, 534 
Moon Knight (comic book), 

353, 340, 503 
Moon Knight (superhero), 47, 

169, 287, 353-354, 388, 

423, 557 
Moon Princess Serenity, 412 
Mooney, Jim, 179,386 
Moonrider, Mark, 362, 571 
Moonstar, 651, 653 
Moonstone, 378 
Moore, Alan, 4, 15, 29, 36, 

107, 120, 145, 175, 193, 

203, 324, 347, 351, 368, 

394, 395, 420, 423, 441, 

445, 469, 488, 504, 532, 

560, 562, 611, 613, 618, 

619, 623, 624, 645 
retirement of, 18 
Moore, Ray, 377 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*>3 



Index 



Moore, Steve, 16, 17 
Moore, Wilfred G., 131 
Moorehead, Agnes, 421 
Moorhead, Ja'nelle, 226 
Moosler, 443 
Morales, Rags, 84 
Moran, Elizabeth, 449 
Moran, Mike See Miracleman 
Moray, 34, 74 
Morbius the Living Vampire 

(superhero), 227, 457, 557, 

579 
Mordillo, 339 
Mordru the Merciless, 296, 

309, 310, 576, 579 
More Fun Comics, 171, 446, 

447, 480-483, 553 

More Fun Comics #55 
(Dr. Fate debuts, May 
1940), 188 
More Fun Comics #73 
(Green Arrow's debut, 
1941), 30, 236 
Morgan Edge, 549 
Morgan, Joe, 40 
Morgan, Tom, 390 
Morisi, Pete "PAM," 144 
Moriyama, Yuji, 393 
Morlocks, 644, 655, 659 
Morning, Lori, 180 
Morningstar, 565 
Moroboshi, Dan, 606 
Morph, 655 

Morpheus See Sandman 
Morris, Howard, 130, 296 
Morrison, Bill, 53, 54 
Morrison, Bret, 421 
Morrison, Grant, 188, 331, 

335, 445, 504, 562, 614, 

645 
Morrison, Robbie, 45 
Morse, Bobbi, 77 
Morton, Mickey, 296 
Morton, Philip, 210 
Morton, Wayne, 209 
Moss, Carrie-Anne, 538 
Mother Askani, 647 
Mother Box, 553 
Mothergod, 612 
Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, 

474 
Motorhead, 169 
Motown Animation, 345 
Mott (Madman's sidekick), 

323 
The Mouse of Tomorrow (the- 

atrical short cartoon), 221 
Mouse Man, 629 
MOVIC Studio, 322 
M-78, 606, 607 
MTV, 505 



MTV Oddities, 493 

Mudpack, 70 

Mulcahy, Russell, 422 

Mulder, Fox, 382 

Mullaney, Jim, 288 

Multi Man (The Impossibles), 

245-246, 491, 492 
Multi-Man (villain), 142 
Multi-purpose 

Intercept/Reconnaissance 

Vehicle (MIRV), 622 
Mundi, Rex, 609 
Murder Master, 421 
Murdock, Matt, 161, 162, 

164, 165, 166, 196, 319, 

496, 507, 519, 529, 531 
Murdock, Mike, 162 
Murmur, 11 
Murphy, Ben, 146 
Murphy, Eddie, 525 
Murphy, Howard, 296, 296 

(ill.) 
Murphy, Jeff See Vortex 
Murphy, Kevin Andrew, 527 
Murray, Bill, 105, 209 
Murray, Will, 182 
Mushi Productions, 37 
Musketeer, 356 
Mussolini, Benito, 139 
Mutant Liberation Front, 651, 

652 
Mutant X, 656, 657 
Mutants and Masterminds, 

514 
Muthalode Morning Mungpie, 

627 
Mutual, 511, 512 
Mutual Network, 543 
Mutual Radio, 131 
MVCreations, 406 
My Greatest Adventure, 568 
My Greatest Adventure 
#80 (Doom Patrol 
debuts, 1963), 187 
My Love Secret, 382 
My Romance, 333 
My Secret Identity, 147 
Myrmidon Press, 514 
Myrtle, 52 

Mysta of the Moon, 440 
Mysteries of Unexplored 

Worlds, 530 
Mysterio, 451, 455, 457, 578 
Mysterious Traveler, 382, 556 
Mystery Comics, 199 
Mystery in Space (comic 

book), 3, 103, 440, 441, 

500 
Mystery Men (movie, 1999), 

105, 109, 168 



Mystery Men Comics (1939), 

440 

Mystery Men Comics #1 
(Blue Beetle's debut), 
92 
Mysterymen Stories, 105, 168 
Mystic Comics (comic book), 

559 
Mystic Comics (company), 359 
Mystique (comic book), 51, 

369 
Mystique (superhero), 355, 

646, 656, 657, 658 
The Myth of 8-0pus 

(2000-2001), 185 



u 



Nabors, Jim, 130 

Nabu, 188, 189 

Nadeshiko, 133 

Nagai, Go, 20, 156 

Nagasaki, 42 

Nagata, Toshio, 134 

Naiad, 34 

Naish.J. Carroll, 61, 509 

Nakayoshi (magazine), 133, 
411 

The Naked Truth, 635 

The 'Nam, 396, 502 

Namor (comic book), 476 

Namor See Sub-Mariner 

Namora (comic book), 91, 534 

Namora (superhero), 92, 475, 
476 

Namorita, 32, 92, 476, 570 

Nancy (Shazzan), 246 

Napier, Alan, 62 

Narya, 10 

Natchios, Elektra See Elektra 

National, 466 

National Allied Publications, 
171, 544, 545 
founding of, 229 
See aiso DC Comics 

National Comics (company) 
See DC Comics 

National Comics, 83 

National Comics #1, 558 

National Lampoon, 104 

National Periodical Publica- 
tions, 175 

National Public Radio, 563 

National Publications, 413 

Native-American superheroes, 
84, 158, 225 

Natte Ravnen (Danish super- 
hero), 284 

Nauck, Todd, 313 

Naval Underwater Center, 326 

Nazi Baron Zemo, 46 



Nazis in comics, 30, 53, 46, 
74,80,84,87,111,113, 
132, 139, 160, 231, 327, 
330, 332, 349, 627 

Neal Adams: The Sketch Book 
(Schumer and Spurlock), 
502 

See a/so Adams, Neil 

Neary, Paul, 44, 120 

Nebula M-78, 605, 606 

Ned, 507 

Negative Man, 187, 188, 569, 
614 

Negative Woman, 188 

Negative Zone (Negative 
Zone), 123, 206, 507 

Negro Heroes, 5 

Negro Romance, 5 

Neill, Noel, 307, 484, 509, 
543, 544, 546 

Nekai, Mikku, 132 

Nekoboh, Roman, 170 

Nelson, 559 

Nelson, Cramer, 189 

Nelson, Franklin "Foggy," 
161-162, 164, 496 

Nelson, Greer, 135 

Nelson, Kent, 188, 189 

Nelvana of the Northern 
Lights, 122 

Nelvana Studios, 134 

Nelvanna (Eskimo goddess), 
10 

Nemesis, 434 

Nemesis: A Perfect World, 514 

Neopolis, 488 

Neptina, 248 

Neron, 313, 580 

Netherworld, 598 

Neue Constantin Productions, 
209 

Neuman, Alfred E., 104 

Neutrina See Ultra Girl, 2 

Neville Ned, 602 

Nevlus, Craig J., 209 

New Adventure Comics, 171 

The New Adventures of Batman 
(1977), 56, 60, 65, 492 

The New Adventures of Batman 
and Robin (movie serial, 
1949), 58 

The New Adventures of Speed 
Racer (animated series, 
1993), 449 

The New Adventures of Super- 
boy, 180 

The New Adventures of Super- 
man (animated series, 
1966-1967), 434-435, 
482, 483, 545 



H* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



The New Adventures of Wonder 

Woman (TV series), 96, 634 
New Android Casshan, 135 
NewAttilan,487 
New Batman/Superman Adven- 
tures (animated series, 

1997-1999), 56, 67, 367, 

403, 493, 549 
New Comics, 171 
New Cutey Honey (video), 156 
New Deal, 418 
New England Comics, 106, 

493, 602 
The New Fantastic Four (ani- 
mated series, 1978), 207, 

209, 492 
New Fat Albert Show, 471 
The New Frontier, 143 
New Fun #1 (first completely 

original comic book), 171, 

229 
New Genesis, 361, 362, 487, 

571 
New Gods (comic book), 93, 

175, 361, 363, 498 

New Gods #10, 362 (ill.) 
New Gods (superteam), 330, 

361-363, 549, 571, 572, 

599 
New Gods/Orion, 363 
New Gotham, 79 
New Guardians (comic book), 

368 
New Guardians (superteam), 

571 
New Legendary Armor Samurai 

Troopers, 408 
New Line Cinema, 131 
"New Look" movement (DC 

Comics), 69 
New Men, 202 
New Metro, 297 
New Mighty Atom, 38 
New Mutants (comic book), 

202,335,354,369,503, 

570, 644 
New Mutants (superteam), 

359, 390, 649, 650, 651, 

652, 653 
New Regency Enterprises, 166 
The New Scooby-Doo Movies 

(animated series, 

1972-1974), 64, 246, 477 
Batman and Robin on, 
645 
New Teen Titans (comic book), 

374, 526, 592 
New Teen Titans (superteam), 

359, 366, 567, 588 
The New Titans, 592 
New Treasure Island, 36 



New Type (magazine), 597 
New Universe (Marvel), 335, 

388 
New Warriors (comic book, 

1990), 331, 369, 370, 390, 

476, 570 
New Warriors (superteam), 32, 

331, 359, 370, 390, 530 
New Wave, 194 
New World Entertainment, 

209, 458, 465 
New World Pictures, 397 
New X-Men (comic book), 369 
New York City, 422, 423, 426, 

433, 487, 503, 507, 508, 

527,572,576,578,585, 

591, 622, 638, 654, 659 
New York University, 328 
New York World's Fair, 522 
New York World's Fair Comics 

#1 (Sandman's debut, April 

1939), 229 
Newbern, George, 549 
Newell, Mindy, 631 
Newell, Walter, 33 
Newman, David, 545, 546 
Newman, Leslie, 546 
Newman, Paul, 240 
Newmar, Julie, 64, 68, 141, 

316, 535 
Newsboy Legion and Guardian, 

362,428,572 
Newsom, Ted, 458 
Newton, Don, 378 
Newton, John Haymes, 482, 

483, 484 
Newton-John, Olivia, 436 
The Next Men, 167,568 
Nexus (comic book), 168, 

350, 504 
Nexus (superhero), 52, 442 
Nexus the Living Corporation, 

331 
Nicholas, Charles, 92, 385 
Nicholson, Jack, 61, 66, 70 
Nicieza, Fabian, 369 
Nick Fury (agent of 

S.H.I.E.L.D.), 334, 

363-364, 464, 520, 528, 

569, 570, 572, 581 
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.LD. 

(comic book), 104, 357, 502 
Nick Fury, Agent of 
S.H.I.E.LD. #4, 363 
(ill.) 
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.LD. 

(TV movie), 364 
Nickel Comics, 99 
Nickelodeon, 492 
Nieto, Jose R., 528 
Night Man (comic book), 365 



Night Man (superhero), 365, 
608, 609 

Night Man "Infinity" #0 
(relaunch of Night Man), 365 

Night Man vs. Wolverine 
(1995), 365, 609 

Night Man/Gambit, 365 

Night Owl See Natte Ravnen 

Night Thrasher, 331, 370, 570 

Nightcat, 405 

Nightcrawler, 95, 120, 358, 
563, 567, 569, 643, 646, 
654, 657 

Nighteyes, 466 

Nightfall See Phantom Lady 

Nighthawk, 77, 178, 571 

NightMan (TV series), 365, 
610 

Nightmare (Dr. Strange novel), 
184 

Nightmask, 335 

Nightshade, 118, 144, 434 

Night-Slayer, 70 

Nightveil See Phantom Lady 

Nightwing (comic book), 367 
Nightwing #41, 366 (ill.) 

Nightwing (superhero), 49, 60, 
67, 72, 78, 318, 365-367, 
375, 403, 429, 430, 488, 
496, 506, 510, 518, 531, 
570, 572, 580, 592, 593 
See also Robin the Boy 
Wonder 

NightWoman, 365 

Nihei, Tsutome, 22 

Nikki, 441 

Niles, Steve, 445 

Ninja High School, 21 

Ninja Turtles: The Next Muta- 
tion (TV series), 595 

Ninth Men, 488 

Nishijima, Katahiko, 393 

Nishio, Daisuke, 190 

Nite Owl, 571 

Nitro, 123, 124 

Nitron, 76 

Niven, Larry, 608 

Nixon, Richard M., 28, 627 

NM-E, 608 

No Zone, 493 

Noa, 597 

Noble, Peter, 32 

Nocenti, Ann, 164, 464 

Nocturna, 70, 316 

Noddy, 40 

Nodell, Mart, 239 

Noh-Varr, 331 

Noir, 622 

Nolan, Christopher, 68 

Nolte, Nick, 580 

Nomad, 113, 560 



No-Man, 434, 570, 600, 601 

Nomoz, 49 

Nomura, Kazufumi, 393 

Normalman, 105, 423 

Norrin Radd See Silver Surfer 

Norris, Jack, 178 

Norris, Paul, 30 

Norriss, Barbara See Valkyrie 

Norse, 598 

Norse God of Thunder, 511 

Northguard, 122 

Northstar (comic book), 368 

Northstar, 10, 11, 359, 

367-369, 567 

homosexuality and, 10, 
359, 367-369 
Northwind, 300, 570 

Infinity Inc., member of, 
300 
Northwinds, 76 
Norway, 598 
Not Brand Echh, 104, 452, 

501 
Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Play- 
ers, 520 
Nova (comic book), 369, 425 
Nova (superhero), 369-370, 

430, 570 
Nova, Cassandra, 645 
Nova Omega, 370 
Nova Roma, 651 
Nova, the Energy-Being That 

Walks Like a Woman, 200 
Nova the Human Rocket See 

Nova (superhero) 
Nova, The Human Rocket 

(comic book), 370 
Now Comics, 38, 238, 449, 

504 
Nowland, Kevin, 16 
N.O.W.H.E.R.E.,614 
Noxon, Marti, 98 
Nubia, 630 

Nuckols, Bill, 296, 296 (ill.) 
Nuclear Man, 488 
Nuclear war 

fear of post-World War 

II, 232-233 
superheroes address 
the subject of, 233 
Nukla (Dell Comics), 42, 117, 

434 
Nukla, 42 (ill.) 
Nuklon.300,301 

Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
See also Atom Smasher 
Nutri-Man, 374 
Nyro-Ka, 121 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



7(>5 



Index 



Oaks, Darren, 122 

O'Barr, James, 351, 557 

Oberon (superhero), 297, 362 

O'Brian, Beth, 607 

O'Brian, Eel, 383 

O'Brien, Dave, 132 

O'Brien, Judith, 621 

Obsidian, 563 

Green Lantern's child, 

300 
Infinity Inc., member of, 
300 

Ocean Group, 408 

Ocean Master, 32, 576 

O'Connell, Jerry, 147 

Octavius, Otto, 460, 461 

Octopus, 468 

Octopus Man, 33 

Odin, 487, 495, 581, 598, 
600 

O'Donnell, Chris, 67,367, 
401, 403 

O'Dowell, Duke, 248 

Oedipus, 603 

Oedipus Wrecks (band), 311 

Office of Scientific Information 
(OSI), 145 

O.G.R.E.,492 

O'Halloran, Jack, 546 

O'Hara, Miguel See Spider- 
Man 

Ohata, Koichi, 22 

Oike Gallery, 426 

Oja, Kim 297 

Okawa, Nanase, 132, 
133-134 

Okazaki, Minoru, 190 

Oksner, Bob, 337, 489 

Olaf (Blackhawks), 88, 90 

Old Glory, 558 

Oleson, George, 378 

Oliver Queen, 554 

Olivetti, Ariel, 48 

Olsen, Jake, 600 

Olsen, Jimmy, 362, 371-372, 
429,495,509,512,517, 
540, 543, 544, 546, 548, 
549, 554, 564, 572, 586 
See also Jimmy Olsen, 
Superman's Pal Jimmy 
Olsen 

Olson, James S., 560 

Olympus, 530 

OMAC: One Man Army Corps, 
94, 442 

Omega (Tekkaman Blade), 597 

Omega Flight, 11 

Omega Men #3, 311 

Omegatron, 178 



Omni Comix #3, 602 
Omnipotus the Eater of Plan- 
ets, 603 
Omniverse, 119, 121 
On Kai Yoma (villain), 322 
O'Neal, Shaquille, 9,471, 

472,473 
One-Hit Wonders, 372-374 
O'Neil, April, 595 
O'Neil, Dennis, 48, 60, 366, 

388, 525, 527, 535 
O'Neil, Denny, 7,25,26, 70, 

94, 144, 174, 237, 240, 

287, 290, 294, 422, 503, 

541, 587, 629 
O'Neill, Kevin, 16 
Oni Press, 107 
Only You, 393 
Onslaught, 645 
Onyx, 471 
Oolong, 191 
Oracle (superhero), 56, 72, 

78,80,295,318,485, 

488, 496, 506, 530, 531, 

570 
Orb (Ghost Rider villain), 228 
Orb of Ra, 341 
Orbital Ring, 597 
Orca, 70 
The Order, 520 
Order of St. Dumas, 49 
Ordway, Jerry, 1, 18, 48, 100, 

128, 300, 504, 518 
Origin, 626, 643 
The Original Black Cat 

(1988-1992), 82 
Original Video Animation 

(OVA), 22, 135, 391, 393, 

408, 596, 597 
Origins of Marvel Comics 

(1974), 419 
Orion, 361, 363, 571 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 295 
Orka the Human Killer Whale, 

476 
Orlando, Joe, 174, 175, 497 
Ororo Monroe, 642 
Orphan, 653 
Orr, Corinne, 448, 449 
Ortiz, Phil, 54 
Osborn, Amberson, 461 
Osborn Chemical, 461 
Osborn, Harry, 430, 451, 460, 

462, 620 
Osborn, Norman, 461, 462, 

463 

See also Green Goblin 
Osborro, Harry, 621 
O'Shea, Shane, 102 



Ostrander, John, 78, 288, 
330, 351 

Otagi Cartoon Calender, 37 

Otaku no Video, 393 

Otherworld, 119, 120, 121 

Otis, 546 

Otomo, Katsuhiro, 20, 22 

O'Toole, Annette, 484, 546 

O'Toole, Peter, 546 

Otsuka, Eiji, 322 

Ott, John, 393 

Oubliette, 331 

Our Army at War, 5, 500 

Our Gang, 5, 509, 543 

Out (magazine), 597 

Out of the Vortex, 169 

Out There, 21 

The Outer Limits, 605 

Outsiders (comic book), 342, 
375 

Outsiders (superheroes), 60, 
342,359,367,373, 
374-375, 569, 570, 580 

OVA See Original Video Anima- 
tion 

Ovaltine, 131, 132, 511, 512 

Overgard, William, 160 

Overlord, 416, 601 

Ovulator, 494 

Owens, Gary, 246, 437 

Owl, 2, 76, 82, 162, 315, 578 

Owl Girl, 76, 315, 534 

Owl-gun, 76 

Owsley, James C, 287, 387, 
388 

Ox, 162 

Oz, 97 

Ozymandias, 619 



Pacheco, Carlos, 48 
Pacific Comics, 1, 170, 347, 

350, 406, 504 
Pacific Presents, 406 
Page, Bettie, 234, 381, 407 
Page, Karen, 161-162, 164, 

319, 496 
Page, LaWanda, 108 
Page, Linda, 61 
Pal, George, 182 
Palais, Rudy, 89, 186 
Palisades Park (amusement 

park), 523 
Palladium Books, 595 
Palladium Games, 513, 514 
Palmer, Diana, 317, 377 
Palmer, Ray, 41 
Pan, 191 
Pandra and the Magic Serpent 

[White Snake Enchantress), 

18 



Pang, Joanna, 290 

Pantha, 138, 592 

Panthea, 138 

Panther See Black Panther 

Panther Man, 574 

Paper drives (World War II), 

comics books used in, 232 
Paper Man, 629 
Papp, George, 236 
Paquette, Yanick, 17, 48 
Paquin, Anna, 655 (ill.), 656 
Parable (1988), 437 
ParaDemons, 478 
Paradise, 627 
Paradise Island, 487, 628, 

629, 633, 635 

See also Themyscira 
Paradise X (2002-2003), 124 
Paragon Publications, 1 
Paramount Pictures, 380, 543 
Parasite, 541, 549, 550, 551, 

576 
Park, Ray, 288, 656 
Parker, Ben, 450, 451, 454, 

460 
Parker, Bill, 125, 128 
Parker, Charley, 76 
Parker, Mary Jane See Watson, 

Mary Jane 
Parker, Mary, 450 
Parker, May See Aunt May 
Parker, May "Mayday" See Spi- 
der-Girl 
Parker, Peter, 25, 43, 82, 95, 

317, 372, 406, 454-456, 

458, 460-463, 466, 487, 

496, 507, 519, 554, 565, 

580, 620, 621 

See also Spider-Man 
Parker, Richard, 450 
Parsons, Roger See Golden 

Arrow 
Pasko, Martin, 200, 457 
Pat Parker, War Nurse, 533 
Pataki, Michael, 456 
Patriot, 400, 553, 559 

Liberty Legion, member 
of, 285 
Patriot, Pat, 334, 559, 637 
Patsy [Captain Midnight), 131 
Patsy Walker, 91, 333 
Patten, Fred, 20, 38 
Patterson, Ray, 115, 455, 654 
Patterson, Shirley, 61 
Patton, Paul, 554 
Paul, Don Michael, 458 
Paul the Samurai (comic 

book), 602 
Paul the Samurai (superhero), 

603 
Paul, Victor, 571 



<|0b 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Paulin, Scott, 116 

Paulsen, Rob, 603 

Pavane, 340 

Payne, Ralph See Arrow 

Payton, Will, 470 

Peacemaker, 144 

Peake, Bob, 353 

Pearl Harbor, 172, 231, 533, 

567, 574 
Pearson, Bill, 601 
Pederson, Illinois, 399 
Pee Wee (Little Wise Guys), 

160 
Peecolo, 532 
Peel, Emma, 535 
Peevy, 406 

Pee-wee's Big Adventure, 60 
Penalizer, 54 
Penance, 649, 650 
Penguin (villain), 57, 64-66, 

68-70, 402, 574-576 
Penn, Leonard, 62, 509 
Penny, 384 
Pennyworth, Alfred See Alfred 

the Butler 
Penthouse, 602 
Pep Comics, 27, 35, 558 

Pep Comics #1 (Shield's 
debut), 231, 636 
Percival Popp the Supercop, 

447 
Peregrine, 77 
Perelman, Ron, 335 
Perez, George, 47, 48, 294, 

366, 503, 505, 588, 590, 

592, 609, 630 
Perlin, Don, 353 
Perlman, Ron, 67,210 
Perrine, Valerie, 546 
Perry, David, 325 
Perry, Fred, 21 
Perry, Luke, 96 
Pershing, Diane, 290 
Pertwillaby, Lancelot, 554 
Pet Fly Productions, 147 
Peter, Harry G., 629 
Peter Pan Records, 32 
Peter Parker: Spicier Man, 454, 

455, 462 
Peter Parker: The Spectacular 

Spider-Man, 452 
Peter Porker, Spider-Ham, 452 
Peter Porker, The Spectacular 

Spider-Ham, 105 
Peters, Jon, 549, 590, 635 
Petrie, Doug, 210 
Petrovich, Ivan, 86 
Petty, Lori, 583 
Pez Dispenser of Graveness, 

603 
Pezzini, Sara, 557, 558 



Pfeiffer, Michelle, 66, 141 

(ill.), 142, 537,538 
Pfeufer, Carl, 132, 475 
Pfinkcycle, 107 
Pflug, JoAnn, 208 
P'Gell, 468 
Phantasia, 658 
Phantasm, 592 
Phantom (comic book), 378 
Phantom (movie, 1996), 378, 

380 
Phantom (newspaper strip), 

379 
Phantom (superhero), 144, 

317, 377-379, 380, 493, 
538, 569 

Phantom (TV series), 379 
Phantom Cruiser, 437 
Phantom Duellist, 186 
Phantom Eagle, 559, 585 
Phantom Girl, 308, 309, 318, 

563, 568 
Phantom in the Media, 

379-380 
Phantom, Jack, 563 
Phantom Lady (comic book), 

232, 381, 499, 534 
Phantom Lady (superhero), 1, 

51, 84, 95, 186, 234, 

380-382, 533, 567 
Phantom Reporter, 332 
Phantom Stranger (comic 

book), 177 
Phantom Stranger (superhero), 

382-383, 556, 615 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Phantom 2040 (movie, 1994), 

378, 379, 380, 493 
Phantom Zone, 507, 541, 

545, 550 
Phantom Zone Control, 506 
Phantom Zone Portal, 506 
Phantom Zone Projector, 553 
Phat, 369, 570, 653 
Phathead, 416 
Phoenix (comic book), 146 
Phoenix (superhero), 73, 120, 

318, 566, 641, 646, 647, 
656 

Phoenix Force, 641, 646, 647, 

659 
Photon (Youngblood), 8, 124, 

202 
Piccolo, 20, 191 
Piccolo, Brian, 7 
Pie Man, 627 
Pied Piper, 124, 368, 575 
Pieface (Green Lantern's best 

friend), 240, 495 
Pierce, Jefferson, 8 



Pike, 96 

Pike, Scott, 373 

Pilkey, Dav, 525 

Pinchot, Branson, 548 

Pineapple Pokopo, 603 

Pinewood Studios, 66 

Pini, Richard, 21, 497 

Pini, Wendy, 21, 38, 497 

Pink Flamingo, 75 

Pink Ranger, 343 

Pinky, 99, 336, 428, 585 

Pin-up art in comic books, 233 

Pioneer, 21, 135, 413 

Pip the Troll, 437 

Pirana (superhero), 33, 249, 

434, 582 
Piranha Jones, 34 
Pirate Guild, 148, 150 
Pirate Prince, 585 
Pitt, 589 
Planet Byra, 441 
Planet Comics, 440 
Planet of the Apes (movie, 

1968), 441 
Planetary, 624 
Planeteers, 440 
Plant Kingdom, 603 
Plant Master, 41, 576 
Plas See Plastic Man 
Plastic Man (comic book), 

103, 501 
Plastic Man (superhero), 83, 

101, 179, 185, 232, 

383-386, 434, 477, 486, 

494, 498, 522, 523, 564, 

568, 582 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 295 
Plastic Man/Baby Plas Super 

Comedy, 492 
Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure 

Show, 384, 385, 492 
Plastique, 118 
Platinum (Metal Men), 340, 

535, 567 
Piatt, Tina, 341 
Playboy, 385 
Playboy Playmates, 556 
Playing Mantis, 111 
Playmates, 595 
Ploog, Mike, 227 
Pluto, 598 
Plutonium Man, 341 
Pluvius the Storm Maker, 186 
Pocket Books, 526, 528 
Pocket Comics (comic book), 

80, 81, 247-248 
Pocket Full of Kryptonite, 372 
Poet, 399, 400 
Poirier, Gregory, 549 



Poison Ivan, 102, 357, 560, 

575,576 
Poison Ivy, 67, 69, 70, 316 
Pokemon, 133 
Polaris, 440, 642 
Police Captain Barbera, 456 
Police Chief Kent, 99 
Police Comics, 380, 381, 382, 

383, 385, 469, 498, 533 
Police Commissioner Dolan, 

467 
Police Inspector Henderson, 

544 
Police Woman (TV series, 

1974-1978), 536, 634 
Polite, Johnny, 603 
Pollack, Rachel, 614 
Pollard, Keith, 82, 287, 388, 

452 
Pollard, Michael J., 484 
Pope, Carly, 328 
Popeye, 543 
Popular Comics, 131 
Porcupine, 23 
Portacio, Whilce, 352, 390, 

505, 644 
Portsmouth City, 488 
Post, 658 
Post, Mike, 236 
Postwar comics, 232-233 
Potter, Greg, 630 
Potter, Harry, 615 
Potts, Carl, 368 
Potts, Pepper, 288, 289 
Powell, Bob, 81, 87, 182, 421, 

466 
Power Chick, 109 
Power Coins, 343 
Power Company, 368 
Power Crystals, 343 
Power Girl, 78, 536 
Power, Dr. James, 389 
Power, Josiah, 368 
Power Man (comic book), 387 
Power Man #39, 386 
(ill.) 
Power Man (superhero), 9, 34, 

207, 287, 359, 386-388, 

419, 564, 579 
Power Man and Iron Fist, 287, 

387, 388, 587 
Power, Margaret, 389 
Power of Shazam 

(1995-1999), 128, 125, 

518 
Power of the Iron Fist (super- 
power), 286 
Power Pack (comic book), 389, 

390, 504 
Power Pack (superteam), 

389-390, 537, 567 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



tor 



Index 



Power Pack Holiday Special, 
390 

Power Princess, 571 

Power Rangers Dino Thunder 
(2004) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers in Space 

(1998) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Lightspeed 
Rescue (2000) See Mighty 
Morphin' Power Rangers (TV 
series) 

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy 

(1999) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Ninja Storm 
(2003) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Time Force 

(2001) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Turbo (1997) 
See Mighty Morphin' Power 
Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Wild Force 

(2002) See Mighty Morphin' 
Power Rangers (TV series) 

Power Rangers Zeo (1996) 

See Mighty Morphin' Power 

Rangers (TV series) 
Powergirl 

Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
Super Squad, member 
of, 300 
Powerhouse, 369, 390 
Powerman (Nigerian super- 
hero), 284, 579 
Powerpuff Girls (animated 

series), 391, 494, 567 
Powerpuff Girls (superteam), 

390-391, 538 
Powers, 399 
Powers, Bill, 558 
Powers, Mitey, 440 
Trie Powers of Matthew Star, 

146 
Prankster, 540, 548, 550, 

551, 574, 576 
Pratt, Al, 40, 529 
Pratt, Victoria, 657 
Preacher (comic book), 175, 

615 
Preacher (superhero), 351, 

558 
The Precinct (The Call of Duty), 

201 
Predator (comic book), 167, 

168 
Predator (villain), 589 



Premiani, Bruno, 187 

Preminger, Otto, 64 

Prentiss, Ed, 131, 512 

Prescott, Norm, 130, 290 

Prescott-Scheimer, 492 

President Kennedy, 519 

Presley, Elvis, 125 

Prestor John, 592 

Prez, 498 

Price, Vincent, 64, 70, 576 

Prickett, Maudie, 632 

Pride, 368 

Priest, Christopher, 9, 85, 114 

Prime (comic book), 608, 610 
Prime #1, 609 (ill.) 
Prime #10, 589 

Prime (superhero), 569, 608, 
609 

Primevil Doctor Vincent Gross, 
608 

Primordial Annihilator, 580 

Prince (musician), 406 

Prince Amentep, 556 

Prince, Diana, 314, 535, 536, 
628, 629, 632, 634, 635 
See also Wonder Woman 

Prince, Diana (Project A-ko, 
movie), 392 

Prince, Martin, 53 

Prince NamorSee Sub-Mariner 

Prince of the Seas, 510 

Prince T'Challa See Black Pan- 
ther 

Prince Valiant, 378 

Princess (Battle of the Plan- 
ets), 73 

Princess Ai, 406 

Princess Diana (Wonder 
Woman character), 628, 
630, 635 

Princess Fen, 474 

Princess Knight (1953), 36 

Princess Maru, 629 

Princess Projectra, 309 

Princess Sakuya, 321 

Princess Sari, 89 

Princess Vara, 440 

Prinze, Freddie Jr., 520 

Prize Comics, 357, 554, 559 

Prize Publications, 41, 77 

The Pro, 107, 214, 374 

Procter, Emily, 548 

Prodigal, 367 

The Professional: Go/go 13, 
Blackjack, 150 

Professor Bubbles, 65 

Professor Fortune, 293 

Professor Haley, 142 

Professor Jennings, 600 

Professor Monster, 457 

Professor Neon, 107 



Professor Ochanomizu, 37 
Professor Potter, 541 
Professor Reinstein, 111 
Professor Torture, 573 
Professor Utonium, 390 
Professor Venom, 160 
Professor X, 43, 355, 530, 

531, 569, 641, 642, 644, 

655, 507 
Professor Zoom, 564, 575 
Prohaska, Janos, 90 
Project A-ko (anime movie), 

391-394 
Project A-ko Versus (movie), 

393 
Project A-ko: Final (movie), 393 
Project A-ko: The RPG (movie), 

393 
Project Arms, 22 
Project Cadmus, 482 
Project Genesis, 225 
Project Next Men, 167 
Project Youngblood, 193 
Project-A, 391 
Promethea (comic book), 16, 

17, 394, 395, 508 

Promethea #1, 394 (ill.) 
Promethea (superhero), 17, 

394-395 
Prophet, 202 

Prototype (comic book), 609 
Prototype (superhero), 569, 

609 
Proty II, 562 
Proudstar, James, 652 
Proudstar, John, 643 
Pryde, Kitty, 120, 495, 563, 

626, 643, 646, 654-656 
Pryor, Richard, 546 
Prysm, 592 
PS, 469 

Psi Fire (Youngblood), 202 
Psi Force, 335 
Psuper Psychiatrist, 627 
Psyche, 651 
Psycho, 493 
Psycho-Man, 577 
Psycho-Pirate See Degaton, 

Per 
Psylocke, 119, 120, 121, 529, 

644, 646 
Puar, 191 

Puck, 11, 529, 567 
Puff, 471 
Puke (villain), 323 
Pulitzer Prize, 418, 525, 528, 

554 
Pulp magazines, 229 
The Pulse!, 201, 388, 554 
The Puma Man (1980), 108 
Pumaman, 138 



Punch, 578 

Punch and Jewelee, 118 

Punisher (comic book), 364, 

389, 397, 622, 623 
Punisher #3, 395 (ill.) 

Punisher (movie, 1989), 397 

Punisher (movie, 2004), 397 

Punisher (superhero), 28, 49, 

95, 310, 334, 350, 354, 

390, 395-397, 445 
origins of, 396 
457,501,572,579, 

582, 616 
Punisher/Batman: Deadly 

Knights, 397 
Punisher Magazine, 397 
Punisher Meets Archie, 397 
Punisher Movie Special (comic 

book), 397 
Punisher 2099, 397 
Punisher: War Zone, 397 
Punk Rock, 492 
Puppet Master, 206, 577 
Puppetman, 527 
Purcell, Dick, 115, 509 
Pureheart the Powerful, 434 
Purple Death poison, 115 
Purple Girl, 11 
Purple Haze (Gen 13), 226 
The Purple Zombie, 348 
Purrsia, 635 
Puzo, Mario, 546 
Puzzler, 550, 574 
Pym, Dr. Henry, 23, 47, 315, 

564 
Pyramid, 422 
Pyro, 654, 656, 657, 658 
Pyroman, 2 
Pyun, Albert, 458 



Quagmire, 156 

Quality Comics, 40, 77, 83, 

87, 89, 95, 101, 186, 230, 

232, 300, 356, 380, 

381-383, 385, 466, 468, 

480, 492, 497, 533, 567 
Quasar (planet), 246, 331 
Queen Bee, 293, 576 
Queen Beryl, 412 
Queen Haba of Mercury, 442 
Queen Hippolyta, 628, 630, 

633, 635 
Queen Metallia,412 
Queen, Oliver See Green Arrow 
Quesada, Joe, 49, 164, 335, 

505, 590 
Quest, Jonny, 245, 406 
Trie Question (comic book), 

145 



10* 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Question (superhero), 28, 
118, 144, 434, 554, 618 

Quick Draw McGraw, 245 

Quick, Jesse, 593 

Quick, Johnny (All-Star 
Squadron), 300, 553, 564 

Quicksilver, 23, 46, 288, 
416-417, 564, 656, 657 

Quinlan, Charles, 139 

Quinn, Terry, 529 

Quitely, Frank, 44, 645 



Raab, Ben, 647 

Raboy, Mac, 99, 124, 232, 

499 
Rac Shade, 614 
Racer, Pops, 448 
Racer, Rex, 449 
Racer, Speed See Speed 

Racer 
Racer X, 448 
Rackham, Albert, 387 
Rackman, 529 
Radam, 597 
Radar, 562 
Radar Men from the Moon, 

406 
Radical Amerika Comix, 627 
Radioactive Man (comic book), 

53, 106 

Radioactive Man #88 

(1994), 53 
Radioactive Man #216 

(1994), 53 
Radioactive Man #1,000 
(1994), 53 
Radioactive Man (superhero), 

42, 43, 53, 54, 598 
Radioactive Man 80-Page 

Colossal (1995), 53 
Radioactive Rogue, 422 
Radius, 11 
Radomski, Eric, 66 
Ragnarok, 180, 599 
Rai (comic book), 352 
Rai (superhero), 358 
Raimi, Sam, 334-335, 454, 

455, 458, 460, 580 
Rainbow, 570 
Rainbow Archer, 237 
Rainbow Boy, 32 
Rainbow Bridge, 598 
Rainmaker (Gen 13), 225, 

565, 570 
Rainmaker, Sarah See Rain- 
maker (Gen 13) 
Raiola, Tony, 378 
Ralston, Henry, 180 
Ram, 571 
Rama Krishna, 176 



Rama-Tut, 47 

Rambeau, Monica, 8, 124 

Rambo, 29 

Rambo, Dack, 147 

Ramos, Humberto, 21, 346 

Rampage, 551 

Ramsey, Chuck, 131, 511 

Ramsey, Doug, 651 

Ranaq the Great Devourer, 11 

Rand, Daniel See Iron Fist 

Rand, Heather, 286 

Rand, Wendell, 286 

Rand-Meachum Corporation, 

286 
Randolph, John, 634 
The Ranger, 627 
Rangers Comics, 234 
Rann, 3,317 
Raphael, 595 
Raptor, 466 
Ra's al Ghul, 60, 67, 70, 76, 

316,579,587 
Rashad, Hamza, 226 
Rasputin, llyana, 651 
Rasputin, Piotr, 647 
Rat Fink, 107 
Rat Pfink, 107 
Rat Pfink and Boo-Boo (1966), 

107 
Rathchford, Jeremy, 656 
Ratner, Brett, 549 
Rattlesnake Squadron, 89 
Raven (Tower), 434 
Raven, 77, 567, 591, 593, 

600, 602 
Raven, Manitou See Apache 

Chief 
Raven Tengu Kabuto, 148 
Raviv, Dan, 335 
Rawhide Kid, 520 
The Ray, 83, 84, 185, 186, 

499, 567 
Raymond, Alex, 497 
Raymond, Ronnie, 43 
Rayner, Kyle, 487, 549, 582, 

592 
Razor, 51 
Razorfist, 340 
RCA Records, 405 
Reader's Digest, 638 
Reagan, Nancy, 592 
Reagan, Ronald, 351, 396 
attempted assassina- 
tion of, 235 
Real Fact Comics, 440 
The Real World, 505 
Realism in comics, 200-201 
Realworlds: Batman, 530 
Reaver, 119 
Rebel, 571 



R.E.B.E.L.S. See Revolutionary 

Elite Brigade to Eradicate 

L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy 
Rebin, 597 
The Rebirth of the Incredible 

Hulk (TV movie, unmade), 

265 
Rebis, 188, 614 
Recollection Imprint, 82 
Re-Combatants, 193 

See also DNAgents 
Red "Tomato," 101 
Red Circle imprint, 35 
Red Comet, 440 
Red flannel underwear, 104 
Red Ghost, 178, 208 
Red Guardian, 86, 178 
Red King, 606 
Red Ranger, 343 
Red Raven, 77 

in Liberty Legion, 285 
Red Ribbon, 191 
Red Rocket 7, 405, 520 
Red Ryan, 142 
Red Scare, 603 
Red Seal Comics, 529 
Red Skull, 111-116, 364, 

457,463,574,575,638 
Red Sonja, 536 
Red Star, 592 
Red Star Group, 601 
Red Tornado, 101, 499, 532, 

565, 626 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Red Wolf, 562 
Redcoat, 121 
Red-devil, 160 
Redford, Robert, 520, 545 
Redmond, Dinah, 79 
Reducer Ray, 509, 544 
Redwing, 562, 592 
Reed, Kimberlee, 635 
Reed, Peyton, 210 
Reed, Robby, 179 
Reed, Rod, 126 
Reep Daggle, 309 
Reeve, Christopher, 175, 485, 

531, 542, 546, 549 
Reeves, George, 173, 483, 

515, 522, 540, 544 
Reeves, Keanu, 615 
Reflections, 632 
Refrax, 656 

Reggie (Archie Comics), 104 
Regla, Sal, 45 
Regulators, 423 
Reid, Britt, 511, 553 

Tfie Daily Sentinel, pub- 
lisher of, 238 



Green Hornet's alter 
ego, 238-239 

Reid, Dan, 238 

"The Reign of the Supermen" 
storyline, 472 

Reilly, Ben See Spider-Man 

Reilly, Billy Bob, 653 

Reiner, Larry, 110 

Reinman, Paul, 422 

Reis, Ivan, 48 

Reitberger, Reinhold, 5 

Reitman, Ivan, 635-636 

Relevance movement, 6, 25, 
94, 174, 237, 240 
parody of, 53 

Renee, Lily, 234 

Renny, 181 

Replay, 471 

Republic Pictures, 112, 115, 
127,128,332,422,508, 
509, 543 

Responsometer, 340 

Rest-Haven, 383 

Reston, Clive, 339 

Retired Man, 296, 296 (ill.) 

The Return of Batman (movie 
serial), 62 

The Return of Captain America 
(movie serial, 1943), 115 

The Return of Captain Invinci- 
ble (1983), 108 

The Return of Captain Marvel, 
129 

Return to the Batcave: The Mis- 
adventures of Adam and 
Burt, 68 

Reubens, Paul, 109, 168 

Revenge of the Green Goblin, 
462 

Tfie Revenge of the Sinister Six 
(2000), 528 

Reverse-Flash, 575 

Revlon, and purchase of Mar- 
vel Comics, 335 

Revolutionary Comics, 405 

Revolutionary Elite Brigade to 
Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. 
Supremacy (R.E.B.E.L.S.), 
312 

Revolutionary Girl Utena, 133, 
413 

Revolutionary War, 560 

Rex, 378 

Reyes, Cecilia, 644 

Reynolds, Bob See The Sentry 

Rhiannon, 365 

Rhino, 578 

Rhoda Comics, 159 

Rhodes, Jim See Iron Man, 
War Machine 

Rhys-Davies, John, 210, 297 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Tq 9 



Index 



Rice, Pierce, 248 

Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fight- 
er, 358 

Richards, Franklin See Tattle- 
tale 

Richards, Mary, 536 

Richards, Reed, 5, 24, 142, 
205-210, 317, 507, 518, 
519,567,577,579 
See also Mr. Fantastic 

Richardson, Mike, 167, 248, 
337, 501 

Richie Rich (comic book), 82, 
247, 249 

Richmond, Kane, 422, 509 

Richmond, Kyle, 178 

Rickles, Don, 362, 519 

Rico, Don, 159, 160 

Rictor, 651 

Riddler, 57,64, 65, 67,69, 
70, 108, 296, 478, 574, 
576, 579, 580, 587 

Rider, Richard See Nova 

RIFTS fantasy gaming system, 
513 

Rigg, Diana, 535 

The Right Stuf International, 
38 

Riley, 98 

Rima the Jungle Girl (comic 
book), 536 

Rima the Jungle Girl (super- 
hero), 477, 478 

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, 508 

Ringmaster and His Circus of 
Crime, 451 

Ringo Fonebone, 104 

Rio Rita, 2, 567 

Riot, 551 

Rip, 494 

Ripclaw, 158 

Ripley, Ellen, 51 

Ripoff Comix, 627 

Rippers, 583 

Ripping Friends, 494 

Riptide (Youngblood), 202 

Rising Stars (comic book), 
399, 445 

Rising Stars #1, 400 (ill.) 

Rising Stars (superteam), 
399-400 

Rising Stars: Born in Fire 
(movie script), 400 

Risk, 592 

Rita Repulsa, 343 

Rito Revolto, 343 

Ritter, John, 108 

Roach Coach, 391 

Roach Wrangler, 53 

Road to Perdition, 22 



Rob Zombie's Spookshow Inter- 
national, 406 
Robbie the Robodog, 403 
Robbins, Frank, 70, 285, 286, 

366, 422 
Robbins, June, 142 
Robbins, Trina, 382, 429, 504, 

532, 630 
Roberta, 507 

Roberts, Martha, 185, 186 
Roberts, Michael D., 328 
Robeson, Kenneth, 180 
Robin the Boy Wonder (super- 
hero), 26, 35, 49, 55, 57, 
60,61,67,69,70,71,77, 
140, 172, 173, 247, 296, 
296 (ill.), 315, 318, 328, 
365, 366, 372, 400-403, 
406, 427, 429, 430, 477, 
478, 485, 488, 495, 496, 
503, 505, 509, 510, 512, 
515, 516, 518, 519, 523, 
530-532, 545, 549, 550, 
553, 562, 567, 570-572, 
574, 575, 579, 580, 586, 
590, 591, 592, 593, 617, 
633 

death of, 60 
debut of, 57, 230 
Earth-Two Robin, 299 
Super Squad, member 

of, 300 
in World War II, 231 
Robin the Teen Wonder (older 

Robin), 60, 94, 366, 403 
Robin: Year One, 402 
Robinson, James, 301, 373, 

470, 608 
Robinson, Jerry, 57, 232, 498 
Robocop, 441 
Robo-Hood, 74 
Robot Crook, 404 
Robot Fighters, 563 
Robot Master, 421 
Robot Robber, 404 
Robot, Robby, 179 
Robotech, 20 

Robotman, 187, 188, 328, 
403-404, 569, 614 

All-Star Squadron, mem- 
ber of, 300, 404 
Doom Patrol, member 
of, 187, 404 
Roche, Ruth, 381 
Rock, 106 
Rock, Kevin, 209 
Rock Superheroes, 404-406 
See aiso Beatles, Black 
Sabbath, Butterfly, 
Cooper, Alice, Dazzler, 
KISS, Malibu Comics, 



Nightcat, Presley, 
Elvis, Revolutionary 
Comics, Zombie, Rob 
Rock Trolls, 599 
Rocker Racer, 457 
Rocket, 346 
Rocket Comics, 169 
Rocket Red (Justice League of 

America member), 294 
Rocketeer (comic book), 406 
Rocketeer (movie, 1991), 407 
Rocketeer (superhero), 351, 

406-408, 573 
Rocketeer Adventure Magazine 

#1, 407 
Rocketgirl, 534 
Rocketman, 2, 406 
Rock-It line, 406 
Rockwell, Johnny, 482, 483 
Rodriguez, Robert, 324 
Rogers, Marshall, 60, 193, 

502 
Rogers, Steve See Captain 

America 
Rogers, Steve Jr., 115 
Rogue, 355, 518, 565, 644, 

655, 655 (ill.), 656, 658 
Rohmer, Sax, 286, 338, 356 
Rokk Krinn, 309 
Rolling Stone, 519 
Rolling Stones, 405 
Rom: Spaceknight (comic 

book), 111 
Roma, 119, 121, 171 
Romance comics, 92-93, 234 
Romance heroines, debut of, 

234 
Romanoff, Natasha, 86, 162, 

535 
Romero, Cesar, 64, 70, 576 
Romijn-Stamos, Rebecca, 656 
Romita, John Jr., 48, 164, 

170, 289, 454, 504, 528, 

621 
Romita, John Sr., 162, 208, 

334, 395, 396, 434, 452, 

453, 462, 501, 620, 625 
Ronin, 21 
Ronin Warriors (comic book) 

See Yoroiden Samurai Troop- 
ers 
Ronin Warriors (superheroes), 

408-409 
Ronin Warriors (TV series), 20, 

408, 409 
Roosevelt, President Franklin 

D., 418, 567 
Rope Girl, 494 
Rope Man, 491 
Rorschach, 571, 618, 619 
Rose, 463, 530, 568, 626 



Rose and Thorn, 530 
Rosen, Artie, 419, 420 
Rosenbaum, Michael, 297, 

484, 549 
Rosenberg, Scott, 458, 583, 

608 
Rosenberg, Willow, 97 
Rosenthal, Mark, 546 
Ross, Alex, 22, 29, 38, 48, 

74, 128, 295, 487, 505, 

620 
Ross, Betsy, 112, 558 
Ross, Courtney, 646 
Ross, Pete, 483, 484, 495 
Ross, Stanley Ralph, 634 
Roswell, 147 
Roswell, New Mexico (alien 

landing site), 575 
Rotsler, William, 289, 526 
Rough Cut Comics (Scotland), 

284 
Round Table of America, 74 
Rowdyruff Boys, 391 
Rowen, 409 

Rowland, Marcus L, 527 
Rowlands, Alan, 287, 388 
Roy, the Super-Boy, 427 
Royal Canadian Mounted 

Police, 121 
Royal Flush Gang, 293, 479 
Royal Sisters, 148, 150 
Royal Space Force, 393 
Royer, Mike, 362 
Rozakis, Bob, 106 
Rozen, George, 42 
Rubberband Man, 471 
Rubble, Barney, 207, 209 
Rubi,Mel,405 
Ruby-Spears, 483, 493, 548 
Rucka, Greg, 505, 528, 631 
Rude, Steve, 168, 350, 442, 

504 
The Ruff and Reddy Show 

(1957), 245 
Rulah of the Jungle, 234 
Rune (comic book), 610 
Rune (vampire) 609 
Rune/Silver Surfer, 609 
Rush Hour, 549 
Rush, Geoffrey, 109 
Russell, Jack, 557 
Russian Starfire, 592 
Russo, Anthony, 400 
Russo, Joe, 400 
Rusty, 559 
Ruthless, Rex, 492 
Ruttenberg, Neil, 458 
Ryan, Joyce, 131 
Ryan, Reef, 440 
Ryder, Jack, 554 



ffi 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Rylko-Sodeman, Danuta, 78, 

296, 296 (ill.) 
Ryo, 409 
Ryoichi Ikegami, 324, 325, 

326 



Saban Entertainment, 74, 

343, 597, 655 
Saban, Haim, 343 
Sabertooth (also spelled 

Sabretooth), 390, 579, 626, 

656, 660 
Sabin, Roger, 583 
Sable, 147 
Sable, Jon, 147 
Sabraman (Israeli superhero), 

284 
Sabre, 193 

Sabretooth See Sabertooth 
Sachs, Bernard, 293 
Sad Sack (comic book), 82, 

249 
Sadamitsu the Destroyer, 22 
Saga of the Swamp Thing, 

175, 504, 613 
Sage, 409 
Sage, Vic, 554 
Sailor Jupiter, 412 
Sailor Mars, 412 
Sailor Mercury, 412 
Sartor Moon (comic book and 

animated series), 20, 21, 

134, 156, 411-413 

Sartor Moon #1,412 (ill.) 
Sailor Moon (superhero), 

411-413 
Sailor Moon R, 411 
Sailor Moon S, 411 
Sartor Moon Sailor Stars, 411 
Sartor Moon Super S, 411 
Sailor Neptune, 412 
Sailor Pluto, 412 
Sailor Saturn, 412 
Sailor Scouts, 413 
Sailor Uranus, 412 
Sailor Venus, 412 
Sailor Warriors, 412 
St. Aubin, Jean-Claude, 122 
St. Carnard, 493 
St. Cloud, Silver, 60 
St. Croix, Monet, 648 
St. Dumas, 49 
St. Roch, Louisiana, 488 
Saint Seiya, 20, 22, 408, 411 
St. Trinians, 646 
Saiyans, 191 
Saiyuuki, 190 
Sakai, Akiyoshi, 134 
Sakura Con 2002, 408 



Salem Tower, Massachusetts, 

488 
Salinger, Matt, 116 
Salkind, Alexander, 483, 542, 

546, 548 
Salkind, llya, 483, 542, 546, 

548 
Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, 

538 
Sam and Twitch, 445 
Samachson, Joe, 328 
Samaritan, 39, 488 
Sammy, 469 
Samurai, 477, 478 
Samurai Crusader, 326 
Samurai Cyber Squad, 408 
San Carlos Reservation, 225 
San Diego Comic-Con Interna- 
tional, 37, 108, 110, 413, 

525 
San Francisco, 609, 627 
San Francisco Examiner, 583 
Sanctuary (character), 399 
Sanctuary (comic book), 326 
Sand See Sandy (Sandman's 

friend) 
Sanders, Brad, 297 
Sanders, George, 64 
Sanders, Greg, 615, 616 
Sanders, Jim II, 1 
Sanderson, Peter, 26 
Sandman (comic book), 94, 

445, 504, 527, 614 
Sandman #19, 414 
Sandman (superhero), 22, 

229, 328, 351, 413-415, 

428, 446, 463, 558, 566, 

578, 582, 585, 614 
death of, 301 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298, 
414, 415 
The Sandman (Spider-Man vil- 
lain), 451 
Sandman Mystery Theatre 

(1993), 415, 615 
Sandman: The Dream Hunters, 

22 
Sandsmark, Cassandra 

"Cassie," 593, 631 
Sandsmark, Helena, 631 
Sand-Superman (villain), 579 
Sandy See Hawkins, Sandy 
Sandy (Sandman's friend), 

415, 582 
Sanford and Son, 7 
Santangelo, John, 143 
Santo (Mexican superhero), 

284 
Sapien, Abe, 34, 255 



Sapphire Stagg, 318, 341, 

342 
Saracee, 10 
Sardath, 4 

Sarge Steel, 144, 434, 581 
Sargent, Alvin, 458, 460 
Sargon the Sorcerer, 556 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Sasagawa, Hiroshi, 448, 134 
Sasquatch, 10, 11, 368 
Sassone, Oley, 209 
Satan, 104, 574 
Satana, 557 
Saturday Evening Post, 442, 

638 
Saturday Night Live (SNL), 

105, 106, 548 
Saturn Girl, 308, 310, 318, 

431, 565, 568 
Saturn Queen, 576 
Saturnyne, 646 
Saunders, Tonia, 160 
Sauron, 578, 658 
Savage, Clark Jr., 181 
Savage Dragon (comic book), 

505, 561 

Savage Dragon #4, 415 

(ill.) 
Savage Dragon #30, 589 
Savage Dragon (superhero), 

415-416, 488 
Savage Dragon/Teenage 

Mutant Ninja Turtles, 589 
The Savage She-Hulk, 334, 

424 

The Savage She-Hulk, 
vol. 1, #1 (She-Hulk's 
debut), 260 
Savage World, 416 
Savant, 622 
Saviuk, Alex, 453 
Sawyer, Maggie, 549 
Saxon, Vin, 107 
Sayers, Gayle, 7 
Scalphunter, 587 
Scarab, 115, 509 
Scarbury, Joey, 236 
Scarecrow, 57, 64, 65, 68, 69, 

160, 478, 574, 579 
Scarface, 70 
Scarlet Beetle, 23 
Scarlet Cyclone See Retired 

Man 296 
Scarlet Scorpion, 1 
Scarlet Speedster, 510 
Scarlet Witch, 23, 46, 48, 

318, 359, 372, 416-417, 

535, 565, 568, 657 
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, 

416-417 



Scarlet Woman of Babylon, 

104 
Schaffenberger, Kurt, 124, 

232, 501 
Schallert, William, 296, 296 

(ill.) 
Scheimer, Lou, 130, 290 
Schiff, Jack, 441 
Schneider, John, 484 
Schodt, Frederick L., 20, 38 
Schomburg, Alex, 232, 499, 

585, 636 
Schumacher, Joel, 403, 571, 

580 
Schuster, Joe, 539 
Schutz, Diana, 504 
Schwab, Irwin, 105 
Schwartz, Julius "Julie," 3, 40, 

55, 59, 69, 173, 240, 293, 

299, 304, 329, 366, 402, 

432, 441, 499, 500, 541 
Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 67, 

70, 538, 546 
Science (comic book), 558 
Science Fiction (magazine), 

539 
Science Ninja Team 

Gatchaman See Battle of the 

Planets 
Science Patrol, 606 
Science Police, 309 
Sci-Fi Channel, 135, 146, 409 
Scissor Men, 614 
Scooby Gang (Buffy the Vam- 
pire Slayer), 97, 98 
Scooby-Doo, 245 
Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour 

(animated series), 492 
Scorcher, 461 
Scorpina, 343 
Scorpio, 364 
Scorpion, 95, 129, 451, 509, 

578 
Scott, Alan 

as Sentinel, 240, 554, 

582 
See also Green Lantern 
(Golden Age) 
Scott, Ashley, 78 
Scott, Dougray, 656 
Scott Free, 361 
Scott, Judson, 146 
Scott, IT., 234 
Scratch, Nicholas, 70 
Screaming Mimi, 77 
Scribbly, 499, 532 
Scully, Dana, 382 
Sea Devils (comic book), 33 
Sea Devils (superteam) 33 
Sea King, 517 
Seagate, 387 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*» 



Index 



Seagle, Steve, 11 

Seagren, Danny, 456 

Sealmen, 414 

Searle, Ronald, 646 

Seattle, Washington, 488, 621 

Sebast, Dick, 165 

Secord, Cliff See Rocketeer 

Secrease, Don, 1 

Secret Crime ViewFinder, 603 

The Secret Defenders, 179 

Secret Hospital, 621 

The Secret Identity, 418-419 

The Secret of the Sinister Six 
(2002), 528 

Secret Or/gins, 383 

Secret Sanctuary (Justice 
League of America), 293 

Secret Society of Super-Villains 
(comic book), 327 

Secret Society of Super-Vil- 
lains (team), 327-328 

Secret Squadron, 512 

Secret Squadron Signal Ses- 
sion, 512 

Secret Task Force Goranger, 
343 

Secret Wars, 618 

Secret Wars II, 390 

Trie Secrets of Isis See te/'s (TV 
series) 290 

Seduca, 391 

Seduction of the Innocent 
(1954), 58, 151, 173, 233, 
381, 402, 429, 430, 575 

Seifert, Heath, 474 

Seinfeld (TV series), 542 

Seinfeld, Jerry, 524 

Sekhmet, 409 

Sekjima, Mayori, 596 

Sekowsky, Mike, 3, 293, 329, 
341, 500, 601, 629 

Selleca, Connie, 235 

Semic Press (Sweden), 378 

Semper, John, 457 

Semple Comics, 122 

Sehorita Rio, 234 

Sensation Comics, 298, 629 
Sensation Comics #1, 
533 

The Sensational She-Hulk, 
105, 260, 424, 503 

Sensei, 177 

Sentar, Lianne, 413 

Sentinel (1941), 559 

Sentinel (one-hit-wonder super- 
hero), 373 

Sentinel (Youngblood), 202, 
240 

Sentinel of the Spaceways See 
Silver Surfer 

Sentinels (comic book), 118 



Sentinels (villains, X-Men), 

648, 655, 657, 659 
The Sentinels of Justice, 118 
Sentinels of Liberty, 428, 522, 

585 
Sentinels of Liberty Fan Club, 

111 
The Sentry, 122, 419-420 
September 11, 2001 terror- 
ism, 29, 231, 426 
Seraph, 359 
Sgt. Candy Crane, 107 
Sergeant Fury See Nick Fury, 

AgentofS.H.I.E.L.D. 
Sergeant Fury and His Howling 

Commandos, 5, 363 
Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., 108 
Sgt. Rock, 5, 297, 500, 587 
Sgt. Strike, 194 
Sergeant Twilight, 132 
Sergio Destroys DC, 107 
Sergio Massacres Marvel, 107 
Serifan, 362, 571 
Sersi, 571 
Sesame Street (Batman on), 

64, 525 
Set, 417 

Settle, Matthew, 297 
The Seven Samurai (movie), 

241, 425 
Seven Soldiers of Victory, 

237, 284, 328, 566, 615 
Severin, John, 497 
Severin, Marie, 135, 287, 

501, 536 
Sewer Urchin, 603 
Sglue, Elmer, 391 
Sha Seng, 189 
Shade, 1, 470, 615 
Shade the Changing Man, 614 
Shado, 237 
The Shadow (comic book), 

356, 420 
Shadow (magazine), 180 
The Shadow (movie, 1994), 

422 
The Shadow (movie serial, 

1940), 422 
The Shadow (newspaper strip), 

421 
The Shadow (radio serial), 511 
The Shadow (superhero), 26, 

174,180,313,407, 

420-423, 529 
Shadow Cabinet, 182, 346, 

421 
Shadow Hill neighborhood, 39 
Shadow Junior, 422 
Shadow Lady, 74 
The Shadow Strikes (movie ser- 
ial, 1937), 422 



The Shadow Strikes (comic 

book, 198?), 422 
Shadow Thief, 576 
Shadowcat, 120, 563, 567, 

646, 656 
Shadowcave, 399 
ShadowHawk (comic book), 

75, 589 
ShadowHawk (superhero), 

423-424 
ShadowHawks of Legend 

(1995), 423 
Shadows of Spawn, 22 
Shadrac, 466 
Shaft (movie, 1971), 7, 358, 

386 
Shaft (Youngblood), 202, 481 
Shaggy, 65 
Shaggy Man, 576 
Shahn-Zi, 358 
Shak, 34 

Shakespeare, 516 
ShallaBal,318, 436, 437 
Shaloman, 359 
Sham, 570 
Shaman, 10 
Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu 

See Master of Kung Fu 
Shanna the She-Devil, 457 
Shannon, Shack, 442 
Shark, 31, 69, 132, 574, 575 
Shark Planes, 89 
Shark-Repellent Batspray, 64, 

71 
Sharp, Dave, 129 
Sharrieff, Munier, 22, 74 
Shatterstar, 652, 653 
Shaud, Grant, 548 
Shaw, Mark, 327 
Shaw, Scott, 110 
Shaw, Sebastian, 659 
Shayne, Robert, 544 
Shazam! (animated series), 131 
Shazam! (comic book), 95, 96, 

127, 130, 498, 524, 553 
Shazam! #1 (Captain 
Marvel's DC debut, 
February 1973), 174 
Shazam! (movie, unmade), 131 
Shazam (superhero) See Cap- 
tain Marvel/Shazam! 
Shazam! (TV series), 128, 129 

(ill.), 130, 290 
Shazam.'//s/s Hour (TV series, 

1975-1977), 130, 290 
Shazam — Power of Hope 

(2000), 128 
Shazzan (animated series), 

246 
Shazzan (superhero), 246, 

247, 438 



She Cat, 567 

Shea, John, 548, 657 

Shebang, 471 

She-Cat, 2 

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle 

(comic book), 532 
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle 

(superhero), 51, 233, 234 
She-Hulk, 47, 207, 318, 359, 

424-425, 536, 563, 568 
Shell Head, 510 
Shelley, Barbara, 394, 395 
Shelton, Gilbert, 626, 627 
She-Man: Mistress of the Uni- 
verse (Filipino movie), 284 
Shen Long, 191 
She-Ra: Princess of Power (ani- 
mated series, 1985-1988), 

494, 537 
Sheriff Sanders, 615 
Sherman, Howard, 188 
Sherry, Diane, 483 
Shi, 51, 197, 425-426, 537 
Shi: B/ack, White, and Red 

(1998), 426 
Shi/Cyblade: The Battle for 

Independents #1 (1995), 

158 
Shi/Daredevil: Honor Thy Moth- 
er (1997), 426 
Shi: East Wind Rain 

(1997-98), 426 
Shi: Heaven and Earth 

(1997-98), 426 
Shi:Ju-Nen (2004), 426 
Shi: Kaidan (1996), 426 
Shi: Masquerade (1998), 426 
Shi: Nightstalkers (1997), 426 
Shi: Poisoned Paradise (2002), 

426 
Shi: Rekishi (1997), 426 
Shi: Senryaku (1995), 426 
Shi: The Blood of Saints 

(1996), 426 
Shi: The Illustrated Warrior 

(novel, 2002), 426 
Shi: The Series (1997-98), 

426 
Shi: The Way of the Warrior 

(1994), 425 
Shi: Through the Ashes (2001), 

426 
Shi/Vampirella (1997), 426 
Shi vs. Tomoe (1996), 426 
Shi: Year of the Dragon (2000), 

426 
Shi'ar, 507 
Shi'ar Empire, 647 
S.H.I.E.L.D. See Supreme 

Headquarters International 



ffl> 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Espionage Law-Enforcement 
Division 

Shield (superhero), 34, 35, 
111, 231, 400, 427, 558, 
559, 560, 569, 574, 
636-637 

Shimura, Michi See Trixie 

Shin Takarajima See New Trea- 
sure Island 

Shin Tetsuwan Atom See New 
Mighty Atom 

Shin Yoroiden Samurai Troop- 
ers See New Legendary 
Armor Samurai Troopers 

Shinde, Jack, 607 

Shiner, Lewis, 527 

Shining Knight (All-Star 
Squadron), 300, 582, 616 

Shinken Kusanagi (magic 
sword), 321, 322 

Shioyama, Norio, 408 

Shiwan Khan, 421, 422 

S.H.O.C. See Special Haz- 
ardous Operations Cyborg 

Shock Gibson (superhero), 
230, 248 

Shocker, 518, 578 

Shockwave, 340 

Shoemaker, Terry, 390 

Shogakukan, 324 

Shogen Ryu, 325 

Shojo (girls' comic), 36, 132, 
133, 411, 412 

Shonen Jump, 148, 190 

Shonen Sunday (comic maga- 
zine), 36, 324, 325 

Shooter, Jim, 47, 111, 170, 309, 
334-335, 368, 541, 588 

Shooting Star, 448 

Shores, Syd, 91, 112, 475 

Shorten, Harry, 600 

Shotgun, 580 

Shotgun Mary, 537 

Shou-Lao the Undying, 286 

Shoveller, 109 

Showcase (comic book), 3, 30, 
41, 173, 188, 373, 382, 405, 
423, 441, 475, 499, 500 
Showcase #4 (Silver Age 
Flash's debut), 431, 
575 
Showcase #22 (Silver 
Age Green Lantern's 
debut), 432, 575 
Showcase #35, 40 (ill.) 
Showcase #37 (Metal 
Men's debut), 340 
Showcase #75 (The 
Hawk and the Dove's 
debut), 250 

Showcase 94 #1, 69 (ill.) 



Shredder, 595 

Shrevnitz, Moe, 421 

Shrinking Violet, 308, 309, 
564, 568 

Shroud, 464, 529 

Shurato, 411 

Shusterjoe, 102, 122, 171, 
172,229,305,313,481, 
486, 497, 498, 502, 520, 
525, 531, 539, 540, 542, 
543, 550, 556 

Siberkleit, Louis, 422 

Sidekicks and Proteges, 
427-430 

female, 230 
romantic, 315 
spread of, 230 

Siegel, Jerry, 35, 102, 171, 
172,229,305,313,403, 
422, 446, 447, 481, 486, 
497, 498, 502, 520, 525, 
531, 539, 540, 542, 543, 
550, 556, 638 

Siegel, Larry, 632 

Sienkiewicz, Bill, 197, 353, 
354, 503, 651, 162 

Sif, 598, 599 

Signalman, 575 

Silberkleit, Louis, 600 

Silent Bob, 107 

Silent Majority, 561 

Silent Mobius, 22 

The Silent Seven, 421 

Silhouette, 530 

Silk Satin, 468 

Silk Spectre, 619 

Silke, 463 

Silva, Joseph, 526 

Silver Age of Superheroes 
(1956-1969), 3, 5, 32, 35, 
74, 93, 112, 117, 138, 
142, 144, 145, 160, 173, 
186, 203, 205, 293, 314, 
328, 350, 430-434, 475, 
479, 485, 486, 495, 499, 
500, 501, 506, 516, 525, 
550, 552, 554, 573, 575, 
576, 578, 582, 639 

atomic heroes in, 117 

Silver Age Sentinels: The Ulti- 
mate Superhero RPG, 514 

Silver Agent, 39 

Silver Daggers gang, 365 

Silver Millennium, 412 

Silver Pictures, 636 

Silver Sable, 537 

Silver Scarab, 189 

Hawkman's son, 300 
Infinity Inc., member of, 
300 

Silver Scorpion, 534 



Silver Streak (superhero), 230 

Silver Streak Comics, 159, 
356, 585, 572, 585 

Silver Surfer (animated 
series), 437 

Silver Surfer (comic book), 
436, 577 (ill.) 

Silver Surfer #11, 435 
(ill.) 

Silver Surfer (superhero), 177, 
178,179,206,209,318, 
435-437, 441, 511, 516, 
563, 566, 569, 572, 578, 
589 

Silver Surfer (TV series), 493, 
501 

Silver Swan, 631 

Silverman, Fred, 438, 439 

Silvermane, 463 

Silverstein, Marc, 236 

Silverstone, Alicia, 56, 67 

Silvestri, Marc, 157, 505 

Sim, Dave, 445, 497 

Simmons, Al See Spawn 

Simmons, Gene, 405 

Simmons, Grant, 115, 455, 
654 

Simmons, J. K.,460 

Simon and Shuster, 436 

Simon, Joe, 35, 47, 80, 102, 
111, 114, 116, 148, 233, 
247, 248, 249, 327, 332, 
414, 427, 439, 498, 525, 
534, 558-560, 614, 637 

Simon, Joel, 656 

Simon, John See Poet 

Simone, Gail, 505 

Simons, Walton, 527 

Simonson, Louise Jones, 389, 
472, 504 

Simonson, Walter, 189, 327, 
442, 501, 503, 599 

Simonson, Will, 335 

Simpson, Bart, 53, 54 

Simpson, Crash, 227 

Simpson, Don, 106 

Simpson, Lisa, 54 

Simpson, Maggie, 54 

The Simpsons (animated 
series), 53, 106, 221, 525 

The Simpsons Comics and Sto- 
ries, 54 

Sinbad, 106, 108, 492 

Freedom Force, member 
of, 290 

Sinclair, Rahne, 647, 650 

Sin-Eater, 453, 463 

Sinestro, 240, 296, 478, 575, 
579 

Singer, Bryan, 656, 657 

Sinister Six, 385, 463 



Sinister Stylist, 494 

Sinnott, Joe, 465 

Siren, 64, 70, 316 

Sirius, 423 

Siryn, 648, 653 

Sister Lilhy, 49 

Sitwell, Jaspar, 364 

The Six Million Dollar Man, 
145, 634 

Six Pack, 653 

Skaaren, Warren, 66 

Skarsten, Rachel, 79 

Skate Lad, 494 

Skateman, 582 

Skeates, Steve, 31, 250, 290, 
378,601 

Skeleton, 493 

Skelly Gasoline Company, 131 

Skelly Oil, 511 

Skids, 651 

Skin, 649, 656 

Skinn, Dez, 347 

Skorpio, 472 

Skrills, 635 

Skrull Empire, 436 

Skrulls, 47, 369 

Skull, 574 

Skull Cave, 377 

Skullface, 416 

Sky Girl (comic book), 234 

Sky Girl (superhero), 234 

Sky Wizard, 440 

Skyboy, 373 

Skyman, 559 

Skywald Publishing, 405 

Skywalker, Luke, 363 

Skywolf, 194 

Slag, 494 

Slam Bang, 99 

Slater, Helen, 67, 490, 546 

Slaymaster, 120 

Sleeper, 527 

Sliding Albion, 44 

Slifer, Roger, 310 

Slipstream, 471 

Slo-Bo, 313 

Slotman, 53 

Sludge, 609 

Slug, 324 

Small, Jon, 99 

Smallville (Superboy's home- 
town), 307, 308, 309, 486, 
515, 540, 546, 548 

Smallville (TV series), 68, 147, 
176, 314, 482, 484, 485, 
542, 549, 552 

Smallwood, Marrina, 11 

Smash Comics, 83, 466, 553 

Smax (2003-2004), 17 

Smile, 413 

Smith, Abner, 633 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



13 



Index 



Smith, Barry, 47 

Smith, E. E. "Doc," 147 

Smith, Erica, 2 

Smith, Guy, 653 

Smith, Jeff, 128 

Smith, Kevin, 83, 107, 164, 
166, 172, 237, 238, 455, 
480, 505, 549, 548 

Smith, Lauren Lee, 657 

Smith, Michael Bailey, 209 

Smith, Rex, 165 

Smith, Sir Denis Nayland, 339 

Smith, Will, 203 

Smitrovich, Bill, 165 

Smogula, 493 

Smythe, Spencer, and the Spi- 
der Slayers, 451 

Snafu, 570 

Snap City, 323 

Snarks, 389 

SNL See Saturday Night Live 

Snodgrass, Melinda M., 527 

Snow Crash (1992), 583 

Snowbird, 10, 11, 77, 567 

Snyder, Ray, 632 

Snyder, Robin, 185 

Society of the Golden Wing, 
77 

Sodom, 383 

Sojourn, 481, 582 

Sokolow, Alec, 131 

Solar (comic book), 352 

Solar (superhero), 612 

Solar, Man of the Atom, 611 

Solara, 635 

Soldier Systems Center, 565 

Soles, Peter, 455 

Solitaire, 609 

Solivar, 297 

Solomon Grundy, 239, 296, 
301, 573 

Solomon, Courtney, 227 

The Solution, 609 

Sommers, Jaime, 146 

Son Gohan, 190 

Son Goku, 190 

Son of Odin, 511 

Son of Satan (comic book), 94 

Son of Satan (superhero), 
227, 557 

Son of the Mask, 338 

Son of Vulcan, 530, 578 

Sonar, 575 

Songbird, 77 

Sonnenfeld, Barry, 603 

Sonny and Cher, 64 

Son-O'-God, 104 

Sons of Liberty, 561 

Sons of the Serpent, 85 

Sons of the Tiger, 358 



Sony Pictures Entertainment, 

458 
Sorcery, 487 
Sorkin, 607 

S.O.S.— Save Our Sailors, 413 
Soule, Olan, 64, 65 
Soultaker, 580 
South America, 587 
Space Adventure Cobra, 37, 

147 
Space Adventures (comic 
book), 42 

Space Adventures #33 
(debut of Captain 
Atom), 117 
Space Adventures #42, 
117 (ill.) 
Space Coup, 438 
Space Cruiser Yamato, 20, 38 
Space Ghost (animated 

series), 168, 434, 499 
Space Ghost (comic book), 

439 
Space Ghost (superhero), 

246, 247, 437-439, 438 
(ill.), 441, 492,523, 563, 
578, 580, 581 

Space Ghost and D/no Boy 
(animated series), 246, 
438, 491 

Space Ghost Coast to Coast 
(animated series), 246, 

247, 439, 493 

Space Ghost/Frankenstein Jr. 
Show (animated series), 
438, 492 

Space Heroes, 439-442 

Space Jam, 519 

Space Knight Tekkaman (ani- 
mated series), 19, 596 

Space Knights, 596, 597 

Space: 1999, 150 

Space Pirate Captain Harlock, 
38 

Space Ranger, 3, 440, 441 

Space Stars (animated series, 
1981-82), 439, 492 

Spacehawk, 440, 442-443 

Spaceman, 405 

Spaghetti Man, 492 

Spark, 565 

Sparkler, 561 

Sparks, Jenny, 43 

Sparky, 448, 559 

Sparrow, 77 

Spartan, 570, 622, 623 

Spaulding, Roxanne See 
Freefall (Gen 13) 

Spawn (comic book), 505 
Spawn #1, 443 
Spawn #126, 443 (ill.) 



Spawn (movie, 1997), 445 
Spawn (superhero), 22, 29, 

359, 443-446, 580, 589, 9 
Spawn: Blood and Salvation, 

445 
Spawn Blood Feud, 445 
Spawn: The Dark Ages, 445 
Spawn: The Undead, 445 
Spawn-Batman, 445 
SpazFrag 666, 312 
Special Hazardous Operations 

Cyborg, 157 
Special Marvel Edition, 358 
Special Marvel Edition 
#15 (Master of Kung 
Fu's debut), 286 
Special Operative Strikeforce, 

416 
The Specials (comic book), 

105, 109 
The Specials (superhero), 

109, 399 
Spectacular Spider-Man, 397, 

451, 452, 453, 454 
Spector, Marc See Moon 

Knight 
Spectra, 73, 368, 609 
The Spectre, 27, 31, 301, 

373,382,432,444, 

446-447, 556, 557, 563, 

564, 566, 585, 587 

Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Speed Comics (comic book), 

81, 248, 553, 590 

Speed Comics #40, 249 
(ill.) 
Speed Force, 564 
Speed Racer (action hero), 37, 

72, 447-449 
Speed Racer (animated series, 

2002), 448, 449, 596 
Speed Racer (comic book), 19, 

449, 596 
Speed Racer: The Movie (ani- 
mated movie), 449 
Speed Racer: The Official 30th 

Anniversary Guide, 449 
Speedball, 430, 570 
Speedboy, 102, 429, 559 
Speedy, 25, 173, 174, 236, 

237,351,375,400, 

428-430, 480, 494, 567, 

572, 582, 590, 592, 616 
drug addiction of, 237 
Spellbinder, 69, 70, 576 
Spengler, Pierre, 546 
Sphere Man, 105, 492 
Sphinx, 109 
Sphynx, 369, 370 
Spica, Angela, 44 



Spider, 480, 538 

SPIDER (secret villains soci- 
ety), 601 

Spider Lady, 509, 544 

Spider Machine GP-7, 457 

Spider Queen, 533 

The Spider Returns (movie ser- 
ial, 1941), 278 

Spider Woman (Space Ghost 
villain), 438 

Spider-Boy, 590 

Spider-Girl (comic book), 83, 
370, 570, 621, 650 

Spider-Girl (superhero), 372, 
373, 450, 452, 464, 466, 
508 

Spider-Girl #1, 466 

Spider-Man (animated series), 
116, 165, 167, 210, 435, 
455, 461, 491, 492, 493, 
494 

Spider-Man (comic book), 21, 
397, 400, 454, 505, 589 

Spider-Man (Japanese TV 
series), 457 

Spider-Man (movie, 2002), 
336,352,455,456,458, 
580 

Spider-Man (superhero), 5, 
21-23, 25, 28, 32, 43, 47, 
48, 78, 82, 95, 116, 179, 
182, 317, 334, 358, 369, 
372, 390, 396, 418, 429, 
430, 445, 449-455, 456, 
458, 460, 461-463, 466, 
487, 496, 497, 500, 507, 
508, 510, 516, 518-520, 
523-525, 533, 537, 554, 
557, 563, 565, 566, 572, 
578-580, 582, 586, 589, 
590, 598, 620, 621, 642 
human attributes of, 
200 

Spider-Man (TV series), 456 

Spider-Man and His Amazing 
Friends (animated series, 
1981-1983), 116, 165, 

457, 492, 590, 654 
Spider-Man: Chapter One, 454 
Spider-Man in the Media, 

455-460, 456 (ill.), 459 

(ill.) 
Spider-Man: The Animated 

Series, 457 
Spider-Man theme park ride, 

32 
Spider-Man 2 (movie, 2004), 

458, 460 
Spider-Man 2099, 454 



ffk 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Spider-Man Unlimited (TV 

series), 454, 455, 457, 

458, 494 
Spider-Man: Venom's Wrath 

(1998), 528 
Spider-Man Villains, 460-464 
See also Dr. Octopus, 
Green Goblin, Heads- 
man, Hobgoblin, 
Kaine, Kingpin, Kraven 
the Hunter, Scorcher, 
Venom 
Spider-Mobile, 572 
Spiders, 406 
The Spider's Web (movie serial, 

1938), 278 
Spider-Woman (comic book), 

334, 453, 457, 464 
Spider-Woman #1, 465 
(ill.) 
Spider-Woman (superhero), 

83, 453, 464-466, 536 
Sp/der-Woman (TV series), 

464, 465, 492 
Spidey See Spider-Man 
Spidey Super Stories, 452 
Spiegelman, Art, 104, 386 
Spiegle, Dan, 90, 194, 350 
Spike (Buffy the Vampire 

Slayer), 97, 98 
Spike TV, 473, 474 
Spin Doctors, 372 
Spinner, 492 
The Spirit (comic book), 147, 

232, 249, 385, 434, 466, 

469, 497, 532 

The Spirit #48, 467 (ill.) 
The Spirit (superhero), 5, 83, 

383, 466-469, 558 
Spirit of andrsquo 

76,559,574,637 
Spirit War Madara, 321 
Spirits of Vengeance, 228 
Spitfire (superhero), 248, 

285-286 
Spitfire Comics, 248 
Splash Brannigan, 16 
Spleen, 109, 168 
Splinter, 593 

SpongeBob Squarepants, 494 
Spongeman, 142 
Sportsman, 574 
Sportsmaster, 239 
Sprang, Dick, 58, 498 
Spranger, John, 468 
Springfield, Rick, 147 
Sprite, 646 
Spritle, 448 
Sprouse, Chris, 16 
Spunky, 92 



Spy Smasher (comic book), 

509, 522, 637 
Spy Smasher (superhero), 99, 

572,637 
Spyboy, 430 
Spyke, 656 
Spyman, 434, 582 
Spymen (comic book), 249 
Spyral,466 

Squadron Sinister, 178 
Squadron Supreme, 29, 34, 

77,529 
Squadron Supreme, 571 
Squatt and Babo, 343 
Squid, 179 
Squire, 356 
Staab, Rebecca, 209 
Stableford, Brian, 527 
Stacy, 621 

Stacy, George, 451, 460 
Stacy, Gwen, 95, 318, 451, 

452, 460, 461, 620 
Stacy X, 644 
Stagg, Simon, 341, 342 
Stalin, Joseph, 231, 574, 637 
Stallone, Sylvester, 29, 441 
Stamp, Terrence, 546 
Stan, 90 
Stan Lee Presents the Marvel 

Superheroes, featuring the 

Hulk, the Avengers, the X- 

Men, and Daredevil, 526 
Standard Comics, 396, 532 
Standish, Sir Christopher, 377 
Stanford, Aaron, 657 
Stanislaus (Blackhawks), 88 
Stanley, Paul, 405 
Star Boy, 308, 318 
Star Brand, 335 
Star City, 488 

Star Comics (comic book), 348 
Star Comics (product line) 452 
Star Detective (periodical), 

332 
Star Jammers, 355, 442 
S.T.A.R. Labs, 553 
Star, Matthew, 146 
Star Pirate, 440 
Star Rovers, 441 
Star Sapphire, 240, 318, 574, 

575 
Star Slammers, 442 
Star Spangled Comics, 403 
Star Studded Comics, 373 
Star Trek, 358, 528, 597 
Star Trek: The Next Generation, 

528 
Star Wars (comic book), 168, 

169, 334 
Star Wars (movie), 72, 147, 

363, 545, 643 



Starbright (Youngblood villain), 

202 
Starchild, 405 

StarChilde Publications, 514 
Stardust, 1 
Starfire, 367, 563, 567, 

591-593 
Starfox, 47 
Stargirl, 581 
Starhawk, 441, 568 
Stark Industries, 24, 86, 331 
Stark International, 48, 288, 

289 
Stark, Corrina, 142 
Stark, Tony See Iron Man 
Starlily, 635 
Starlin, Jim, 123, 339, 358, 

437, 441, 442, 503 
Starman, 373, 432, 469-471, 

563, 566, 574, 581 

Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298 
Starman (TV series), 146 
Starr, "Bronco" Bill, 562 
Starr, Rick See Space Ranger 

(DC) 
Starro the Conqueror, 293, 

576 
Starship Troopers, 148 
Starslayer, 406 
Starsmore, Jonothan, 649 
Star-Spangled Avenger, 510 
Star-Spang/ed Comics, 402, 

428 
Star-Spangled Kid (female), 

301 

stepdaughter of 
Stripsey, 301 
Star-Spangled Kid (male), 428, 

470, 559, 581, 616, 637 
Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
Super Squad, member 
of, 300 
Star-Spangled Lass, 180 
Startling Comics, 440, 559 
Starwinds Howl, 526 
Static (comic book, Milestone 

Comics), 9, 345, 471 
Static (superhero, Eclipse 

Comics), 194 
Static (superhero, Milestone 

Comics), 345, 565 

See also Static Shock 
Static Shock (animated 

series), 345, 346, 471, 494 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca guest stars on, 297 
Static Shock (comic book), 68, 

472 



Static Shock (superhero), 345, 

471-472, 565 
Staton, Joe, 144, 199, 385 
Statue of Liberty, 559 
Steacy, Ken, 38 
Steadman, Ralph, 353, 651 
Steamboat, 126 
Sreampunk, 16 
Steckler, Ray Dennis, 107 
Steel (movie, 1997), 472 
Steel (superhero), 9, 359, 

472-473, 518, 549, 553, 

581 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Steel Harbor, 168, 488 
Steel Sterling, 35, 574 
Steel the Indestructible Man, 

473, 560 
Steeljack, 39 
Steeplejack, 355 
Steinem, Gloria, 535, 629 
Stephenson, Neal, 583 
Steranko History of Comics, 

502 
Steranko, Jim, 36, 75, 182, 

334, 363, 364, 422, 501 
Stern, Howard, 541 
Stern, Roger, 47, 288, 453, 

527 
Steve Canyon (comic book), 

81, 248 
Steve Jackson Games' GURPS 

(General Universal Role-Play- 
ing System), 514 
Steven Spielberg Presents 

Freakazoid!, 493 
Stevens, Dave, 234, 

350-351, 406, 407, 504, 

573 
Stevens, Drake, 76 
Stevens, Jared, 189 
Stevens, Leslie, 458 
Stewart, Alex, 527 
Stewart, John, 7, 9, 297, 487, 

582 
Stewart, Mel, 380 
Stewart, Patrick, 655 (ill.) 
Stick, 162, 164 
Stiers, David Ogden, 297 
Stigma, 416 

Stiller, Ben, 105, 109, 168 
Stilt-Man, 162, 578 
Stingaree, 342 
Stinger, 24 
Stingray, 33, 476 
Stinky Diver, 493 
Stone, Jeremy, 622 
Stone, Kim, 82 
Stone Man, 181 
Stone Men of Saturn, 598 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*5 



Index 



Stone, Victor, 529 

Storm (X-Men), 8, 95, 186, 

358, 536, 538, 565, 569, 

642, 654, 655, 655 (ill.), 

656, 659 
Storm, Johnny See Human 

Torch (Marvel) 
Storm, Sue See Invisible Girl 
Storms, Bob, 525 
StormWatch, 44, 157, 622, 

624 
Stormy Foster, 559 
Straczynski, J. Michael, 400, 

454, 455, 505, 520 
Stradley, Randy, 167, 337 
Straight Arrow, 356 
Strange Adventures, 43, 59, 

441, 444, 499, 502 
Strange /Adventures 
#205 (Deadman's 
debut), 176 
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll 

and Mr. Hyde (novel), 257 
Strange, Professor Hugo, 68, 

573 
Strange Tales, 206, 334, 363, 

429, 501 

Strange Tales #146, 183 
(ill.) 
The Strangers (comic book), 

365, 368, 608 
The Strangers (superteam), 

608 
Strauss, Charles, 545 
Strauss, Eric, 189 
Strauss, Linda, 189 
Strazewski, Len, 449, 608 
Streaky the Super-Cat (Super- 
girl's cat), 138, 304, 489, 

541, 561, 562 
Streamline Pictures, 150 
Street and Smith, 180, 181, 

420, 421, 422, 511 
Street Enterprises, 554 
Street Fighter, 156 
Streisand, Barbra, 524 
Strick, Wesley, 549 
Strike! (superhero), 194 
Strikeforce: Moritoh, 325 
Striker (publishing company), 

238 
Striker, Fran, 238, 508, 511 
Strimpell, Stephen, 107, 109 

(ill.) 
Stripesy (sidekick), 301, 428, 

559, 616, 637 
Stripperella (animated series), 

474, 494 
Stripperella (superhero), 

473-474 
Strnad, Jan, 41, 54 



Strobe, 105, 109 

Stromm, Dr. Mendel, 461 

Strong, Danny, 98 

Strong, Lancelot, 560 

Strong Man, 491 

Strong, Tara, 391 

Strong, Tom, 16, 17 

Strongarm (Youngblood vil- 
lain), 202 

Strongman, 139 

Struke, Morgan, 157 

Stryfe, 580, 653 

Stryke Force, 157 

Stryker, 26, 157 

Stryker, William, 657 

Stryker, Willis, 387 

Stuart, Alistaire, 647 

Stuart, Mary Ellen, 236 

Studi, Wes, 109 

Studio Go!, 393 

Studio Proteus, 38 

Stuff, 616 

Stuff Jr., 616 

Stunt Man Stetson, 186 

Stuntman (comic book), 248 

Sub Girl, 583 

Sub-Mariner (animated series), 
490 

Sub-Mariner (comic book), 91, 
177,232,332,475,501, 
654 

Sub-Mariner #57, 475 
(ill.) 

Sub-Mariner (superhero), 23, 
26, 31, 47, 112, 206, 208, 
230,287,326,356,373, 
433, 435, 457, 474-476, 
487, 499, 510, 518, 531, 
533, 563, 565, 566, 569, 
572, 577, 579, 584, 585, 
586, 587, 636, 637, 638 
in All-Winners Squad, 

284 
attempts to revive in 

1950s, 333 
origin of, 332 
postwar resurrection of, 

233 
in World War II, 231 

Submen, 601 

Subterraneans, 601 

Suffra-jet, 603 

Suicide Squad, 56, 359, 531, 
570 

Sullivan, Chloe, 484 

Sultan, Charles, 84, 99 

Sultan of Speed, 510 

Summers, Alex, 642 

Summers, Buffy See Buffy the 
Vampire Slayer 

Summers, Dawn, 98 



Summers, Joyce, 96 

Summers, Nathan, 647, 652 

Summers, Rachel, 120, 646 

Summers, Scott, 318, 626, 
641, 642, 646, 659 

Summers, Tyler, 653 

Sun Boy, 308 

Sun Girl, 91, 534 

Sunfire, 95, 358, 643, 654 

Sunfire II, 369 

Sunnydale (city), 96, 98 

Sunnydale High, 97, 98 

Sunrise, 408 

Sunspot, 570, 650, 653 

Super S (Filipino movie), 284 

Super Friends (animated 
series), 31, 60, 65, 96, 246, 
296,403,477,478,479, 
492, 499, 501, 524, 542, 
545, 552, 572, 590, 630, 
632, 633 

Super Friends (superheroes), 
296, 477-479, 493, 564 

The Super Friends Hour (ani- 
mated series) See Super 
Friends (animated series) 

Super Friends — The Legendary 
Super Powers Show (animat- 
ed series) See Super Friends 
(animated series) 

Super Fuzz (1980), 108 

The Super Globetrotters (ani- 
mated series), 105, 247, 492 

Super Goof, 104 

Super Graver, 525 

Super Islaw (Filipino movie), 
284 

Super Juice, 107 

Super Khakalovich, 560 

Super Lopez (Spanish super- 
hero), 284 

Super Mouse See Mighty 
Mouse 

Super Mouse #14, 222 

Super Nintendo video game 
system, 607 

Super Powers (action figures), 
296, 362, 363, 478 

Super Powers Team See Super 
Friends 

Super Powers Team: Galactic 
Guardians, 9, 479, 493 

Super President, 491 

Super Pumby (Spanish super- 
hero), 284 

Super Rabbit (comic book), 332 

Super Rabbit (superhero), 102 

Super Saiyans, 191 

Super Samurai, 492 

Freedom Force, member 
of, 290 



Super Scuba, 491 
Super Six, 491 
Super Skrull, 577 
Super Soldier, 590 
Super Spider-Man, 120 
Super Squad (superteam), 

300 
Super Stretch and 

Microwoman, 492 
Super Turtle, 102 
Super-American, 637 
Super-Archers, 479-481 
See also The Archer, 
Arrow, Arrowette, Gold- 
en Arrow, Green Arrow, 
Hawkeye, Speedy, The 
Spider 
Superbabes, 514 
Superboy (animated series), 

295, 545 
Superboy (comic book), 309, 
483 

Superboy #188, 481 

(ill.) 
Superboy #204, 308 
(ill.) 
Superboy (superhero), 12, 13, 
110, 173, 310, 314, 414, 
428, 472, 481-483, 495, 
500, 510, 540, 542, 561, 
568, 586, 589, 590, 593 
Superooy (TV series), 314, 

484, 542, 548, 552 
Superboy and the Ravers, 180, 

368, 483 
Superboy in the Media, 

483-485, 484 (ill.) 
Superboy Starring the Legion 

of SuperHeroes, 503 
Superchick (1971), 108 
Supercities, 485-488 

See also Asgard, Astro 
City, Atlantis, Cinnabar 
Flats, Golden City, 
Gotham City, Metropo- 
lis, Paradise Island, 
Smallville, Steel Har- 
bor 
Superduperman, 626 
Superfly, 7 
Superfool, 627 
Super-Girl, 373 
Supergirl (movie, 1984), 490, 

546 
Supergirl (superhero), 56, 
138, 303, 304, 308, 309, 
315, 318, 351, 429, 432, 
472, 482, 488-490, 501, 
510, 534, 536, 537, 541, 
542, 546, 549, 561-563, 
586, 589, 592 



t^ 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Supergirl #3, 489 (ill.) 
Superhero Cartoon Shows, 

490-494 
Superhero Collectibles: A Picto- 
rial Price Guide, 522 
Superhero Comics of the Gold- 
en Age: The Illustrated Histo- 
ry (1992), 229, 428, 638 
Superhero comics 

end of after World War II, 

232, 332-333 

sidekicks in, 230 

Superhero Confidants, 

494-497 
Superhero Creators, 497-505 
artists, growing stature 

of, 503-504 
Bronze Age of Comics 
(1970-1979), 
502-503 
future of, 505 
Golden Age of Comics 
(1938-1954), 
497-499 
Marvel Age, 500-501 
"rock star" artists, first 

ones, 501-502 
Silver Age of Comics 
(1956-1969), 
499-500 
speculation boom and, 
504-505 
Superhero Headquarters, 
505-508 

See also Avengers Man- 
sion, Batcave, Bottle 
City of Kandor, Clock- 
tower, Fortress of Soli- 
tude, Four Freedoms 
Plaza, Teen Tower, The 
Watchtower, Xavier 
Institute for Higher 
Learning 
Superhero Movie Serials, 

508-509 
Superhero Nicknames, 

509-511 
Superhero Radio Series, 

511-512 
Superhero Role-Playing 

Games, 513-515 
Superhero Slogans, 515-516 
Superhero Vulnerabilities, 

516-519 
Superheroes 

definition of, 229 
explosion of 

(1940-1941), 230 
first (Superman, June 

1938), 229 
patriotic, creation of, 231 



secret identities, use of, 

230 
spread of, 229-230 
traits of, 230 
World War II, fighting in, 
230 
Superheroes and Celebrities, 

519-520 
Superheroes and the Popular 

Culture, 520-525 
Superheroes in Prose, 

525-528 
Superheroes on television, 

434-435 
Superheroes with Disabilities, 
528-531 

See also Aquaman (post- 
amputation), The 
Black Bat, Black 
Dwarf, Cassandra, 
Daredevil, Dr. Mid-Nite, 
Eclipso, Freemind, 
Human Fly, Jericho, 
Oracle, Professor X 
(Charles Xavier), Psy- 
locke, Puck, Silhou- 
ette, Tom Thumb 
Superheroines, 531-538 
first major costumed, 

348 
spread of, 230 
See also Batgirl, Bat- 
woman, Black Canary, 
Black Cat, Catwoman, 
Elektra, Fantomah, 
Hawkgirl, Invisible Girl, 
Lady Luck, Mary Mar- 
vel, Miss Fury, Phan- 
tom Lady, Phoenix, 
She-Hulk, Spider- 
Woman, Storm, Super- 
girl, Super-Hip, Supre- 
ma, Tomb Raider (Lara 
Croft), Woman in Red 
(first costumed super- 
heroine), Wonder 
Woman 
Super-Hip, 103 
Superhypnotist, 627 
Superior Comics, 373 
Superman (animated series), 
172, 174, 295, 483, 493, 
543, 549, 575 
Superman (comic book), 9, 
373,416,418,471,472, 
480, 483, 493, 499, 500, 
503-505, 509, 524, 525, 
531, 548, 552, 561, 589, 
636, 638 

Superman #1 (Super- 
man's solo series, 



Summer 1939), 229, 
539, 539 (ill.) 
Superman #75, 542 
Superman #76, 586 
Superman #170, 519 
Superman #233, 94 
Superman (comic strip), 58, 

305, 542 
Superman (movie, 1948), 526, 

540 
Superman (radio program), 62, 

303, 402, 511, 525 
Superman (superhero), 22, 
29,32,34,58,65,122, 
172-174, 176, 185, 247, 
296,297,303,305,310, 
311,313,317,324,342, 
356,362,363,371,372, 
377,383,392,428,429, 
439, 446, 469, 470, 472, 
477-479, 481, 483, 486, 
488-490, 495, 497-499, 
502-504, 506, 507, 509, 
510, 512, 515-517, 520, 
522-524, 527, 531, 533, 
534, 538-543, 544, 545, 
548, 551-554, 556, 562, 
563, 564, 566, 568, 569, 
572-576, 578-580, 586, 
588-590, 597, 606, 613, 
627, 633, 635-638 
death of, 352, 472, 

479, 482 
debut of, 229 
Earth-Two Superman, 

299 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 
in World War II, 231 
Superman and Spider-Man 

(animated series), 588 
Superman and the Mole Man 

(movie, 1951), 540, 544 
Superman/Batman (animated 

series), 490, 549 
Superman Family, 372 
Superman in the Media, 

543-549, 547 (ill.) 
Superman: Last Son of Kryp- 
ton, 526 
Superman Lives, 549 
Superman/Madman Hulla- 
baloo! (1997), 323 
Superman: Miracle Monday, 

526 
Superman Peanut Butter, 524 
Superman Pretzels, 524 
Superman Reborn, 549 
Superman Revenge Squad (vil- 
lains), 550 



Superman: The Animated 
Series, 297 

Superman: The Complete Histo- 
ry (1998), 7 

Superman: The Man of Steel, 
549 

Superman: The Movie (movie, 
1978), 96, 175, 307, 483, 
495, 524, 542, 545, 546 

Superman II (movie, 1981), 
307,314,546 

Superman III (movie, 1983), 
314, 484, 546 

Superman IV: The Quest for 
Peace (movie, 1987), 483, 
542, 548 

Superman V (movie, never 
made), 548 

Superman: The New Movie, 
548 

Superman: The 10-Cent Adven- 
ture, 490 

Superman: The Wedding 
Album, 542 

Superman vs. Aliens, 589 

Superman vs. Muhammad AH, 
519, 588 

Superman vs. Shazam!, 588 

Superman vs. The Amazing Spi- 
der-Man, 95, 95 (ill.), 174, 
334, 452, 542, 588 

Superman vs. The Terminator, 
589 

Superman vs. Wonder Woman, 
588 

Superman Villains, 549-552 

The Superman-Aquaman Hour 
of Adventure (animated 
series), 31, 295, 483, 491, 
545 

Superman's Family Album, 
483, 548 

Superman's 50th Birthday Spe- 
cial (TV special), 548 

Superman's Fortress of Soli- 
tude, 314, 472, 506, 552 

Superman's Girl Friend Lois 
Lane (comic book, 1958), 
372, 501, 540 

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, 
93,175,361,371,374, 
429, 500, 519, 540, 551 

Superman's Weapons and 
Gadgets, 552-553 

Supermedia, 553-554 

Supermobile, 572 

Supernatural Heroes, 
554-558 

See also Brother 
Voodoo, Crow, The 
Demon, Dr. Strange, 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



ty 



Index 



Dr. Thirteen, Ghost 
Rider, Mandrake the 
Magician, Morbius, 
Phantom Stranger, 
Spectre, Swamp Thing, 
Vampirella, Witch- 
blade, Wraith, Zatanna 

Super-Patriot (Captain America 
replacement), 114, 561 

SuperPatriot (cyborg), 416 

Superpatriot (superhero), 561 

Superpatriots, 558-561 

See a/so Captain Ameri- 
ca, Fighting American, 
Fighting Yank, Miss 
Liberty, The Shield, 
Star-Spangled Kid and 
Stripesy, Uncle Sam 

Superpets, 561-562 

See a/so Ace the Bat- 
Hound, Beppo the 
Super-Monkey, Comet 
the Super-Horse, Kryp- 
to the Superdog, 
Legion of Super-Pets, 
Proty II, Redwing, 
Streaky the Supercat 

Superpowers (comic book), 
128 

Superpowers, 562-566 

Superpup, 545 

Supers, 514 

Super-Skrull, 206, 208 

Supersnipe, 101 

Supersonic Man (1978), 108 

Superstretch and 
Microwoman, 471 

Super-Team Family, 588 

Superteams, 566-571 
See also Ail-Star 
Squadron, All Winners 
Squad, Alpha Flight, 
The Authority, The 
Avengers, Birds of 
Prey, The Champions, 
Crime Crusaders Club, 
The Defenders, 
Defenders of the 
Earth, Doom Patrol, 
Eternals, Excalibur, 
Fantastic Four, Fern- 
force, Freedom Fight- 
ers, Gen 13, Green 
Lantern Corps, 
Guardians of the 
Galaxy, Infinity, Inc., 
The Inhumans, Justice 
League of America, 
Justice Society of 
America, Legion of 
Super-Heroes, Marvel 



Family, New Gods, New 
Guardians, The New 
Mutants, The New War- 
riors, Seven Soldiers 
of Victory, S.H.I. E.L.D., 
Squadron Supreme, 
Suicide Squad, Teen 
Titans, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. 
Agents, Ultimates, 
Watchmen, 
WildC.A.T.S, X-Men, 
Young Allies, Young- 
blood 
Superteen, 434 
Supertown, 487, 571 
Supervehicles, 571-573 
Super-Villain Team Up, 476, 

579, 587-588 
Supervillains, 573-580 

See also Abomination; 
Bane; Baron Gestapo; 
Brother Blood; Bulls- 
eye; Catwoman; Chee- 
tah; Chemo; Chronos; 
Clayface; Composite 
Superman; Dark 
Phoenix; Darkseid; 
Diamondback; Doctor 
Destiny; Doctor Doom; 
Dr. Octopus; Doctor 
Polaris; Dr. Sivana; 
Doomsday; Eclipso; 
Egghead; Executioner; 
Fatal Five; Fatality; 
Galactus; Granny 
Goodness; Green Gob- 
lin; Grodd; Hitler, 
Adolf; Jagga the Space 
Raider; Joker; Kang 
the Conqueror; King- 
pin; Kraven the 
Hunter; Leader; 
Legion of Doom; 
Legion of Super-Vil- 
lains; Loki; Luthor, 
Lex; Mace; Mad Mod; 
Magneto; Mephisto; 
Mr. Freeze; Mr. Mxyzt- 
plk; Mole Man; Mordru 
the Merciless; Pen- 
guin; Poison Ivy; Ra's 
al Ghul; Red Skull; Rid- 
dler; Sand Superman; 
Sauron; Scarecrow; 
Shotgun; Sinestro; 
Solomon Grundy; 
Strange, Professor 
Hugo; Titano the 
Super Ape; Two-Face; 
Typhoid Mary; Ultra- 
Humanite; Ultron; Van- 



dal Savage; Venom; 
Weather Wizard; Xog 
the Evil Lord of Saturn 

Supervolador (Mexican super- 
hero), 284 

Superweapons, 580-582 

Superworld, 513 

Superworld Comics, 440 

Supreme (comic book), 203 
Supreme #2, 202 (ill.) 

Supreme (superhero), 15, 
562, 563 

Supreme Headquarters Inter- 
national Espionage Law- 
Enforcement Division 
(S.H.I.E.L.D.), 6, 77,86, 
113, 164, 331, 363, 364, 
464, 569 

Supreme Power, 400, 418, 
520 

Surge (DNAgents), 193, 570 

Surtur, 599 

Sutherland, Donald, 96 

Sutherland, Kristine, 96 

Swamp Thing (comic book), 4, 
94, 383, 493, 503, 526, 
555 (ill.), 614, 615 

Swamp Thing (superhero), 
174, 517, 557, 579, 587, 
613 

Swan, Curt, 500, 309, 541 

Swann, Dr. Virgil, 485, 549 

Swann, Donald, 110 

Swanson, Kristy, 380, 96 

Swayze, Marc, 126, 336 

Sweet, Matthew, 150 

Sweet Tooth, 65 

Sweethearts, 132 

Swift (Shen Li-Min), 44 

Sword, 597 

Sword of Justice (1978-1979), 
147 

Sword of Might, 119, 121 

Sword of the Atom, 41 

Sword-and-sorcery genre, 334 

Swordsman, 582 

Sykes, Larry, 52 

Sykes, Norbert, 52 

Syn, 169 

Synch, 649, 650 

Szwarc, Jennot, 546 



Tadano, Kazuko, 411 
Tagami, Yoshihisa, 21 
Tajima, Sho-u, 322 
Takada, Yuzo, 393 
Takahashi, Kumiko, 133 
Takahashi, Ryosuke, 408 
Takaya, Yoshiki, 20 
Takenouchi, Kazahisu, 411 



Takeuchi, Naoko, 132, 411, 

413 
Takuya, Yamashiro, 457 
Tala, Queen of Darkness, 382, 

383 
Talalay, Rachel, 583 
Talbot, Lyle, 509, 544 
Tales from the Crypt, 556 
Tales of Suspense, 47, 112, 

115, 480, 535 

Tales of Suspense #29 
(Iron Man's debut), 
288 
Tales of Suspense #79, 
289 (ill.) 
Tales of the Teen Titans, 367, 

592 
Tales to Astonish, 23, 46, 289, 

334,476,617,618 
Talia, 60, 67,70, 316 
Talisman, 11 
Talpa, 409 
Tanarok, 382 
Tang Seng, 189 
Tangled Web, 455 
Tank (DNAgents), 193, 570 
Tank Girl, 537, 583-584, 584 

(ill.) 
Tank Girl (movie, 1991), 583 
Tank Girl: The Apocalypse, 583 
Tank Girl: The Odyssey, 583 
Tank Girl 2 (movie, 1993), 583 
Tapestry, 622 
Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), 

97,98 
Tara (The Herculoids), 246 
Tara (Wonder Comics), 440 
Tarantino, Quentin, 525 
Tarantula, 300, 601 
Target Comics, 440, 442, 443, 

558 
Tarka, 440 
Tarleton, Stuart, 544 
Tarmack, 471 
Taro, Rin, 37 

Tartakovsky, Genndy, 391 
Tartarus, 593 
Tarzan (action hero), 95, 174, 

589 
Tarzan (comic book), 168, 500 
Tarzan and the Super 7 (ani- 
mated series), 34, 65, 290, 

464, 471, 492 
Task Force Games, 514 
Tasmanian Devil, 567 
Tatara, the Holy Elder, 321 
Tatsunoko Animation, 72 
Tatsunoko Fight, 135 
Tatsunoko heroes, 21, 134 



ffi 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Tatsunoko Productions, 19, 
21, 134, 411, 448, 449, 
595 
Tatsunoko Studio, 408 
Tattletale, 206, 389 
Tattooed Man, 575 
Tavarez, Jacqueline, 405 
Taylor, Carin, 158 
Taylor, George, 540 
Taylor, Lorin, 75 
Taylor, Zack, 343 
T'Challa See Black Panther 
TDF, 606 

Teague, Lewis, 297 
Team 7, 624 
Team Superman, 472 
Team Youngblood, 202 
Teamo Supremo, 494 
Team-ups and Crossovers, 
584-590 

Batman and Superman 

together, 585-586 
in The Brave and the 

Bold, 587 
cross-company 

crossovers, 589-590 
crossovers, definition of, 

586 
first comics crossover 
(Human Torch and 
Sub-Mariner), 
584-585 
first superteam, 585 
mega-crossovers, 

588-589 
in movies, 590 
1970s, proliferation of 
team-ups during, 
587-588 
Spider-Man and Super- 
man together, 588 
in Silver Age of Comics 
(1956-1969), 
586-587 
team-up, definition of, 

586 
on television, 590 
Technet, 647 
Tedrow, Irene, 456 
Teen Brigade, 112 
Teen Force, 439 
Teen Titans (animated series), 

403, 567 
Teen Titans (comic book), 68, 
103, 176, 180, 193, 202, 
250, 430, 479, 494, 501, 
591, 593, 616 

Teen Titans #1, 590, 

592 
Teen Titans #16, 591 (ill.) 
Teen Titans #53, 591 



Teen Titans (superheroes), 7, 
30, 41, 59, 76, 125, 138, 
173, 188, 237, 296, 373, 
375, 402, 403, 480, 483, 
487, 507, 518, 530, 535, 
563, 564, 567, 570, 576, 
580, 581, 590-593, 629 

Teen Titans Spotlight, 592 

Teen Wonder See Robin the 
Teen Wonder 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
(animated series), 449, 595 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
(comic book), 105, 416, 
504, 514, 589, 595 
Teenage Mutant Ninja 
Turtles #1, 594 (ill.) 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
(superheroes), 184, 343, 
582, 593-595 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 
The Movie, 595 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 
The Secret of the Ooze (sec- 
ond movie), 595 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 
(third movie), 595 

Teenage superheroes, 2-3, 
10, 21, 65, 72-74, 77, 124, 
225, 228, 230, 307-310, 
427-430 

Tekkaman (comic book), 134 

Tekkaman (superhero), 
595-597 

Tekkaman Blade, 596 

Tekkaman Blade II, 597 

Tekkaman Omega, 597 

Tekkmen Evil, 597 

Teknoman, 597 

TEM Publications, 139 

Tempest, 32, 33, 188, 317, 
430,487,565,592 
See also Aqualad 

Templesmith, Ben, 445 

Temps, 527 

Tempus Fugitive, 38 

Tenchi, Hiromi, 596 

Terasawa, Buichi, 38, 147, 
190 

Terishokova, Adrianna, 622 

Terminator (action hero), 352, 
494, 530, 582, 592 

Terminator (comic book), 168 

Terminator films, 134 

Termites from Venus, 478 

Terra, 374, 592 

Terra Obscura, 17, 488, 532 

Terra II, 592 

Terra-Man, 551, 579 

Terrestrial Defense Forces, 
606 



Terrible Trio, 69 

Terrific Whatzit, 102 

Terhgen Mist, 33 

Terror, 603 

Terry and the Pirates (comic 

book), 81, 248 
Terry, Nick, 76 
Terrytoons, 101 
Teschmacher, Miss Eve, 546 
Tesla, 16 

Tess/'e the Typist, 91 
Tetsuwan Atom See Astro Boy 
Texas Comics, 197, 198 
Texas Pete, 493 
Tezuka, Osamu, 18, 20, 36, 

148, 150, 190, 322 
Tezuka Productions, 38 
Thanos, 123, 437190 
Thaxter, Phyllis, 483 
Thelma and Louise, 583 
T.H.E.M.,364 
Themyscira, 628, 630, 631, 

635, 636 

See also Paradise Island 
Thena, 571 

Thiebaut, Dominique, 157 
Thin Man 

in the Invaders, 286 
in Liberty Legion, 285 
The Thing (animated series), 

209 
The Thing (comic book), 207 
The Thing (superhero), 142, 

182, 205-210, 246, 285, 

357, 387, 433, 516, 563, 

567, 578, 586, 587 
Thing-Ring, 207, 209 
Thinker, 573 
Thirst, 32 

This American Life, 563 
Thomas, Andrea See Isis 
Thomas, Dai, 647 
Thomas, Dann, 630 
Thomas, Everett, 649 
Thomas, Roy, 6, 47, 90, 123, 

144, 177, 184, 209, 227, 

284, 285, 286, 300, 331, 

387, 404, 476, 501, 567, 

624, 643 
Thompson, Bud, 124 
Thompson, Flash, 83, 451 
Thompson, Jill, 504, 631 
Thompson, Jimmy, 403, 404 
Trior (comic book), 335, 503 

Trior #151, 599 (ill.) 
Thor (Fantastic Four animated 

series, 1994-1996), 210 
Thor (superhero), 46, 48, 178, 

334, 372, 433, 435, 487, 

495,498,511,516,525, 



530, 563, 568, 577, 578, 

581, 586, 590, 597-600 
Thor Corps, 600 
Thor, Lord of Asgard, 600 
Thor: Vikings, 184 
Thorism, 600 
Thorn, 530, 574, 580 
Thorndyke, Hamilton J., 52 
Thornn, 652 
Thorpe, David, 120 
Thorpe, Riley, 52 
Thrakkorzog, 603 
Three Stooges, 64 
Threshold (Gen 13 villain), 

225,227 
Thrilling Comics, 532 
Thrill-O-Rama (comic book), 

249 
T.H.U.G.G.,473 
Thumbelina, 180 
Thunder, 375, 570 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (comic 

book), 501, 600, 602 

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3, 
601 (ill.) 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 

(superteam), 77, 434, 564, 

570, 580, 600-602 
Thunder and Lightning, 593 
Thunder Girl, 74, 75 
Thunder, Johnny, 79, 298, 

565, 566, 585 
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad (non- 
superpower agents), 601 
Thunderbird, 358, 643, 652, 

654 
Thunderbolt (superhero), 565 
Thunderbolt #52, 145 (ill.) 
Thunderbolts (comic book), 

368, 481 
Thunderbolts (superteam), 77, 

507 
Thundercats, 515 
Thundergirl, 493 
Thundersthke (comic book), 

425 
Thundersthke (superhero), 

599, 600 
Thurman, Uma, 67, 70, 538 
The Tick (animated series), 

106, 603, 603 (ill.), 604 
The Tick (comic book), 106, 

603, 604 

The Tick #1, 602 
The Tick #4, 602 
The Tick (superhero), 106, 

493, 602-604 
The Tick (TV series), 106, 493 
Tick Cave, 602 
Tiger Beat, 402 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



»9 



Index 



Tiger Boy (superhero), 138, 

249 
Tiger Shark, 32, 69, 476 
Tiger-Man (comic book), 138 
Tiger-Man #2, 137 (ill.) 
Tiger-Man (superhero), 95 
Tigra the Werewoman, 36, 47, 

135-136, 137, 587 
Tigress of the Sea, 89 
Tike Alicar, 653 
Time (magazine), 549, 552 
Time Trapper, 308, 576 
Timely Comics, 5, 77, 356, 

418, 427, 474, 475, 498, 

522, 533, 559, 584, 585 
See also Marvel Comics 
Timm, Bruce, 66, 297, 363 
Tin (Metal Men), 340, 341, 

567 
Tina (Metal Men) See Platinum 
Tinker, 341 
Tinkerer, 451 
Tinseltown, 533 
Tiny (Battle of the Planets), 73 
Tiny Avenger, 106, 531 
Tippy Teen (character), 601 
Tippy Teen (comic book), 602 
Titan (comic book), 169 
Titan (superhero), 571 
Titan A.E. (movie), 604 
Titan Talk, 202 
Titanium Man, 288, 577 
Titano the Super-Ape, 307, 

550, 576 
The Titans, 592 

The Titans #1, 592 
Titans Tower, 507, 567, 591, 

593 
Titans West, 76, 591 
TNT, 607 
Toad, 578, 649, 654, 656, 

658 
Tobal No. 9, 190 
Tobio, 36 

Tobor the Robot, 440 
Todd McFarlane Productions 

(TMP), 405, 446 
Todd McFarlane's Spawn, 493 
Todd, Jason See Robin the Boy 

Wonder 
Todman, Bill, 656 
Toei Animation, 411 
Toei Company Ltd., 343, 457 
Toei Studio, 190 
Toho Studios, 19 
Tojo, Hideki, 139 
Tokoro, Juzo, 22 
Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS), 

150 
Tokyo Tower, 133 
TOKYOPOP 21, 134, 406, 413 



Tolkien, J. R. R.,512 

Tom (Moby Dick and the Mighty 

Mightor), 246 
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (TV 

show, 1950-52), 440 
Tom Strong (comic book), 488, 

532 
Tom Strong (superhero), 563 
Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, 16 
Tom Thumb, 186, 529, 573 
Tom Thumb Blackhawk, 89 
Tomahawk (comic book), 560 
Tomahawk (superhero), 560 
The Tomb of Dracula, 94, 334, 

501, 503 
Tomb Raider, 538 

See also Croft, Lara 
Tomino, Yoshiyuki, 22, 37 
Tommy the Amazing Kid, 27 
Tommy Tomorrow, 440 
Tomoeda Elementary School, 

133 
Tomorrow Stories, 16, 368 
Tomorrow Woman (Justice 

League of America member), 

295 
Tonia (Daredevil), 313 
The Tonight Show, 648 
Tonto, 355, 356, 495 
Too Much Coffee Man, 106 
Toon Disney, 494 
Toonopedia, 532 
The Top, 575 

Top Cow Comics, 21, 74, 581 
Top Cow Productions, 157, 

400, 557 
Top Ten (comic book), 16, 369, 

488, 570 
Top Ten (publisher), 563 
Topaz, 609 
Top-Notch Comics, 427 

Top-Notch Comics #7, 
585 
Tor {Moby Dick and the Mighty 

Mightor), 246 
Torch, 475, 585 
Torchy Blaine, 305 
Toriumi, Jinzo, 134, 448 
Toriyama, Akira, 190, 22 
Tornado Man, 491 
Tornado Twins, 564 
Toro, 5, 427, 428, 566, 585 
All-Winners Squad, mem- 
ber of, 284 
Kid Commandos, mem- 
ber of, 286 
Torpey, Frank, 332 
Tortosa, Wilson, 22, 74 
Total Eclipse (1988-1989), 

348 



Toth, Alex, 208, 246, 298, 

438, 477, 499, 633 
Totleben, John, 347 
Tough Kid Squad (super- 
heroes), 284 
Touya, 133 
Tower Comics, 33, 77, 434, 

501, 570, 600, 602 
Townsend, Robert, 9, 108 
Townsville, 391, 538 
The Toxic Avenger, 108 
The Toxic Avenger, Part 2 

(1989), 108 
The Toxic Avenger, Part 3: The 

Last Temptation of Toxie 

(1989), 108 
Toxic Crusader (superhero), 

493 
Toxic Crusaders (comic book), 

108, 493 
Toy Biz (conglomeration with 

Marvel Comics), 335 
Toy Vault, 40 
Toyman, 478, 548, 549, 550, 

551, 574 
Toyman II, 551 
Trachtenberg, Michelle, 98 
Trainer, Carolyn, 460 
Trainor, Larry, 187 
Transformers, 515 
Transia, 417 
Translux, 448 
Trask, Dr. Bolivar, 659 
Trask, Nicholas, 424 
Trasnu (Iberia Inc.), 284 
Travis, Lee, 553 
Tremayne, Les, 130 
Trendle, George W., 238, 508 
Trent, Tony, 553 
Trevor, Diana, 630 
Trevor, Steve, 314, 628, 630, 

631, 633-635 
Trevor, Steve Jr., 635 
Triad (Gen 13), 226, 310, 568 
Triada Vertice (Spanish super- 
heroes), 284 
Trial of the Incredible Hulk, 

165 
Tribal Force, 359 
Tribe, 570 
Tribune, 610 
TriCity Games, 514 
Trickster, 575 
Trident, 494 
Trigger, Ian, 209 
Trigon, 591, 592 
Trimpe, Herb, 119, 625 
Trini Kwan, 343 
Triplicate Girl, 308, 309, 310, 

568 
Tri-Sentinel,453 



Triton, 33 

Trixie, 448 

Troia See Wonder Girl 

Troll (comic book), 202 

Troma Studios, 108, 493 

Tronn, Alec See E-Man (super- 
hero) 

Troupe, Ron, 554 

Troy, Donna, 592, 593, 629, 
631 

Trueno (Iberia Inc.), 284 

Truman, Tim, 351 

Trunks, 191 

Truth, 9 

TSR Games, 512, 514, 526 

Tsuburaya, Eiji, 605 

Tsuburaya Productions, 19, 
606, 607 

Tsukino, Usagi See Sailor 
Moon 

Tsukiro, 325 

Tub (Moby Dick and the Mighty 
Mightor), 246 

Tucci, William, 425,426 

Tula, 33, 317 

Tundra (publisher), 323 

Tundro (The Herculoids), 246 

Turbo Charge, 608 

Turbo Timmy, 494 

Turm Garten, 325 

Turman, Glyn, 328 

Turner, Dwayne, 45 

Turner, Linda See Black Cat 

Turner, Ted, 607 

Turok, 589, 611-613 

Turtle, 148 

Tuska, George, 47, 289, 386, 
387 

Tut (pet crow), 290 

Tuxedo Mask, 412 

TV Guide, 537 

Twabley, Phineas, 421 

Twain, Mark, 26 

Twain, Shania, 406 

Tweedledee, 69, 574 

Tweedledum, 69, 574 

Twentieth Century Fox, 210, 
343, 632 

Twenty-first Century Film Cor- 
poration, 116 

The Twilight Zone, 605 

Twist, Tony, 446 

The Two Faces of Tomorrow, 
134 

Two-Face, 60, 67, 69, 70, 573, 
591 

Two-Gun Kid (superhero), 48 

Two-Gun Kid (comic book), 333 

TwoMorrows, 184 

Twoyoungmen, Michael, 10 

Tyler, 653 



ffcO 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



Tyler, Ginny, 437 

Tyler, Tom, 127, 129, 378, 

379, 509 
Typhoid Mary, 164, 580 
Tyroc, 309 







U: TUH, 608 

UFO, 596 

U-Go Girl, 570, 653 

Ulik, 578, 599 

Ully, 409 

Ulthoon,4 

Ultiman, 74, 75, 147 

Ultiman Comics, 74 

Ultiman Giant, 75 

Ultimate Adventures 

(2002-2004), 107 
Ultimate Fantastic Four 

(2004- ), 208 
The Ultimate Silver Surfer 

(1999), 528 
Ultimate Spider-Man, 83, 335, 

454, 455, 458, 464 
The Ultimate Super-Villains 

(1996), 528 
Ultimate X-Men, 645 
The Ultimates (comic book), 

87, 520, 568 
The Ultimates (superteam), 48 
Ultra Boy, 308, 318, 517, 568 
Ultra Girl, 2 
Ultra Q, 605 

Ultra the Multi-Alien, 4, 441 
UltraForce (comic book), 493, 

609, 610 
UltraForce (superteam), 359, 

569, 607, 608 
Ultraforce (TV series), 365 
Ultra-Humanite, 540, 550, 

573 
Ultraman (comic book), 19, 

606 

Ultraman #1, 607 
Ultraman (superhero), 

605-608 
607, 608 
Ultraman Ace, 606 
Ultraman Cosmos, 606 
Ultraman Dyna, 606 
Ultraman Gaia, 606 
Ultraman Powered, 608 
Ultraman: The Adventure 

Begins, 607 
Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, 

607 
Ultraman Tiga, 606, 608 
Ultraman: Towards the Future, 

607 
Ultraman USA, 607 



Ultrapato (Mexican super- 
hero), 284 

Ultraseven, 606, 607 

Ultraverse, 352, 365, 608, 
610 

Ultraverse: Future Shock, 610 

Ultraverse Heroes, 608-610 

Ultron, 47, 577 

UMA, 607 

U-Man (villain), 31, 285 

UMAX, 553 

Umeta, Andrew, 596 

Umezu, Yasuomi, 135 

Una, 122, 123 

Uncanny Tales, 602 

Uncanny X-Men (animated 
pilot), 654 

Uncanny X-Men (comic book), 
22, 369, 425, 503, 528 
Uncanny X-Men #414, 
368 (ill.) 

Uncle Arthur, 103 

Uncle Ben See Parker, Ben 

Uncle Dudley, 131 

Uncle Marvel, 128, 337, 567 

Uncle Sam (comic book), 88, 
466, 497, 558 

Uncle Sam (superhero), 83, 
84, 95, 185, 186, 231, 
558, 560, 567, 637 

Underdog, 103, 144, 490, 
523 

U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A.,33 

Undersea Agent, 33, 601 

Understanding Comics, 38 

Undertaker, 186 

Underwood, Jay, 209, 484 

Unearthly Spectaculars, 249 

UNI Games, 514 

Union, 624 

Union Jack (English super- 
hero), 285, 286 

United Kingdom, 527, 602, 
646 

United Nations, 506, 507, 
559 

United Planets, 309 

U.S. Army's National Protec- 
tion Center, 565 

U.S. Commission on Superhu- 
man Activities, 561 

U.S. Jones, 559 

U.S. Savings Bonds, 522 

U.S. Senate, 429, 523, 556, 
575 

U.S. State Department, 374 

United World Interstellar Agen- 
cies, 441 

Unity 2000, 613 

Universal Islands of Adven- 
ture, 32 



Universal Multipurpose 
Agency, 607 

Universal Studios, 209, 508, 
608 

Universal Tool (Batman's gad- 
get), 72 

Universe X (2000-2001), 124 

Universo, 576 

The Unknown Soldier (comic 
book), 637 

The Unknown Soldier (super- 
hero), 559, 587 

Untold Tales of Spider-Man, 
454, 528 

Unus, 658 

Up, Up, and Away!, 9 

UPI.595 

Uran See Astro Girl 

Urania, the Element Girl, 342 

Urban Vision, 21, 597 

Urich, Ben, 162, 419, 554 

Urusei Yatsura, 391, 393 

USA, 475 

Usa, Chiba, 412 

USA Comics #7 (1941), 330 

USA Network, 413, 416, 479, 
637 

USAgent, 114, 561 

Usher, Kinka, 109 

Uslan, Michael, 131 

U.S.S. Enterprise-D, 528 

Utility belt (Batman's), 55, 58, 
71 



Vaccaro, Brenda, 546 

Vachss, Andrew, 528 

Vale,Vicki,59, 61, 62,66, 
316, 509 

Valencia, Mathew, 67 

Valentine, Scott, 548 

Valentino, Jim, 75, 105, 423, 
505 

Valiant, 358, 581, 589, 611, 
612,613 

Valiant Comics, 134, 226, 
352, 434 

Valiant Heroes, 611-613 
Hargingers, Magnus, 
Robot Fighter 4000 
A.D., Solar, Man of the 
Atom, Turok, Son of 
Stone, X-0 Manowar 

Valiants (Mexican super- 
heroes), 284 

Valkyrie, 178, 536, 569, 574, 
582 

Valkyries, 650 

Valley, Jean Paul, 49, 61 

Vamfire, 200 

Vampirella (comic book), 589 



Vampirella (superhero), 51, 
389, 416, 426, 537, 556 

Van Ark, Joan, 464 

Van Dyne, Dr. Vernon, 617 

Van Dyne, Janet, 23, 617 

Van Houten, Millhouse, 53 

Vance Astro, 441 

Vance, Cindy, 53, 54 

Vance, Steve, 53, 54 

Vandal Savage, 297, 298, 574 

Vanderveer, Stacia, 395 

Vandross, Luther, 108 

Vanessa (Kingpin's wife), 463 

Vanguard Productions, 502 

Vanisher, 181 

Vantorians, 4 

Vapor Man, 246, 491 

Vassey, Liz, 604 

Vaughn, Robert, 546 

Vaughn, Wendell, 331 

V-Boys, 559 

Vegeta, 20, 191 

Veidt, Conrad, 61 

Veitch, Rick, 16, 347 

Velcro (villain), 339 

Velluto, Sal, 390 

Velocity, 158 

Ven Bergen, Lewis, 147 

Vendetta, 423 

Vengeance Squad, 200 

Venom (comic book), 464 

Venom (supervillain), 453, 
457, 458, 460, 463, 466, 
580, 621 

Ventriloquist, 70 

Venus (comic book), 91, 534 

Venus (superhero), 74, 333 

Venus and Mars (album), 288 

Venus Dee Milo, 653 

Verheiden, Mark, 351, 484 

Vermin, 462 

Vermin Vunderbarr, 362 

Vertigo (DC Comics imprint), 
175,198,351,445,504, 
557, 558, 583, 613, 615 

Vertigo Heroes, 613-615 
See also Animal Man, 
Black Orchid, Doom 
Patrol, Elasti-Girl, The 
Invisibles, Preacher, 
Negative Man, Robot- 
man, Sandman, Shade 
the Changing Man, 
Swamp Thing 

Vesper Fairchild, 316 

VH1, 542 

Viacom, 458, 483, 548 

Vibe (Justice League of Ameri- 
ca member), 294 

Vibraman, 601 

Vibranium, 85 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*1 



Index 



Vicious Circle, 415, 416 
Victor, Ashen, 22 
Victorian Age, 515 
Videx, 188 
Vietnam War, 52, 434, 524, 

527, 560, 627 

effect on comic books, 
250, 288 
The Vietnam War, 560 
View Master, 439, 603 
The Vigilante (comic book), 

509, 543 
The Vigilante (superhero), 

173, 572, 574, 582, 

615-616 
Villains and Vigilantes, 513, 

514 
Villainy, Inc., 603 
Villarrubia, Jose, 388 
Vincent, Harry, 421 
Vincent, Mavis, 422 
Vindicator, 10 
Vintresca, Vincent, 146 
Violator, 580, 444 
Violent Messiahs, 445 
Viper, 364, 464 
Virtual Hacker, 156 
Virus X, 517 
Vision (superhero), 5, 47, 48, 

318, 359, 404, 417, 563, 

568 
Vision and Scarlet Witch, 417 
Visual Eyes, 603 
Vita-Man, 74 
Vita-Woman, 374 
Vivisector, 369, 653 
Vixen, 570 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 
Viz Comics, 20, 21, 150, 191, 

608 
Viz Communications, 324 
V-Man, 559 

Vogue (Youngblood), 202 
Void, 419, 622 
Volcano Man, 142 
Volkswagen, 449 
Volstagg, 598 
Voltron, 73 

Voltron Lion Team See Golion 
Voltzman, Fritz, 2 
Von Eedon, Trevor, 287 
von Gunther, Baroness Paula, 

629, 634 
von Kampf, Erica, 349 
Voodoo (comic book), 624 
Voodoo (superhero), 622, 623 
Voodoo Master, 421 
Voodoo Vampire, 478 
Vortex, 197, 565 
Vosburg, Mike, 290 



Voyager Communications, 613 

VR Troopers, 408 

Vril Dox II, 312 

Vulture, 69, 186, 451, 458, 

578 
Vulturo, 76 
Vykin the Black, 362, 571 



Vf 



Wachowski, Andy, 22 
Wachowski, Larry, 22 
Waggoner, Lyle, 62, 634, 635 
Wagner, Chuck, 146 
Wagner, Kurt, 646 
Wagner, Lindsay, 146 
Wagner, Matt, 29, 168, 350, 

504 
The Wagon [The Call of Duty), 

201 
Waid, Mark, 29, 329, 505, 

620 
Waid, Mike, 208 
Wakanda, 5, 85 
Waldastar, 596 
Waldo, Janet, 483 
Waldrop, Howard, 527 
Walker, Andrew Kevin, 549 
Walker, Ellie Wood, 632 
Walker, John, 561 
Walker, Kit See Phantom 
Walker, Patsy, 47, 136 
Walker, Sage, 527 
Wall, 456 

Waller, Amanda, 570 
Walt Disney Studios, 407, 493 
Walter, Jessica, 184 
Walters, Jennifer See She-Hulk 
Wanderers, 442 
Wandering Jew See Phantom 

Stranger 
Wane, Bruce, 576 
War Adventures, 333 
War Machine, 290, 581 
War of the Worlds (comic 

book), 442 
War Room, 507 
War Wheel, 89 
Warbird, 123, 355 
Warblade (comic book), 624 
Warblade (superhero), 622 
Warburton, Patrick, 603, 604 
Ward, B. J., 633 
Ward, Bill, 89, 99 
Ward, Burt, 59, 62, 65, 68, 

174, 296 (ill.), 402, 434, 

523 
Ward, Burton, 516 
Ward, James M., 526 
Ward, Senator Stewart, 463 
Warlock, 437, 570, 651 
Warlock, Adam, 442 



The Warlord (comic book), 503 
The Warlord (superhero), 600, 

601 
Warner Books, 526 
Warner Bros., 175, 363, 415, 

483, 484, 526, 542, 545, 

546, 548, 549 
Warner, Chris, 167, 337, 351 
Warner, David, 67, 548 
Warner Publishing, 175 
Warpath, 652 
Warren, 98, 389 
Warren, Adam, 21, 413 
Warren Comics, 537 
Warren, Miles, 454 
Warren Publishing, 51, 469, 

503, 556 
Warrior Woman, 285 
Warriors Three, 373, 598 
Warstrike, 609 
Warsuit, 552 
Washington, Martha, 442 
The Wasp, 23, 46, 315, 318, 

535, 563, 564, 568, 580, 

586, 617-618 
Wasp (Shadow villain), 421 
Watasin, Elizabeth, 2-3 
The Watch (Australian comic 

book), 283 
Watcher (Buffy the Vampire 

Slayer), 96 
Watcher (Fantastic Four), 206 
Watchmen (comic book), 15, 

145, 175, 324, 351, 368, 

395, 399, 420, 445, 504, 

571, 611, 618-620 
Watchmen (superteam), 

618-620, 29, 36 
The Watchtower (Justice 

League of America home), 

295, 297, 508 
Watergate, 28, 560 
Watkin, Pierre, 508 
Watson, Mary Jane, 82, 83, 

317,451,452,458,462, 

466, 496, 620-622 
Watson-Parker, Mary Jane See 

Watson, Mary Jane 
Watts, Naomi, 583 
Waverider, 250 
Wayans, Damon, 9, 106, 108, 

531 
Wayans, Marlon, 66, 67 
Wayne, Bruce, 49, 55, 56, 60, 

67-69, 72, 316, 366, 367, 

374, 402, 418, 482, 485, 

495, 496, 505, 534, 537, 

562 

See also Batman (super- 
hero) 
Wayne Enterprises, 78 



Wayne, Helena, 300 
Wayne, John, 508 
Wayne, Martha, 56 
Wayne, Thomas, 56 
WayneTech, 72 
Weapon Alpha See Guardian 
Weapon X (comic book), 11 
Weapon X project, 660 
Weapons belt (Batgirl), 72 
Weapons Master, 90 
Weather Wizard, 296, 575 
Weatherman (villain), 297, 

492 
The Web (superhero), 279 
Web of Horrors/Web of 

Heroes, 514 
Wefj of Spider-Man, 452, 453 
The Web Site, 508 
Web Woman, 492 
Webb, Chris, 608 
Webb, Jane, 64 
Webb, Richard, 132 
Web-Head, 510 
Webster, Derek, 365 
Webster, Paul Francis, 455 
Webster, Victor, 657 
Web-Woman, 464 
Weed, 601 

WeeklyWorld Planet, 602 
Weeks, Lee, 164 
Weevil, 105, 109 
Wein, Len, 84, 90, 60, 383, 

387, 452, 503, 526, 599, 

624, 630, 643 
Weird Tales, 229 
Weisinger, Mort, 30, 236, 308, 

431, 486, 500, 501, 541, 

615,616 
Welles, Dr. William, 399 
Welles, Orson, 421, 467 
Welling, Tom, 482, 484, 549 
Wellman, Manly Wade, 468 
Wells, H. G., 442 
Wells, Scott, 484 
Wendigo, 10, 11 
Wendy See Wonder Twins 
Wendy the Good Little Witch 

(comic book), 249 
Wenner, Jan, 519 
Werewolf (comic book), 434, 

556 
Werewolf (superhero), 354 
Werewolf by Knight (comic 

book), 353 
Werewolf by Night (comic 

book), 94 
Werewolf by Night (superhero), 

557 
Wertham, Dr. Fredric, 58, 173, 

233, 381, 402, 429, 430, 

534, 575, 629 



xfi 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



West, Adam, 62, 65, 67, 68, 

102, 174, 296 (ill.), 316, 

374, 434, 523 
West, Iris, 317 
West, Wally, 317, 564, 565 
West Coast Avengers (comic 

book), 136, 417, 481 
West Coast Avengers 

(superteam), 24, 48 
West End Games, 515 
Westchester County, New York, 

507, 641, 648, 654 
Western Team-Up #1, 588 
Westin, Dr. Daniel, 146 
Weston, Private Jack, 558 
Weston, Stanley, 110 
Wetworks, 352, 570, 624 
Whalen, Justin, 548 
WHAM, 554 
Wham-O, 441 
Wham-0 Giant Comics, 441 
What If?, 83, 423, 452 

What If? #105, 466 
Whedon, Joss, 96, 98, 645 
Wheeler, Shannon, 106 
Wheeler-Nicholson, Major Mal- 
colm, 171, 229, 497 
Wheelie and the Chopper 

Bunch (animated series), 

503 
Whirly-Bat, 572 
White, Biljo, 184 
White Blaze, 409 
White, David, 456 
White, Ebony, 467 
White Feather, 103, 481, 570 
White House, 506 
White, Perry, 484, 517, 540, 

544, 546, 548, 549, 554 
White Queen, 648, 649, 651, 

654, 656 
White Streak, 442 
White, T. J., 484 
White, Ted, 526 
White Tiger, 288, 358, 388 
Whitebird, John, 358 
Whitemane, Aelfyre, 389 
Whitewash Jones, 5 
Whitman, Dane, 388 
Whitman, Debra, 620 
Whitman, Stuart, 484 
Whitmore, Glenn, 185 
Whitney High School, 234 
Whitney, William, 129 
Whiz, 480 

WHIZ (radio station), 553 
Whiz Comics (comic book), 

125,126,479,498,516 
Whiz Comics #2 (Captain 
Marvel's debut), 128, 
553 



Whiz Comics (publisher), 124 
Whiz Kids (comic book), 75 
Whiz Kids (superteam), 74 
Whiz Wagon, 572 
Whizzer, 417, 564, 566, 585 
All-Winners Squad, mem- 
ber of, 284 
Liberty Legion, member 
of, 285 
Wickerham, Ryan, 110 
Widget, 646, 647 
Wieringo, Mike, 208 
Wiernikoff, Alfred Harvey See 

Harvey, Alfred 
Wild Cards (comic book), 513, 

526, 527 
Wild Cards (villains' gang), 65 
Wild Child/Wildheart, 11 
Wild Sharkk, 548 
Wild World, 107 
Wildcat, 137, 301, 375, 566, 
572, 587, 588 

Infinity Inc., member of, 

300 
Justice Society of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 298, 
299 
WildC.A.T.S (comic book), 505 
WildC.A.T.S (superteam), 29, 

622-623, 359, 426 
Wildcats (WildC.A.T.S 

renamed), 623 
WildC.AJ.S: Covert Action 
Teams, 570 

WildCAJ.S: Covert Action 
Teams #1, 623 (ill.) 
Wildebeest, 592 
Wildebeest Society, 592 
Wildey, Doug, 406 
Wildfire, 309 

WildStorm Productions, 16, 
38,43,45,225,226,369, 
426, 446, 449, 569, 570, 
622, 623, 624 
WildStorm Heroes, 623-624 
See also The Authority, 
Deathblow, Gen 13, 
StormWatch, 
WildC.A.T.S 
WildStorm Studios, 226 
Wildwood Cemetery, 467 
Wiley, Ethan, 458 
Wilkins, Mayor, 97 
Wilkins, Woody, 76 
Will Eisner Comic Industry 

Awards, 17 
Williams, Billy Dee, 7 
Williams, J. H. 111,16,394, 

395 
Williams, Joan, 313 
Williams, John, 546, 548 



Williams, Scott, 390 

Williams, Van, 238, 357 

Williams, Walter Jon, 527 

Williamson, Al, 497 

Willingham, Bill, 34, 197, 198, 
350, 504, 513 

Willis, Bruce, 538 

Willow (Buffy the Vampire Slay- 
er), 98 

Willum, 469 

Wilshire, Mary, 390 

Wilson, Barbara, 56 

Wilson, David, 545 

Wilson, Joseph, 530 

Wilson, Lewis, 61, 509 

Wilson, Sam, 6, 113, 114 

Wilson, "Shorty," 529 

Wincer, Simon, 378, 380 

Wind Princess, 322 

Windshear, 11 

Windsor-Smith, Barry, 503, 
609 

Winfrey, Oprah, 543 

Wing, 428 

Wing, Colleen, 287, 358 

Winged Victory (superhero), 
39 

Winged Wonder, 76, 510 

Winger, Debra, 634 

Wingfoot, Wyatt, 318, 357, 
359 

Winghead, 510 

Wings Comics, 234 

Wings of Honneamise, 393 

Winky, 40 

Winnick, Judd, 375, 505 

W.I.N.R.,607 

Winston, Clarice, 446 

Winters, Shelley, 64 

Wired (magazine), 565 

Wisdom Alliance, 325 

Wisdom, Pete, 647, 653 

Wise, Alfie, 297 

Wise, Bill, 109-110 

Wisher, William, 549 

Witchable, 406, 445, 538 

Witchblade, 51, 537, 558, 
562, 581 

Witt, Alicia, 227 

Witter, Charlotte, 466 

Witzend, 185 

Wizard, 531 

Wizard (Fantastic Four animat- 
ed series, 1994-1996), 210 

Wizard (Green Arrow villain), 
237 

Wizard (Spanish) See El Mago 

Wizard (superhero), 35, 62, 
160, 179, 230, 427, 509, 
585 

Wizard (villain), 298 



Wizard: The Comics Magazine, 
565 

Wizards of the Coast, 514 

Wolf, 378 

Wolfman, Marv, 82, 90, 150, 
366, 369, 452, 490, 503, 
526, 548, 567, 591 

Wolfman Wilf, 311 

Wolfsbane, 570, 647, 650, 
651, 652 

Wolk, Douglas, 619 

Wolverine (comic book), 568, 
622,623,626,656 

Wolverine (superhero), 10, 28, 
95,116,179,197,288, 
318, 334, 350, 358, 390, 
397, 426, 465, 495, 501, 
503, 518, 564, 564, 569, 
579, 581, 624-626, 643, 
648, 654, 655, 655 (ill.), 
657, 659, 660 

Wolverine and the X-Men, 655 

Wolverine: Night of the Wolver- 
ine, 526 

Wolverine/Shi: Dark Night of 
Judgment, 426 

Wolverine: Sniktl, 22 

Wolverton, Basil, 440, 442, 
443 

Wolverton, Wiley See Dove 

The Woman in Red, 532 

Wombat, 52 

Wonder, 94 

Wonder Comics, 440 

Wonder Comics #1, 230 

Wonder Dog, 65, 247, 477 

Wonder Girl, 373, 429, 430, 
535, 563, 567, 590, 591, 
592, 593, 629, 631, 634 

Wonder Man, 47, 92, 127, 
417 

Wonder Tot, 429, 629 

Wonder Twins, 65, 247, 477, 
478, 479, 564 

Wonder Warthog, 104, 
626-627 

Wonder Woman (comic book), 
103, 373, 481, 489, 501, 
502, 505, 536, 560, 592, 
631 

Wonder Woman (superhero), 
32,58,65,173,174,208, 
247, 296, 297, 300, 314, 
324,358,372,373,392, 
429, 432, 435, 477, 478, 
487, 488, 499, 510, 516, 
517, 524, 525, 533, 534, 
535, 537, 538, 545, 548, 
559, 563, 566, 568, 573, 
574, 575, 581, 586, 589, 
627-632, 635, 636, 639 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*3 



Index 



debut of, 142, 172, 

213, 298 
Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, founding member 
of, 293 
Wonder Woman (TV series), 
174, 536, 579, 630, 633 
(ill.), 634 
Wonder Woman Foundation, 

630 
Wonder Woman in the Media, 

632-636, 633 (ill.) 
Wonder Woman: The Complete 

History (2000), 314 
Wonderman, 230 
Wonderworld Comics, 559 
Wong, Tony, 608 
Wonktendonk, Jim, 52 
Woo, Jimmy, 357 
Wood, Bob, 160 
Wood, Dave, 142, 179 
Wood, Ed, 519 
Wood, Wally, 110, 162, 165, 
290, 434, 469, 501, 570, 
600 
Woodard, Alfre, 472 
Woodman, Allen, 75 
Woodroe, Jason, 41 
Woody, 107 
Woolfold, 88 
Woolfolk, Bill See Woolfolk, 

William 
Woolfolk, William, 186, 232, 

385, 468 
Woozy Winks, 101, 385, 494 
World Class Comics, 75 
World Encyclopedia of Car- 
toons, 412 
World Fantasy Award, 351, 

414, 614 
World War 1, 131 
World War II and the Super- 
hero, 139, 182, 188, 349, 
414, 429, 434, 443, 509, 
522, 533, 534, 540, 566, 
567, 574, 575, 586, 589, 
603, 626, 634, 636-639 
cancellation of super- 
hero comics afterward, 
232-233 
in comics, 111-112, 

285, 298, 300, 332 
importance of, 231-232 
superheroes and, 
231-232 
World War III, 42 
World Wide Broadcasting, 554 
World's Best Comics, 539 
World's Fair, 414 
World's Finest Comics, 58, 80, 
128,237,342,356,372, 



373,387,402,414,481, 
500, 504, 539, 540, 550, 
586, 588 

World's Greatest Detective 
See Batman 

The World's Greatest Super 
Friends (animated series, 
1979-1980), 478, 492, 
545 

World's Greatest Super-Heroes 
See Justice League of Ameri- 
ca 

World's Greatest Super-Heroes 
action figures, 96 

World's Mightiest Mite See 
Doll Man 

World's Mightiest Mortal See 
Captain Marvel 

Worlds of Wonder, 513 

World's Smallest Superhero 
See Atom 

World's Strangest Super- 
heroes See X-Men (super- 
heroes) 

Worldwide Investigation Net- 
work Response, 607 

Worth, Harry, 129 

Worthington, Warren III, 642 

Wotan, 574 

Wow Comics #21, 585 

Wrath, 609 

Wriggles Enright, 385 

Wright, Bradford W., 5, 432, 
560 

Wright, Don See Captain Free- 
dom 

Wright, Tom, 84 

Wrightson, Bernie, 174, 503 

Wu Kong, Sun, 189, 190, 191 

Wu, William F, 527 

Wundagore, 417 

WXYZ radio station (Detroit, 
Michigan), 511 

Wylie, Philip, 17, 525 

Wyndham-Pryce, Wesley, 97 

Wyngarde, Jason, 659 

Wyngarde, Peter, 659 

Wynn, Jason, 443 



X (comic book), 133, 169, 352 
X (superhero), 29, 488 
Xal-Kor, 184 
Xandar, 369, 370 
Xavier Institute for Higher 

Learning, 487, 507 
Xavier, Professor Charles, 

369, 507, 530, 565, 569, 

641, 645, 654, 655 (ill.), 

656, 657, 659 



Xavier's School for Gifted 
Youngsters, 569, 641, 648, 
655 

X-Box, 514 

X-Corporation, 645, 650, 652 

X-Corps, 650 

X-Cutioner, 580 

Xena Warrior Princess, 538 

Xerography, 115 

X-Factor (comic book), 179, 
644, 651 

X-Factor (group), 649 

The X-Files, 382,605 

X-Force (comic book), 202, 
505, 520, 568, 652 

X-Force (superteam), 359, 
647, 648, 652-654 

See also X-Statix, X-Men: 
X-Force/X-Statix 

X-kryptonite, 304 

X-Man, 563, 564, 568 

X-Mas Comics, 100 

X-Men (animated series), 11, 
116, 493, 654-656 

X-Men (comic book), 8, 21, 90, 
171,335,355,357,367, 
369, 387, 454, 502, 503, 
505, 590, 598, 622, 623, 
625, 626, 646, 648, 652, 
655, 656, 657 

X-Men #1 (1963), 429, 
531, 535 

X-Men (movie, 2000), 318, 
336, 358, 536, 656 

X-Men (superteam), 9, 21, 34, 
86, 116, 120, 147, 157, 
170, 179, 187, 197, 228, 
288, 318, 334, 355, 358, 
359, 369, 390, 416, 433, 
457, 487, 495, 498, 500, 
504, 507, 511, 518, 523, 
524, 526, 528-530, 536, 
563, 565, 567, 569, 572, 
578, 580, 582, 587-590, 
612, 618, 624, 641-645, 
649-651, 653, 658-660 
spoof of, 200 

X-Men: Evolution (animated 
series), 494, 656, 657 

X-Men: Excalibur (international 
superteam), 645-647 

X-Men: Generation X (live- 
action TV movie), 656 

X-Men: Generation X (younger 
superteam), 647-650 

X-Men in the Media, 654-657 

X-Men: New Mutants 
(superteam), 650-652 

X-Men/New Teen Titans, 503 

X-Men: Planet X (1998), 528 



X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors, 

528 
X-Men 3 (movie, planned), 657 
X-Men Villains, 657-660 
X-Men: X-Force/X-Statix 

(superteam), 652-654 
Xmon, 447 

X-0 Manowar, 581, 612 
X-OManowar#7,612(ill.) 
Xogthe Evil Lord of Saturn, 

132, 575 
Xombi, 346 
Xorn, 645 
X-Presidents (animated 

series), 106 
XS, 564 

X-Statix, 369, 520, 568, 570 
X-Statix, 359, 652-654 

See also X-Force, X-Men: 
X-Force/X-Statix 
X-Terminators, 651 
X2: X-Men United (movie, 

2003), 318, 336, 358, 369, 

536, 655 (ill.), 657 



Yahoo (college publication), 

627 
Yak, 52 
Yale, 506 

Yamazaki, Haruya, 150 
Yamcha, 191 
Yancy Street Gang, 209 
Yandroth, 178 
Yank, 559 
Yankee Boy, 559 
Yankee Doodle Jones, 559, 

636, 637 
Yankee Eagle, 559, 637 
Yankee Girl, 2, 559, 637 
Yarnell, Laureen, 635 
Yashida, Lady Mariko, 625 
Yelena Belova, 87 
Yellow Claw (comic book), 357 
Yellow Claw (superhero), 364 
Trie Yellow Kid (early comic 

strip), 228 
Yellow Peril (villain), 75 
Yellow Ranger, 343 
Yellowjacket, 23, 564, 580, 

618 

See also Ant-Man 
Yeovil, Jack, 527 
Yes, Dear, 525 
Yeti, 52, 85 
Yogi Bear, 245 
Yokoyama, Mitsuteru, 133 
Yondu, 441, 568 
Yon-Rogg, 123 
York, Dylan, 226 
York, Ethan, 226 



I** 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



Index 



York, Steven, 528 
Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, 

408, 411 
Yoshi, Hamato, 593 
Yoshida, Kenji, 596 
Yoshida, Tatsuo, 72, 134, 448, 

595-596 
Yoshida, Toyoharu, 596 
Young Allies (comic book), 585 

Young Allies #1, 585 
Young Allies (superteam), 5, 

112, 284, 428, 566 
Young All-Stars, 301 
Young Defenders (superteam), 

248, 559 
Young Justice (comic book), 

479 
Young Justice (superteam), 

481, 483 
Young Marvelman, 347 
Young Men, 475 
Young Miracleman, 346 
Young Samson and Goliath (ani- 
mated series), 246 
Young, Sean, 66 



Young Sentinel, 471 
Youngblood (comic book), 202, 

444, 481, 505 
Youngblood (superteam), 29, 

570 
Your Guide Comics, 159 
Yrial, 609 
YTV, 413 

Yu, Leinil Francis, 405 
Yukie, Kagawa, 457 
Yune, Tommy, 449 



Zada, Ramy, 147 
Zak-Kul, 552 
Zan See Wonder Twins 
Zander Cannon, 16 
Zane, Billy, 378, 380 
Zap Comix, 627 
Zap-Man, 324 
Zarzoza, 493 
Zatanna, 556, 565, 568 

Justice League of Ameri- 
ca, member of, 294 



Zatara the Magician, 556, 565 
Zauriel (Justice League of 

America member), 295 
Zealot (comic book), 624 
Zealot (superhero), 622, 623 
Zeck, Mike, 339, 395, 287 
Zelazny, Roger, 527 
Zenn-La, 318, 436, 437 
Zero Hour (comic book, 1994), 

41, 80, 176, 237, 250, 301, 

310 
Zeta Beam, 317 
Zeta Project, 494 
Zeta-Jones, Catherine, 378, 

380 
Zetton, 606 
Zeus, 598 
Zhu Ba Jie, 189 
Ziff-Davis, 440 
Zimelman, Phil, 395 
Zinda, 89 
Zip-Zap, 609 
Zircher, Patrick, 48 
Zito, Joseph, 458 
Zito, Richie, 393 



Z-Man Games, 515 

Zok [The Herculoids), 246 

Zoloz, 379 

Zoltar, 72, 73 

Zombie, Rob, 406, 460 

Zombies of the Stratosphere, 

406 
Z'onn Z'orr, Antarctica, 488 
Zooman (Mexican superhero), 

284 
Zor (Mexican superhero), 284, 

447 
Zorak (Space Ghost Coast to 

Coast), 246, 438, 439, 578 
Zordon, 343 
Zords, 343 
Zor-EI, 489, 546 
Zorro (action hero), 356 
Zorro (TV series), 147 
Zot! (comic book), 38 
Zot (superhero), 416 
Zug (Blackhawks), 88 
Zymotic Zookeeper, 627 



TH£ SUPBBHeiZO BOOK 



*5 



gina MI5IR0C1.U Si j wttrio or Hie u 

Coast publishing indusliy, specializing in Id* 
development and editing, of popular culture 
feiogtopiij', and hlie-reliKHi Htlrt, Mlsiftglu 
lias praductien-maiiag,«d and edited books for 
a host of animate d and Ltwactfoii properties. 
ii«J«Jiitgj Uwtf-Otie. fix ftwetpiift Glrk, 
Hois Attacks!, Babylon S. Friends, and EK, and 
she is the eo-ajlnor of direct Jommin'; S\tas 
ana Htelwi Hit (he gfa $tma aiwj imagine: 
Jhe Spirit of Tnrent!eti>-Centur/ American 
Heroes. Misfronlu resides 1n Los Angeles, 
where. (LiptrHirfrtt an fc* wkd flfl al«*»t 
eveiy street corner. 



Caff fig 41! Superheros 

lie tfm encyclopedic referent* work that proflLH 
supertieraes ftmn all companies and In jIL media, 
ffw Sjrperfie n> Book i 5 the ultimate A-i compendiirm. 
IIS IMi full cntrin provide infnrmjTipn on mair 
than 1,000 mythic ttvecach I even, covering the hest- 
loWd and historically Hgnificanl heroes In comics, 
film, television, and works, of flcttaiL 

Tfir JutlrrJlrrt ftM* provides mere |h|n ISO PhII- 

color illustrations, including dozens of classic comic covers, , 

pdehenUvfrlv pr*fl|*j IU huroti.. deuiHna. Uwlf mylheloji'. 

villains, Ibvc Interests, superpowers, weapons, costumes, vulnerabilities nicknames. 

and modus operandi— as wiil as the 
many twists md lums they've taken, in 
their careen and Their changing status 
in tht popular culture. Yai/U Hnd tons el 



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trivia, nevei-before-revealed tacts and 
finds, and loads of inthHr informirtton, 
written wfth enthusiasm and insight by 
a devoted team of comlc-boob. film, and 
pop culture experts. 

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reminded why we love and need them, 
why titty *<•!* .liospn to am rue world, 
what they do for their day jobs, and of 
their very tin man conflicts and problems. 



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